August 27: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has started distributing food to 180,000 people affected by recent floods in Nepal floods.

Issuing a press statement on August 25, WFP said that the distributions are going on as the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) warns of more floods in the coming days.

“The tragedy has affected 1.7 million people, with nearly 461,000 of them displaced from their homes and in desperate need of assistance,” reads the statement.

According to the latest report, WFP said that almost half a million people in the impacted areas are currently food insecure, and 300,000 people have very little access to food and are urgently in need of food assistance.

Nepal Food Security Monitoring System (NeKSAP) supported by WFP  made the first assessment of the damage to determine the extent of food insecurity in flood-affected districts within 48 hours after the floods, WFP said in the statement.

“Many people whose homes have been washed away were extremely poor already, living in rudimentary shelters and struggling to make ends meet. Families that have lost food stocks have nothing to fall back on,” said WFP Representative and Country Director Pippa Bradford. “WFP is working around the clock to provide food to the poorest to ensure that they have enough to eat,” she further added.

The statement quoted the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) indicating that over 80 percent of land in the Terai has been inundated.

It is expected that the floods will impact the rice and wheat harvests in this area, which is the ‘bread basket’ of Nepal, thus resulting in food shortages in the coming months.

According to WFP, the area already has high rates of malnutrition, with 14 percent of children aged 6-59 months acutely malnourished. These children, along with pregnant women and nursing mothers, are particularly vulnerable to water-borne diseases and food insecurity after disasters. 

To prevent malnutrition, WFP, along with the Government of Nepal and its partners, will be providing 200 MT of fortified food to 19,500 pregnant women and nursing mothers and about 27,700 children aged between 6 to 23 months, across 13 flood affected districts of the Terai, the statement said.

WFP has begun distributing two-week rations of rice and yellow split peas to people in Saptari, Bardiya, Banke and Rautahat districts, in coordination with local authorities. An additional 40,000 displaced people in areas of Rautahat where the local markets have been restored, will receive cash to help them buy food.

WFP said it takes food quality and safety extremely seriously.

“All of our warehouses comply with international standards and WFP staff regularly inspect the conditions of the food. We have seen no evidence that there are any food quality issues,” the statement further said.