Lila Pieters Yahia (Resident Coordinator) on the floods in Nepal - Press Conference

Good afternoon.
Thank you very much for being here.
We're going to go as promised, we're going to go first to our guest, and we're very happy to have with us Lila Pieters Yahia, the resident coordinator for Nepal, who, of course, will update you on the devastating floods that just took place.
So, Lila, I will give you the floor and then we'll take some questions.
So please go ahead.
Thank you.
Good morning or good afternoon, Stephane, and thank you for providing me with this opportunity.
So first of all, I would like to start by expressing our sincere and deep condolences and sadness over the loss of life which has been caused by the flood of yesterday.
And obviously, as all the United Nations but also the International Committee here in Kathmandu, where I am, all we pray for the families of the people which are missing, and we really hope that a lot of those people will be able to be rescue.
So quickly, what I can share as an update.
So first of all, all the information that I will be providing you is from the government.
And so therefore, you may have different data, but I'm only using official data.
First of all, I would like to stress that the government of Prime Minister Balin Shah is leading the search and rescue and is coordinating any type of response.
More than 30,000 security personnel have been mobilized and they're working day and night to try to rescue to search and to rescue people.
I mean, the magnitude of the disaster is just I can't find the word to describe what happened yesterday.
And I'm sure many of you have seen what we saw on television.
So far, what has been reported as of 7:00 P.M.
Tonight, Kathmandu time is we have 359 people, unfortunately, who have lost their life.
73 people have been hospitalized and some of them have been released.
The missing people, it's a total of 910 of which 517 are foreigners from different nationalities.
In terms of the, as I mentioned, the government has mobilized all its apparatus to provide search and rescue, and so far, 796 people have been rescued.
And as I talk, more and more research is ongoing and obviously now it's a night, but they will resume tomorrow morning.
In terms of infrastructure, we have over 35 bridge which have been destroyed.
The roads are destroyed, and so it's extremely, extremely difficult to have access.
We have about 40 kilometers of road which are damaged.
We have about electricity which has been disrupted, about 10% in the total area.
And in total, we have about 10,000 households which are in immediate needs.
I'm going to stop there because I want to give you the opportunity to ask me a question.
I will be going there tomorrow with some of my United Nations colleagues.
What I've done so far is I have obviously and I would like to mention that we have been provided with $2.5 million from the SRF.
I would like to thank very much USG Fletcher for his support and we're getting a lot of support from Mocha.
I have a team for Mocha who is arriving tomorrow morning to support us with coordination.
All the UN agency, particularly UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA NWHO are mobilized and have been conducting assessment and also going into the field.
We are WFP has been able to provide mobilized trucks, provide equipment, generator, but also food.
So those are the initial activity undertaking in addition to the SRF funding that we have received, Swiss government has generously given us $1 million.
More and more funding is becoming available.
We heard today when I held an HDC that both Australia and the United Kingdom will be also providing some relief funding to support the government.
The government has established a relief fund, and already the World Bank, India, China and the US have committed to pledge $229 million to support.
Do I think, I'll stop there, and I'm happy to take any questions.
Great that you may have.
Thank you very much.
We'll start Noreen, please.
Thank you very much, Madam.
My name is Noreen Hussein with IPS News.
I have two questions I'd like to start with.
You've mentioned that over 900 people are missing now.
Can you tell us is among those, how many are children? And you've also mentioned that among those missing, over 517 are nationals from foreign countries.
Can you tell us the countries that are from? Thank you.
Thank you.
Go ahead, please.
Okay.
So I don't so far in terms of the 910 people, we don't have the exact number whether they were children, but so far no indication of that.
However, I do want to underline that the area has an average of seven to 8% of the total population of the district affected are children under five.
So I can't answer to that question.
In terms of the foreigner, there are many, many nationality, unfortunately, and if I have to go through, but I can tell you the main we have a lot of people because this is the time of festivity in Nepal, and we have a lot of national from China and India who have traveled to Nepal, but we have also, as you know, this is a beautiful country, a touristic country.
So we have a lot of people who come to Nepal also for tracking.
And so we have a lot of other national national from the United States, national from Canada, national from Australia, from the UK, but from various country, and we have the list.
The list has been provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
So I think business should be made will be probably shared.
But the list is really long in terms of the different nationality.
This is all what I can tell you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Maryam, then Min Liu.
Thank you, and thanks for this briefing.
I was wondering if there is another risk of flood from the blockade and the rivers were unstable glacial lakes and also, were you able to find out what the cause of the flood was? Some scientists are saying it's the climate change.
Do you agree with that? Thank you.
Thank you.
Yes, the government has just issued a warning this afternoon of potential additional flood risk in the Bakuhi River.
And so what we have all to exercise is to be very cautious and they have sent a warning to the population living in that area and requesting all the population stand away from river banks and to go up as much as possible and to find safe places.
This is the same instruction also given to relief worker but also to tourists who might still be in the region.
So we don't know as for the reason.
As you know, the government is doing an assessment, and so therefore, at this moment, I'm not in position to answer what are the exact causes which caused this massive flood yesterday.
And we're looking into, you know, we're looking into different data.
And as soon as this information is available, I trust the government will publish it.
Thank you very much, Minu.
Thank you, A.
This is Min Lu with China Daily.
And so you just mentioned that 359 people were dead.
And among this number, is there any foreigners? And my second question is, we also heard that the weather forecast says the current region is going to be raining for the next few days.
What is the biggest challenge you think is facing the rescue actions right now? Regarding your first question, no information details has been provided as yet of the national ID of the deaf people.
The government is, as I say, focusing on search and rescue, and they are also looking and seeking support for us to help them to do identification of the body, but also to ensure that the bodies are being stored properly and that they will respect and will be following uh, according to the tradition, the burial.
So we don't have yet such kind of information available.
But we have teams mobilized and who are working and supporting the government on this.
In terms of the weather, yes, it's the monsoon and we still have rain.
We were all expecting the Monsoon to be over by this time.
And so I think what we usually have and we've been having since the past three months since a lot of landslides, so this is likely to happen.
Uh, if we have, you know, if the rain continues.
So this is part of the regular, you know, monsoon season and the consequences.
And then you probably will have more roadblocks if you have landslides.
So those are the standard, if you want, impact we observe throughout the monsoon season in Nepal.
Thank you, Tas Dan.
Thank you.
This is to China television.
China has said it is close communication and coordination with Nepal and search and rescue efforts and is ready to provide emergency assistance based on Nepal's needs.
Is the United Nations coordinating team with China and the response and the world was the most needed on the ground right now? Okay, yes.
Indeed, as I said, many countries are supporting the government of Nepal.
The government of Nepal is coordinating all the support.
We United Nation, of course, we are in contact with the embassy here, and we're trying to obviously coordinate as well.
But the coordination, there's a coordination mechanism.
Tomorrow morning at two at noon, there will be what we call the cluster.
The cluster have been activated by the government and both the cluster lead, which is the government and the core cluster lead, which are headed by the United Nations will be meeting, and we will be to ensure that we understand what are the exactly that the government is requiring, and also to make sure that there's no duplication and also to make sure that the aid which will be coming and it is coming already, there's been aid coming from outside will be properly distributed.
But as I said, at the moment, the big, big priority is to search and rescue, and to conduct an assessment and to prove to deliver aid as quickly as possible.
But again, one of the some of the municipality most affected it's going to be extremely difficult to reach those population, but already the government is thinking the fastest way and the quick way to reach them to ensure that food aid and other aids is being delivered.
So we're looking into different type of to use different type of technology.
But again, there is no yet, you know, confirmation.
We're waiting for the assessment, and we're waiting to hear further from the government of Nepal.
Thank you.
I.
Thank you very much and a belated thank you on behalf of the United Nations Correspondent Association for doing this briefing.
My name is Edith Lettera from the Associated Press.
First, I just wanted you to clarify.
In terms of coordinating aid, is the UN in charge or is the government in charge or is it a dual hat? And secondly, I know this is sort of an awful question to ask, but in terms of these thousands of missing people, is it believed that they are buried under a lot of mud or could they have been washed down the river? Could you is there any indication, thank you.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
As I said, the government is on the lead and the government is coordinating.
We have a cluster mechanism which has been activated by the government and so the government has activated the cluster mechanism from its side.
We, the United Nations have activated the cluster mechanism from our side and tomorrow at 12:00, there will be a meeting with the inter ministerial cluster of the government and the cluster which is led by the United Nations and partners.
So that's on coordination, but I want to reiterate is the government of Nepal, which is leading and coordinating and telling exactly the type of needs, and they're doing the assessment and based on the need, we are responding, and the leadership is we have a very strong leadership from the Prime Minister of Nepal.
In terms of the 910 people which are reported as missing, I'm not in position to tell you to provide you detailed information.
I think as like you, I have as much information as what I have seen so far, you know, through the various videos which were air, and we will have more information as we are able to have access, but also as the government makes that information available.
Thank you very much.
Yes, please in the back.
Thank you.
My name is Shang from China's Xingua News Agency.
I'm wondering how this relief work is being carried out.
For example, search and rescue, is there a border still a border? Can the relief workers travel freely between these two countries? Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you for your question.
I'm the United Nations resident coordinator for Nepal.
So our intervention are only on Nepal.
So obviously, I can only speak what's happening what I know and the information available made to us on the side of Nepal.
So it's we are talking about three district one district inside Nepal, and this is where the 13,295 security personnel have been mobilized and they are conducting search and rescue.
I do not have information what's happening on the other side of the border as it is not in my prerogative.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Noreen.
A quick follow up, ma'am, on you've mentioned in your opening remarks that about 35% of the bridges and roads have been destroyed or completely blocked off due to the landslide.
I wondered if you could just tell us about what are the routes that the teams on the ground are using to reach the affected communities.
Okay, so far, so you have one municipality where, you know, it's impossible to reach by road and all the aid is being delivered by the government by helicopter.
So that's one area.
So what we are able to do we can travel to some of those municipalities, but the most hit municipality, we're not able to reach it using the road or using the bridges because they have fallen apart.
However, the government will be deploying belly bridges.
As you know, those are temporary bridges, and we understand that some member states have made those available.
We will be also looking ourself.
WFP is looking to see whether those bridges could be procured by the United Nations should we receive a confirmation that those are still needed.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I think we're out of questions.
Thank you for your work.
Please send our solidarity with your whole team and especially all the national staff members.
And we hope to see you back soon to provide an update.
Okay.
Thank you very much, Stephen, and thank you to everybody.
Have a nice end of the day.
Thank you for your support.
Bye.