Kathmandu - Nepalese authorities on Tuesday intensified
their relief and rescue operations in flood-ravaged western Nepal
where at least 38 people have died and thousands are homeless.
The Nepalese Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam said the government
had released 15.5 million rupees (210,000 dollars) in emergency aid
to provide shelter and food for the displaced.
The Nepalese government also said nearly 13,000 people were
displaced from their homes after heavy monsoon rains triggered
landslides and floods across western Nepal.
Nepalese army helicopters had evacuated more than a thousand
people in the past two days from areas inaccessible by roads.
Hundreds of soldiers and police were mobilized to carry out search
and rescue operations.
Eight districts in western Nepal were affected by the rains which
the Nepalese meteorological department described as unusually heavy.
The worst hit was Kailali district, about 450 kilometres west of
the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, where at least 18 people were killed
with dozens more missing.
Local authorities said the rescue operations were being hampered
by high water-levels and damage to road links but said the weather
had improved and water in some areas was receding.
The latest flooding in western Nepal came a month after eastern
parts of the country was hit by massive floods after the Koshi River
breached its banks.
About 35,000 people were displaced in that flooding and at least
90 people have died in flooding and landslides across the Himalayan
nation since June.
Nepal receives nearly 80 per cent of its total annual rainfall
during the four-months-long monsoon season that lasts from June to
late September.
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