It has been almost a month since floods and landslides swept through mid-west Nepal, leaving behind a trail of devastation. But with the funds allocated by the government yet to be fully and properly disbursed, relief operation is still not in full swing.
According to the Home Ministry's National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC), out of the total Rs 116.9 million allocated for the 42 districts hit by natural disasters, only 57 million was disbursed. The authorities have not even managed to distribute half the amount allocated as aid for people in Banke, Bardiya, Dang and Surkhet -- the four worst hit districts.
According to the Chief District Officers (CDOs) of the four districts, who also head their respective District Disaster Relief Committees (DDRCs), the funds were not distributed due to complications in verification of facts and figures about the affected people and the degree of damage to property.
Verification process is ongoing, according to the CDOs, and funds will be distributed soon, they said. Nepal Red Cross Society, which received the responsibility of compiling data about the scale of damage, is reworking its factsheet following protests from the affected who said its list was incomplete.
As per the government’s decision, funds for the flood and landslide-affected would be distributed under three damage criteria -- full, partial and 'general'. Those whose homes have been fully destroyed will get Rs 10,000 from the government. Those with partial damage receive Rs 3000 and mild or 'general' damage would get Rs 1000.
According to NEOC, Rs 3.3 million, out of an allocated total of Rs 25.7 million, was distributed in Surkhet. Similarly, of the allocated Rs 45 million for people in Bardiya, only Rs 24 million was distributed. In Dang and Banke, which were allocated Rs 8 million and Rs 20 million respectively, only Rs 2.1 million and Rs 17.4 million was distributed.
In these four districts alone, 94 people died, 114 were registered as missing and 130,000 were directly affected.
**NOTHING DIFFERENT IN OTHER PLACES*:
According to government data, aid and relief distribution is not that very different in other areas either. Natural disaster expert Dhurva Devkota blamed lack of a post-disaster management system for the repeat cropping up of issues like problem in relief distribution and displacement in the wake of natural disasters.
He also said that since the data collection does not reflect the actual ground realities, the errors cause problems in relief distribution and those affected have to register their names again and again. According to Dharmaraj Pandey, the chief of the Disaster Management Unit of Nepal Red Cross Society, there were issues with data collection as the Red Cross had to also deal with rescue and relief operations at the same time.
Meanwhile, the government concluded the first phase of its food distribution programme in the four major affected districts on Tuesday.
According to Pandey, each affected person in the four districts received 350 grams of rice. The first phase reached 80,000 affected.