Blog 253

In October 2015, Nepal was facing acute shortages of fuel, cooking gas, medicines and other supplies because of a blockade of the main border crossings with India by people demanding greater representation in the Himalayan nation’s new constitution.

Nepal’s government termed the standoff as an “unofficial blockade” by India because it blames its neighbour for supporting the Madhesis who are ethnically, linguistically and culturally close to the people of Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

We can see in these pictures how the fuel shortages were affecting the way in which people in Kathmandu, Nepal were transported.

On February 23rd 2016, Nepal ended five months of fuel rationing after persuading protesters to end a border blockade that cut supplies of oil and other goods to the country.

Blog 252

This panorama was taken on the 10th October 2015. I wonder if the camp is still there?

Vermin and stray dogs roam freely while scavenging birds of prey circle over the foul-smelling, litter-strewn camp that is still home to Nepal’s earthquake victims.

Here in the Chuchepati district in the capital Kathmandu, thousands are stuck living in tents with little food, few job opportunities and no end to their ordeal in sight.

There are almost 1,500 people in the camp, one of eight in Kathmandu. It is home to just a portion of the million people left homeless by the disaster, which killed 9,000 people and injured 21,000.

Each of the camp’s tarpaulin and bamboo tents, which are barely the size of a Western bedroom, houses as many as six people, some many more.

All of this in the the shadow of the five-star hotel, to the right of the camp in the wooded area, right on the refugee camp’s doorstep.

I met and spoke to two small children, brothers, from the camp and understood from them that life in the camp was pretty aweful.

On Tuesday MARCH 14, 2017.

Police in riot gear stood guard as Nepali civic officials used bulldozers to tear down this relief camp in the capital for victims of the 2015 earthquake, in a bid to force people to return to their home villages.

In a Reuters report on this day: "The camps were meant to be temporary shelters for the survivors of the Himalayan nation's worst natural disaster in nearly a century, said Him Nath Dawadi, the capital's most senior bureaucrat.

"They should take the money provided by the government and rebuild their homes now," he added.

But just 76,000 homes have been rebuilt, government figures show, and 553,000 families have received the first installment of nearly $500 in rebuilding aid.

That compares with more than 600,000 families hit by the quake, each of which is entitled to receive $2,000 in aid.

"I don't have any house of my own to rebuild and can't find any room on rent to move from the camp," said laborer Bimal Dulal, 52, who had lived in the Kathmandu camp since 2015."