Sever cold claims five

Three persons in Mahottari and two in Saptari have been died of cold wave in terai. During the period of one week, three persons of the same VDC have died of severe cold in Mahottari. The deceased are Badan Mandal (50), Manif Ansari (65) and Soladevi Mahara (60) of Bhatauliya VDC. They are from poor class and died due to the lack of warm clothes. Cold wave with thick fog has adversely affected life in the district since over a half month.

Nippy conditions have affected normal life in 70 southern VDCs out of 76 in the district. The cold spell has hit elderly and children worst, hospital has been receiving a huge flow of patients around 25 persons suffering from cold visit the hospital daily. 

Similarly two persons have died of cold wave in Saptari. The deceased have been identified as Anarbati Sada (55) of Maleth VDC-5 and Kari Ram (75) of Basbitti VDC-6, according to a local, Bahadur Yadav. Increasing cold has affected people in many parts of the district. Many children have been suffering from cold diarrhoea and pneumonia. At least 4 to 5 pneumonia and diarrhea patients have been visiting Sahgarmatha zonal hospital every day for treatment. The hospital has been treating the patient on the floor due to the lack of sufficient beds.

Heavy fog and cold has made life in many villages and urban areas like Rajbiraj increasingly difficult. While movement of people in market area has reduced, traders said business activities have also gone down. People are seen using bonfires throughout the day to avoid cold.

Similarly, Banke district is excessively affected by cold wave for the past few days. Regular flights from there have been affected and markets have sparse visitors. One boy has already died of excessive cold in Banke district. The Nepalgunj Municipality and the DDC have been preparing to provide firewood to those with poor economic condition.

The condition of Makawanpur is the also similar since the past two days. The normal life has been affected in northern parts of Makwanpur district. Daman, Palung, Markhu, Simbhanjang and other places are under the grip of thick cold wave, according to locals. According to Palung Primary Health Post, many patients are unable to visit health centers due to cold wave. Meanwhile, Hetauda has witnessed sudden dip in temperature. Bonfires have become a common sight in many places.

Similarly, the normal life in Dhangadhi has been affected due to cold wave with thick fog since the past few days. With the fall in the temperature, school children, laborers, elderly people and freed Kamaiyas have been affected more. Local meteorological forecasting division has predicted snowfall in the far-western mountainous and hilly districts.

In Ilam, snowfall has affected normal life in northern parts of the district. The snowfall for the first time in some tourist destinations in the northern parts of Ilam since Thursday afternoon left normal life disrupted and tourists stranded. Snowfall has affected Meghana, Jaubari, Gauribas, Sandukpur and Chhintapul. Tourists bound for Sandukpur have been stranded on the way due to snowfall. Transport services in the areas have also been disrupted.

(Posted on 26th December)

Koshi-displaced surpasses the previous count

Local administration in Sunsari district is conducting a third census of those displaced by the Koshi flood, after the number of displaced was found larger than previously believed.  The government estimates show that 50,000 people from 23 VDCs of Sunsari were displaced by the Koshi flood of Aug. 18. 

However, the number of displaced housed inside various state managed camps has surpassed all original counts. The numbers of displaced increases everyday as flood victims from bordering Indian villages are allegedly entering Nepal in seek of asylum and relief.

Over 25,000 flood victims from bordering Indian states are staying at various state managed camps in Sunsari and Saptari districts.

Sunsari district administration has discussed the situation with Indian authorities while border security has been upped to control the possible entry of Indian flood victims. Chief District Officer Durga Bhandari, the census is being taken to ensure relief work is performed effectively.

"The census is being carried out based on the citizenship certificates and voters' identity cards. For those who have lost their identification papers in the flood, their neighbors or relatives can vouch for them," he said.

Meanwhile, the local administration of Sunsari district has requested the government render loans Koshi flood victims previously received from government banks exempt.

(Posted on 26th December)

Quake rattles valley

A mild tremor measuring 4.4 Richter scale was experienced inside Kathmandu Valley at around 12:18 p.m on 19th December. A statement issued by National Seismological Centre (NSC) on Friday said, the epicenter of the earthquake was found near around Chunsadah of Humla district. Due to the Indian tectonic plates sliding 2 meter north annually, Valley is considered an earthquake prone region, according to experts.

Similarly, an earthquake with 4.4 Richter scale was recorded at 3:04 am on 23rd December, said Department of Mines and Geology at the National Seismological Center, Lainchaur, Kathmandu. According to Chief of the Center Somnath Sapkota, the quake had an epicenter at an around of Beshisahar of Lamjung.

(Posted on 26th December)

13 houses gutted

Thirteen houses belonging of Gumba village in Chepuwa VDC of Sankhuwasabha district were destroyed in fire, damaging property worth Rs 2 million on 20th December afternoon. The damaged houses belonged to Wangdak Bhote, Nimagenjena Bhote, Dakchook Bhote, Renjin Bhote, Karung Bhote, Guru Bhote and Pimba Bhote. It was Wangdak’s house that first caught fire while food was being prepared for farm laborers.

(Posted on 26th December)

Mudslide kills three

Three persons were killed and 5 others sustained serious injuries when a mound of mud came crashing down on them in Ratomata, Sappata VDC of Bajura on 25th December morning. Police said the incident took place while they had gone to dig up soil near their houses. According to Zonal Police Office Kailali, nineteen-year-old Isha BK, Rakhi BK, 15, and Hansa BK, 15, of Sappata Village Development Committee-9 died at the spot.

(Posted on 26th December)

Two men died of cold

Along with the increasing cold in the Terai districts two peoples lost their lives due to cold in the country. A 70-year-old man, Kari Paswan of Asanpur Village Development Committee, Siraha district, died of severe cold on 14th December  night. Similarly, Khadka Bahadur Bhandari, 40, of Igaun of Bageswori Village Development Committee-7, in Banke district also died the same morning because of sudden decrease in temperature. He died a while after he rose in the morning, as his body was swollen because of cold. Normal life in the area has been affected as cold wave increased suddenly in Nepalgunj area since 13th December.

Whereas, almost all flights to Simara airport, shortest from the capital in nautical miles, were cancelled due to bad weather on Monday. Four of the six scheduled flights of the Buddha Air, the only airlines operating Kathmandu-Simara, were cancelled. Station manager Sanad Basnet said all flights had been cancelled except the two in the morning. “The flights were risky since the run way was covered with a thick layer of mist,” a technician at the Simara airport, said. “Most flights during mid-December to mid-January are cancelled due to mist and fog,” station manager of the Buddha Air, Sanad Basnet said.

(Posted on 16th December)

School bus accident toll hits 23

Hill Bird Residential Secondary School at Bharatpur-12 lost its students and teachers in a fatal mishap on 11th December night, the death toll of Thursday's school bus accident at Mukundapur VDC-6 in Nawalparasi district reached 23 including three members of a family. The unfortunate road accident took the lives of 18 students, four teachers and an administrative employee of the school.

Most of the dead are girl students. The bus which was ferrying back a group of students from Phulbari of Butwal after a picnic rammed into a parked tractor and plunged into a stream at Thumsi along the East-West Highway.

The dead include wife of Vice-Principal Chetan Sedhai, Usha, & their seven year old son. Teacher Apsara Baral and her 10-year-old daughter also died. Bipin Baral, school teacher and news reader at Kalika F.M. was also killed while Kamala Subedi, another teacher, lost her two children -- Pravin, 14, and Prabeg, 6.

According to injured students, Bipin had thrown out his four-year-old son after knowing the misfortune was inevitable. The child is undergoing treatment at Bharatpur Hospital and is said to be out of danger. 

The 40-seater, which was carrying 85 students, rammed into the tractor, hit a culvert and tumbled down, police said.  The driver, Jivan Ranabhat, who managed to jump out of the bus, is at large.

Meanwhile, the victims' families demanded that the school management set up a fund of two million rupees in commemoration of the deceased students.

Organizing a press conference, they also demanded that the school pay for funeral rites of the students. They also sought action against the school for allowing over 80 students to board the bus, clearly beyond the vehicles capacity.

The locals said it was a grave mistake of the school to send small children so far away for picnic. The picnic spot is 115 km away from the school. Police have taken three management officials of the school into custody.

(Posted on 16th December)

Half of Koshi flow diverted to usual course

About half the volume of the breached Saptakoshi River flowing to the human settlements has been diverted to its usual course. Repair work of the damaged embankment of the Saptakoshi is underway.

Water resource technicians, in course of site inspection after they were successful to divert half the Koshi waters to original course in the Saptakoshi Barrage, said construction of the coffer dam would be decisive to divert water flow of the river to its usual course. JN Singh, engineer at the Water Resources Department in Bihar, said, “All the water from human settlements could be diverted to its usual course once the construction of the coffer dam is over.”

Total of 1,044 cusec of water had been flowing from the barrage till December 9. As of today 2,000 cusec of water was flowing from the barrage after the construction of the alternative canal.

“If the construction work goes on rapidly, the river can be tamed by diverting all the water to its usual course soon,” Singh said. “We have achieved success in diverting the river to its original course,” KP Sharma, engineer of Hindustan Steelworks Company Limited, which has taken the responsibility of constructing the alternative canal, said. “We have achieved success in diverting 40 per cent of the water to its usual course through the alternative canal,” Sharma said.

HSCL has planned to complete the construction of the coffer dam by March but locals said that the construction was not going on smoothly.

(Posted on 16th December)

Kathmandu hospitals could collapse in an earthquake - experts

KATHMANDU (IRIN) - Most of Kathmandu's 50 hospitals are poorly built and would collapse if there were a major earthquake, experts warn. They also note that health institutions lack emergency response plans and are generally ill-prepared.

Kathmandu valley lies in a high risk earthquake zone; poorly constructed buildings and lack of preparedness could significantly increase the casualty rate if there were another big earthquake.

The Nepal-Bihar Earthquake of 1934, measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale, left thousands dead and over 200,000 buildings severely damaged or destroyed.

According to the Nepal Red Cross Society's Earthquake Contingency Plan 2008, an earthquake measuring 7-8 on the Richter scale could kill up to 50,000 people in the city, injure 100,000 and destroy 60 percent of buildings, leaving 900,000 homeless.

Most of the hospitals in Kathmandu would be so badly damaged that medical services would be virtually impossible for months, local NGO National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) told IRIN.

"Our health capacities are so weak. We still don't have emergency medical response mechanisms in place yet," said disaster expert Amod Dixit, NSET executive director.

Study

A 2001 joint assessment entitled Structural Vulnerability Assessment of Hospitals in Kathmandu Valley by Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population, the World Health Organization (WHO) and NSET, said over 80 percent of assessed hospitals were vulnerable, while the remaining 20 percent were at high risk of total collapse.

The findings were based on an assessment of 14 major government and private hospitals (deemed a cross section of most health institutions across the city). But seven years on, conditions have yet to improve.

According to NSET, the city's health sector is ill- prepared to cope with the 100,000 or more people likely to be injured in a big earthquake.

"Most hospitals already lack the capacity to deal with mass casualties," said social worker Bijay Male, president of the community-run Chattrapati Free Clinic, the only hospital in the country to have been retrofitted to withstand a major quake.

Emergency response plans

"All hospitals should immediately develop emergency response plans and make it an important component of their medical programmes," said earthquake preparedness expert Mahesh Nakarmi.

Government officials say measures are gradually being taken. The Ministry of Health is working on the development of hospital emergency preparedness plans with the support of WHO.

WHO representative Alexander Andjaparidze told IRIN the agency, in collaboration with the UN International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction  had launched a 2008-09 safer hospitals campaign. "We are also discussing how to strengthen health facilities with the World Bank," he said.

The Emergency Health and Nutrition Working Group (EHNWG) - made up of UN agencies, donors and international and local NGOs - has been meeting regularly to do capacity assessments and coordinate response plans.

Pre-positioning of health kits

WHO officials told IRIN they were focusing on pre-positioning such things as inter-agency emergency health kits (IEHK), diarrhoeal kits, medicine and equipment in vulnerable areas.

Three sets of IEHK, each capable of serving 10,000 people for three months, have already been pre-positioned; another three sets are on their way to Kathmandu and could help at least 60,000 people for 90 days, according to WHO.

Five diarrhoeal kits (enough for 3,000 people) are in place, with 15 more on their way. WHO also has five large tents ready to be set up as an emergency field hospital.

(Posted on 16th December)