UN coordinator for Nepal urges relief work in hard-to-reach areas ahead of rainy season

Relief teams in quake-hit Nepal should focus on remote and hard-to-reach areas to support as many affected people as possible before the upcoming rainy season, said a UN coordinator on Friday.

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Nepal, said that improved airlift capacity and the decentralization of logistical support helped to speed up the flow of relief goods, according to UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

Nepal's monsoon session is expected to begin in June and last through August. McGoldrick urged the relief teams to quicken the pace so as to beat the onset of the forthcoming monsoon season, which will add a logistical challenge to relief efforts.

Dujarric told a daily briefing that some relief teams were traveling on foot to impacted areas while goods were being dropped off at agreed locations with communities so they can be picked up.

Two weeks into the devastating earthquake which hit Nepal on April 25, the country's Ministry of Home Affairs reported on Friday that the death toll from the earthquake climbed to 7,885. A total number of 288,798 private and 10,790 public houses were totally destroyed in the quake.

The World Food Program (WFP) is warning that food is an increasingly urgent need in some of the hardest-hit areas, and it has distributed food for 300,000 people since the quake hit.

It also reported that logistical challenges has hindered its operation on the ground and said it was bringing in more helicopters and engaging multiple fleets of small trucks to get supplies to hard-hit areas. Endite