Kathmandu: Date - April 25. Time - 11:56 am.
It was exactly a week ago on last Saturday that a deadly earthquake measuring 7.8 on Richter Scale violently jolted Nepal, ripping through districts, flattening neighbourhoods, pulverising houses and decimating cultural monuments, setting in motion monstrous avalanches and most fiercely killing thousands of souls.
Over 6,600 people have been confirmed killed and according to the UN, eight million people have been affected by the quake. Over 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged.
Nepal has suggested that there is no possibility of finding any more quake survivors, reported the AFP.
Speaking to the AFP, Nepal home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal said, "It has already been one week since the disaster".
"We are trying our best in rescue and relief work but now I don`t think that there is any possibility of survivors under the rubble," he added.
Not just Nepalese, many foreign nationals suffered the quake too, with the European Union saying recently that up to 1,000 Europeans are still unaccounted for, mostly around popular trekking routes.
It's been seven days that disaster struck Nepal but the millions of quake-stricken Nepalese are yet to come to terms with what happened to their normal lives.
Many Nepalese have been sleeping in the open since the 7.8 magnitude quake, with survivors afraid to return to their homes because of powerful aftershocks. According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged.
As the entire country looks like a citadel in ruins, it is going to take enough time and millions of dollars and international support to bring the country back on track.
Experts say that the quake was so strong that the capital city of Kathmandu has shifted 10 feet southwards.
While thousands were killed and thousands more remain missing but the survivors can not be said luckier as they face dire conditions and are forced to sleep in open either due to homelessness or the fear of aftershocks.
Despite foreign aid worth millions of dollars being on its way to Kathmandu and international community especially Indian forces working strenuously in search and rescue efforts, Nepal's sorrow looks too deep to be surmounted.
Overflowing hospitals and morgues, bodies still buried beneath piles of debris, lack of drinking water, and sanitation facilities, and scores of people without homes and in need of food and clothes – paint a very grim picture of Nepal in the aftermath of the deadly quake.
According to Rownak Khan, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Nepal, the country is turning out to be a “perfect breeding ground of diseases” given the monsoon season is just a month away.
Usually, monsoon hits Nepal in June and the UNICEF has sounded alarm bell as the torrential rains may worsen the situation by giving fertile ground for breeding and spread of of Cholera and diarrhoeal germs.
“With the monsoon season only a few weeks away, children will be at heightened risk of diseases like cholera and diarrhoeal infections, as well as being more vulnerable to the threat of landslides and floods,” says a UNICEF report.
“The earthquake has caused unimaginable destruction...Hospitals are overflowing, water is scarce, bodies are still buried under the rubble and people are still sleeping in the open. This is a perfect breeding ground for diseases,” says UNICEF official Rownak Khan.
The UNICEF has launched a US$50 million appeal to support its humanitarian response to the earthquake in Nepal for the next three months.
One week after #NepalEarthquake, the health & wellbeing of children are hanging in the balance http://t.co/mLihQiROZX pic.twitter.com/jBQgGMgi5P
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) May 2, 2015
