Missing State

Earthquake relief efforts

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It is heartening to see our state agencies get back their bearings. For the first two weeks after the April 25 Great Earthquake they had seemed completely out of sorts. Clearly, they were overwhelmed. But of late there seems to be more method to government response. On Saturday, the Cabinet of Ministers decided on a raft of measures to facilitate relief and rehabilitation works in the 13 most affected districts. Prior to that, the government had deputed a high-level monitoring and inspection team under Kashiraj Dahal (chairman of the new commission for administrative reforms) to affected areas. Its preliminary report, prepared on the basis of inspection visits to worst-hit districts like Dolakha, Sindhupalchowk and Kavrepalanchowk, is not encouraging. It has pointed to some glaring anomalies. While the areas close to motor roads have a surfeit of relief material, the report says, areas farther away haven't received any help, a full three weeks after the April 25 earthquake. That is not all.

In accessible areas relief materials are apparently being widely misused. Even in the areas where relief materials are aplenty, the inspection team found that a few well-connected people are hoarding nearly all of the vital food stuffs and the tarpaulins needed for tents, while the vast majority of earthquake victims have been forced to make do with scraps. The worst affected are new mothers and newborns, who, says the report, don't have enough to eat; the new mothers are justifiably in a state of panic. It also points to another troubling aspect of relief distribution. Most I/NGOs and private sector organizations, left on their own, have focused in a few convenient areas. It is becoming clear that only the government will be able to ensure fair and equitable distribution of relief material. Without its oversight, vested interests will continue to milk this national tragedy.

Other things are amiss as well. The absence of elected local representatives, for instance, has hampered the crucial task of identification of earthquake victims. To forestall a full-blown humanitarian crisis, it's vital that government takes the lead and quickly starts channeling aid and relief to right places. According to the United Nations, up to 126,000 pregnant women have been affected by recent earthquakes; the same number of small children has been rendered homeless. They need urgent help. Monsoon starts in a month. Those who have lost their homes will have to be resettled to safer places that are not vulnerable to floods and landslides. None of these will be easy, cheap or fast. For years to come, our state actors and the international community must work closely to restore a semblance of normalcy in the country. Again, the recent earthquake and its heart-breaking aftermath show how only a responsible state can look after the interests of the poor and the marginalized. Others can offer only ancillary help. Which is why, despite all the right noises the government has been making of late, the complete absence of state institutions in the majority of quake-affected regions is so troubling.