Mercy Corps: Monsoon Season Likely to Accelerate Spread of Coronavirus in Nepal
With the monsoon season arriving, a new report from global organizations
The report, Avoiding a perfect storm: COVID-19 and floods in
Disaster Management Committees report that:
* 60% of communities already report food shortages, with marginalized groups, such as the Dalit population, especially facing difficulties;
* Access to health care is limited; one in five communities surveyed are typically cut off from health services during floods and landslides in monsoon season;
* Only 17% of communities have quarantine facilities, and 22% of these facilities are at risk from flooding and landslides due to being in flood-prone areas and not having alternative sites;
* 43% of flood evacuation sites lack handwashing facilities, and 57% do not have hand soap in stock.
The report's co-author,
"COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations, many of whom are already on the front lines of the climate crisis. The pandemic makes it infinitely harder for families to cope with the upcoming monsoon season, with communities already reporting challenges in meeting basic needs such as food and water. We know from previous flooding during monsoon season that conditions will only get worse.
"We are calling for international help in assisting local governments in
Laxmi Ghartimagar, Community Disaster Management Committee member in
"The monsoon season is an extremely difficult time for our community and it will be very challenging to respond to floods and safely evacuate people as we cannot ensure distancing."
Co-author
"The situation is highly concerning, but solutions do exist and we know they work.
"Donors and wealthy governments should increase funding to build and maintain handwashing facilities in evacuation sites and distribute hand soap ahead of the monsoon season. We also need immediate funding for the construction of additional quarantine and isolation facilities with adequate drinking water and sanitation facilities, as up to 600,000 Nepali migrants are expected to return from overseas in the coming months.
"Now more than ever, we must invest in building community resilience to climate chaos shocks like more intense storms that lead to floods, and we must do this alongside helping people fight the COVID-19 pandemic".
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