Thousands of people were still
missing in Nepal on Friday as food and help began to trickle through to
those stranded in remote areas after last week's earthquake which killed
6,250.
Photo: Reuters
The death toll could rise further.
Bodies are still being pulled from the debris of ruined buildings, while
rescue workers have not been able to reach some remote areas.
The government put the number of injured at more than 14,350.
In the capital Kathmandu, many unclaimed
bodies were being quickly cremated because of the need to avert disease
and reduce the stench of corpses in areas where buildings had
collapsed.
"Morgues are full beyond capacity and we
have been given instructions to incinerate bodies immediately after
they are pulled out," said Raman Lal, an Indian paramilitary force
official working in coordination with Nepali forces.
Many of the dead could be migrant workers from neighbouring India, local officials said.
The head of the European Union
delegation in Nepal said up to 1,000 Europeans were still unaccounted
for, mostly around popular trekking routes.
Officials said it was hard to trace the missing because many backpackers do not register with their embassies.
"It does not mean that they are buried.
They could have left the country without telling anyone before the
earthquake struck," Ambassador Rensje Teerink told reporters.
Another EU official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said: "A number of EU citizens are not accounted
for, but this could be for many reasons. It is fast moving and very
fluid and estimated numbers are only estimates."
The number of people unaccounted for
from France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands is 371, according to
checks Reuters made with these governments, while all Irish citizens,
Croatians and Romanians have been traced. Other European nations have
yet to provide an updated figure for how many of their citizens are
unaccounted for.
Aid was slowly reaching remote towns and
villages nestled in the Himalayan mountains and foothills of the
impoverished nation. But government officials said efforts to step up
the pace of delivery were frustrated by a shortage of supply trucks and
drivers, many of whom had returned to their villages to help their
families.
"Our granaries are full and we have
ample food stock, but we are not able to transport supplies at a faster
pace," said Shrimani Raj Khanal, a manager at the Nepal Food Corp.
Army helicopters have air-dropped
instant noodles and biscuits to remote communities but people need rice
and other ingredients to cook a proper meal, he said.
Many Nepalis have been sleeping in the
open since the 7.8 magnitude quake, with survivors afraid to return to
their homes because of powerful aftershocks. According to the United
Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged.
Information Minister Minendra Rijal said
the government would provide $1,000 in immediate assistance to the
families of those killed, as well as $400 for cremation or burial.
The U.N. said 8 million of Nepal's 28
million people were affected, with at least 2 million needing tents,
water, food and medicines over the next three months.
Unprecedented damage
Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said
Nepal would need at least $2 billion to rebuild homes, hospitals,
government offices and historic buildings and appealed for international
backing.
"This is just an initial estimate and it
will take time to assess the extent of damage and calculate the cost of
rebuilding," Mahat told Reuters.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters earlier this week the death toll from the quake could reach 10,000.
That would surpass the 8,500 who died in
a 1934 earthquake, the last disaster on this scale to hit the nation
sandwiched between India and China.
Home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad
Dhakal said that though the 1934 quake was more powerful, fewer people
lived in the Kathmandu valley then.
"The scale of reconstruction will be unprecedented," Dhakal said.
While international aid has poured in, some Nepalis have accused the government of being too slow to distribute it.
"There have been cases where villages
have pelted stones on trucks carrying aid and food supplies. They must
have been really hungry and angry to do so," said Purna Shanker, who
works at the government's commodity trading office.
In Sundarkhula, a village close to the
quake's epicentre west of Kathmandu, villagers said they were searching
their destroyed homes for food.
Bharat Regmi, 28, said he jumped out of
the first floor as the quake lifted his house from its foundations. When
he went back a few days later, he and two of his friends found a bag of
potatoes in the rubble.
"We are living on water and whatever we
can dig out from the house," he said, standing under steady rain near
the highway to Kathmandu. Later, he crept back under a thin orange
sheet, shared with about a dozen other villagers.
Tensions have also flared between foreigners and Nepalis desperate to be evacuated.
In the Himalayas, climbing is set to
reopen on Mount Everest next week after damage caused by avalanches is
repaired, although many have abandoned their ascents.
An avalanche killed 18 climbers and sherpa mountain guides at the Everest base camp.
Source: Reuters
