Nepal needs €4.12 billion to rebuild after flood

Cused by the collapse of a glacier and rocks, the wave that devastated valleys of the region caused more than 1,400 deaths and 5,600 wounded in Nepal and China, according to the latest official balances.

Hundreds of foreign tourists and pilgrims are still missing, including two Portuguese, as well as dozens of workers employed in Nepal in hydroelectric power plants or dams.

“ The estimated total budget for reconstruction amounts to approximately $4.78 billion,” spokesperson of Nepal’s Foreign Ministry, Lok Bahadur Chhetri, told journalists.

“ Approximately 57.67 million dollars [49.7 million euros] will be needed for immediate reconstruction and rescue operations in the next six months”, he said, quoted by the French agency AFP.

The flood has also destroyed bridges, roads, housing and infrastructure, forcing thousands of people to take refuge in improvised camps.

Chhetri said USD 4.71 billion (EUR 4.06 billion) is “for long-term reconstruction.”.

The spokesman admitted that the value may be higher due to further detailed evaluation to “determine all the damage suffered and the necessary budgets” for repair and reconstruction work.

The government has given responsibility for the disaster to global warming, which is accelerating the melting of glaciers across the Himalayas.

The Prime Minister, Balendra Shah, will speak in September at the United Nations Annual General Assembly in New York to defend the cause of “climate justice”, confirmed the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amrit Bahadur Rai.

“The head of the government will draw the attention of the international community to the human and material losses suffered by Nepal due to climate change and the disasters caused by it,” he explained.

More than two weeks after the tragedy, relief operations continue in Nepal to try to locate survivors, notably in several tunnels of hydroelectric explorations buried by mud and debris.

The Nepalese emergency management agency announced today that it has recovered 1,385 bodies, maintaining the unknown whereabouts of 5,130 people.

On the Chinese side, the state media reported 43 dead and 519 missing in Tibet, raising the total and still provisional balance of the disaster to 1,428 dead and 5,649 missing.