As many as 120 sacks of rice meant for distribution among quake victims were found to be substandard and are just rotting away, with the UN agency showing no sign of disposing of the spoiled rice and replacing it with edible one.
Locals fear that the stench from the rotting rice may affect their health. But they have not been able to speak up fearing a halt of the supply of additional rice."The sacks of rotten rice were kept at a store in the village. However, after the odor became unbearable, we moved them to the helipad that is a bit far off from our homes," said Raj Gurung, a local.
"If they do not take away the rice from here, it may cause some kind of disease outbreak," he added.
Although the WFP sent helicopter to the VDC on Sunday and Monday to transport back the rice, it returned without landing due to bad weather conditions, informed the Red Cross, Gorkha chapter, the WFP's distribution partner.
Red Cross has been coordinating for the distribution of the rice provided by WFP. "We halted the distribution as soon as we found out that rice in some of sacks were rotten," said Hari Bandhu Aryal of the Red Cross. "We have requested the WFP to provide us additional sacks of rice," he added.
Earlier, WFP had delivered 417 sacks for distribution at Larpak VDC. As the sacks were cut open, some were found to be containing rotten rice. Ministry of Commerce and Supplies conducted a lab-test to determine the quality of rice distributed in Laprak and found them to be sub-standard.
Apart from the 120 sacks of sub-standard rice, rice in other sacks was edible and distributed among the locals.
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