Nepal government criticised for blocking earthquake aid to remote areas

The Nepali government is under fire for blocking private initiatives bringing desperately needed assistance to remote areas, and allegedly obstructing the flow of relief to the country.

Suman Prasad Sharma, the Nepali finance secretary, on Saturday denied charges made by NGOs and top international officials that the government was levying import taxes on aid or had blocked consignments.


According to reports in local media, hundreds of tonnes of vital supplies have been stopped at the Indian border.

One report quoted a local customs official at the frontier saying he had no orders to allow the relief through untaxed.

On Friday, Nepal was reported to have exempted only tarpaulins and tents from import taxes, prompting UN resident representative Jamie McGoldrick to warn the government to loosen customs restrictions to deal with the increasing flow of relief material.

“They should not be using peacetime customs methodology,” he told said.

Sharma said the charges were unfounded.
“We haven’t sent back anything, and there’s no duty to pay on anything. These charges are completely irresponsible and I refute them,” Sharma said.

The death toll in the disaster has now reached 6,900, with more than 15,000 injured. Hundreds of thousands of homeless, including many injured, have yet to be reached.

However, it is increasingly clear that, as part of a broader effort to centralise the relief effort, police are stopping trucks loaded with supplies by private well-wishers headed to badly hit areas.

Earlier this week, with international aid agencies facing massive logistic and bureaucratic difficulties, these small-scale local initiatives were reaching distant villages first.

“They are not suffering so they do not care. They are just out to get the foreign money for themselves,” said Rashmita Shastra, a healthworker in a village in Sindhulpalchowk district, 50 miles from Kathmandu, which had been due to receive a shipment of aid that was eventually blocked by authorities because it was “unofficial”.

The village, where seven people died and which has been almost entirely destroyed, has not yet been visited by any government official or politician, though one aid agency managed to distribute some tarpaulins and rice late last week.

Even villagers in accessible locations beside roads only 30 miles from Kathmandu told the Observer they had yet to be contacted.

Credits: the Guardian UK