More than two weeks after a glacier collapsed near the China-Nepal border and triggered devastating flash floods throughout the Bhotekoshi river system, the emergency response has largely become an operation of recovery and relief.
The official death toll stood at 1,429 on Sunday morning, with 5,649 persons missing, but observers have expressed concern China may be underreporting the numbers of dead and missing in Tibet.
The flooding has left communities along the rivers of Nepal’s Nuwakot district facing enormous destruction, with houses swept away and entire villages wiped out. Mud and debris have buried large parts of devastated settlements.
The senior churchman in Nepal, Father Silas Bogati, visited the suffering communities of Trishuli in Nuwakot district this past week and met families who had lost their homes.
He saw the temporary shelters where displaced people are trying to establish some sense of normal life.
Bogati told Crux Now he sought to assure survivors they have not been forgotten.
“Our being present there with them itself is consoling,” Bogati said. “They know that we are for them – that our Church is present with them – our presence is their hope.”
Catholics are “a miniscule minority” in Nepal, Bogati said – roughly 10 thousand in the Himalayan nation of 30 million – but the faithful and the institutions of the Church are already contributing to the relief efforts.
“The Church has always worked for the Nepali population irrespective of their religion,” Bogati said, “and we will continue to do so as they suffer in this hour of need.”
Bogati told Crux Now Caritas Nepal is maintaining three holding centers and eight ‘Child-Friendly Spaces’ in Nuwakot.
Caritas Nepal said there are other Child-Friendly Spaces serving other affected areas.
The Child-Friendly Spaces project is supported by the US State Dept. through the U.S. embassy in Nepal and by the U.S. bishops’ leading aid agency, Catholic Relief Services.
These spaces are “to provide shelter and protection for displaced families and children,” Bogati said.
Bogati, who is also president of Caritas Nepal – a position he held for years before becoming apostolic administrator – told Crux Now the centers have become important places of safety for people facing prolonged displacement.
Bogati said the physical devastation he saw was awful, but he encountered people carrying profound psychological and emotional wounds, as well.
He said he met families separated from loved ones and survivors who are still trying to understand how they escaped while others did not.
The experience of the children particularly affected him.
“They are traumatized,” Fr. Bogati said, “they need a safe space to come and play and be with other children.”
“Children who have survived such a disaster can carry trauma that is not always immediately visible,” Bogati said.
“We have identified 56 orphaned children currently living in overcrowded shelters,” the apostolic administrator said.
“The Child-Friendly Spaces,” he said, “offer more than a place for children to pass the time: They give them an environment in which they can play, interact with other children and, for a few moments, experience something resembling normal childhood.”
Caritas Nepal is also providing targeted medical aid and protection services to the most vulnerable women and children displaced by the floods.
Caritas is working directly with the government of Nepal to move school-age and adolescent children out of crowded camps and into safe spaces.
This is crucial especially for girls, who face heightened risks of exploitation and gender-based violence during displacement.
Bogati said Caritas Nepal is also distributing direct cash assistance of 15 thousand Nepali rupees (roughly $110 USD) to severely affected families.
“This cash support is specifically targeted toward 750 of the worst-affected households to help them immediately purchase essential goods and recover,” he said.
CRS is participating in a $4 million emergency assistance effort, in cooperation with Caritas Nepal and the Nepali government.
The U.S. State Dept. has provided over $5 million so far in humanitarian, health, and forensics-related assistance following the floods, including $3 million in food and logistics assistance through the World Food Program, to supply up to three months of emergency food to 10,000 flood-affected households.
Through the State Department’s arrangement with CRS, the U.S. has given $685,000 in food, shelter, water, sanitation, and hygiene, protection, and financial assistance.
“CRS is providing a range of U.S. Government-funded assistance to communities affected by the floods,” the State Dept. said in a statement Saturday, “including essential shelter and food items, blankets, plastic sheeting, tents, solar lights, and dignity kits, while also operating child-friendly spaces to support affected children.”
Fr. Bogati said the search and recovery effort is still unfolding.
The terrain makes the task extraordinarily difficult, while large quantities of mud have settled over the places where homes and building once stood.
The scale of the damage in the affected area – $158 million in building damages alone, according to UN estimates, with agricultural and commercial losses much higher – is daunting.
Early estimates suggest rebuilding costs could run to nearly $5 billion.
Crux Staff contributed to this report.
