U.S. Provides Additional Funds to Help Flood Victims in Nepal

For Immediate Release

Thursday, August 28, 2014

The U.S. Mission in Nepal, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will contribute more than $450,000 in food assistance to the UN World Food Programme in Nepal to support existing flood and landslide relief efforts by the Government of Nepal and other humanitarian aid partners. The U.S. contribution will enable the World Food Programme to purchase approximately 450 metric tons of locally and regionally produced rice, legumes and other important food commodities. This will meet the food needs for about 40,000 flood-affected individuals in the most severely flooded districts of Bardiya, Banke, Kailali, Surkhet and Dang for just over a month. The UN World Food Programme in Nepal will work under the Government of Nepal’s District Disaster Response Committee and with the Nepal Red Cross Society to ensure that distributions are delivered in a timely fashion to the most needy.

“On behalf of the American people, I offer our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and to those rendered homeless in the recent flooding and landslides. We will continue to work with the Government of Nepal and other humanitarian agencies to provide further assistance as needed,” said Peter W. Bodde, the U.S. Ambassador to Nepal.

To assist farmers in the Mid- and Far-Western districts who were affected by the landslides and floods, the U.S. Government, through USAID, will help up to 3,000 farmers purchase seeds and tools to rebuild their livelihoods and better prepare for the next agriculture season.

Earlier in the month, the U.S. Government granted $50,000 to the Nepal Red Cross Society to restock the pre-positioned non-food relief items as part of the emergency relief efforts in the most-affected areas. In recent years, the U.S. Government, through USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, has provided more than $670,000 to enhance emergency preparedness and immediate response by pre-positioning non-food relief items in 12 strategic locations across the country.

For more information on the U.S government’s disaster and emergency preparedness efforts in Nepal, log on to: http://www.usaid.gov/nepal/working-crises-and-conflict