The Nepalese Government asks for international help after the flood beyond the mobilization of China and India

The Government of Nepal has highlighted that China and India are already collaborating with the authorities in the response to the serious flood that devastated the Bhotekoshi River basin on the border with China last Wednesday, while other countries such as Japan and Australia have already made contributions after the catastrophe, which has so far claimed 675 lives, according to the latest official report.

“The level of devastation is very important. We hope that there is international help for recovery and reconstruction,” said the Nepalese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shishir Janal, at a press conference from Kathmandu. “We have little capacity, so we have asked foreign governments for support” to provide cold rooms, forensic equipment and other specialized materials, he noted.

Janal explained that they are even considering calling an international conference to raise funds and has warned that it is still too early to evaluate the scope of the disaster.

This Saturday, the minister held a telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, with whom he discussed the search and distribution of aid, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported in a statement.

The country needs “several billion dollars” to recover, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle said in an interview with Bloomberg.

For the moment, the Government has created a Disaster Relief Fund that has so far raised more than 5,000 million Nepalese rupees, about 28.2 million euros, in donations from Nepal itself and abroad.

A total of 675 people have died and 2,498 remain missing after the flood, according to the latest report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) of Nepal. The Chinese authorities have confirmed seven deaths and 554 people missing in Tibet, bringing the provisional death toll to 682 and the missing to more than 3,000.