SINDHUPALCHOWK, Jan 1: Sita Nepali, 26, looked pale and frail when she was spotted at the Jalbire - Kartike road section in Sindhupalchowk district this week. She was carrying her small sick daughter and a sack of medicines and other essentials on her back. Struggling to walk straight, Sita said that she was just recovering from fever. Since the earthquake, which rendered her homeless, life has been totally out of joint, she said.
"Her father left for Kathmandu yesterday for a checkup as he had been vomiting blood," said Sita, pointing to her nine-month-old daughter. "I am just returning after my daughter's checkup at the health post and my 10-year-old son is bed-ridden at home," said the local of Dhyangdung in Baramchi -9.
Sita's husband Raj Kumar returned from the Gulf following the earthquake. Sita had urged him to come back. "He came to see us resettled and he ought to be our support, but the cold has not spared him either," she said. Raj Kumar has developed chest-related problems and the same is the case with her daughter, according to staff at a local health post. "They said I may need to take my daughter to Kanti Hospital in Kathmandu."
The makeshift shelter in which Sita and her family live does not protect them from cold or heat. They became sick during the monsoon and hot summer days and these days also they are not well. According to Sita, managing their meals is something the quake victims can do on their own, but building a new home is a different matter. "What's more important is a proper roof over your heads," she said.
Chin Bahadur Gole, 32, of Himali Golche-2 agrees. No one in his family has been able to brave the cold. "My wife is bedridden since a week. Our three toddlers are sick as well," said Gole, who had come to Kartike bazaar to buy some medicines. There are 144 families in his village and hardly anyone of them is free of cold-related ailments, he added. "The quake victims are shivering under tarpaulins. They are coughing and struggling with fever, headaches, etc," he said, emphasizing that lack of proper shelter is the root cause of all these problems.
A 70-year-old woman next door recently succumbed to cold. "Fever, coughing and asthma killed her, and we don't know how much more harm this winter is going to do," he said.
Equally pathetic is the condition of the earthquake victims in Golche, Gumba, Pangtang, Hagam, Baramchi and Selang villages, known collectively as the 'Karnali' of Sindhupalchowk because of their remoteness. Most of the households have not even received corrugated metal sheets for shelter and they are still spending their nights under tarpaulins. Very few have received any government relief.
"After the earthquake the face of this region changed drastically and it has turned into a sort of desert,' remarked Ruplal Tamang, a local of Golche - 1, adding that it remains isolated since the bridges are broken down. Things have not improved even after eight months. "Due to lack of transportation, carrying goods to the villages is a huge challenge," he further said.
Firewood is the only source of heat here. "But that's not going to keep us alive as we have no proper homes to live in," said Chandralal Tamang of Gumba - 3. "
Meanwhile, there was no crop production this year and if no relief is provided, it will be difficult for us to carry on," he added.
According to the villagers, they are living on the relief dropped by helicopters till before the monsoon. Even though they were not happy with the quality of the food distributed by the World Food Program, they do not complain too much. "But more than food, what is killing us is the lack of shelter," reiterated Dil Bahadur BK, 70. "We wish the nights would not come at all. It's so cold during the night, it feels we won't live to see another day," added the local of the Dalit village of Pangtang.
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