The death toll from devastating flash floods in Nepal has reached at least 1,342, with thousands still missing, officials and local media reports have said.
The combined death toll from flash floods and mudslides along the Nepal-China border rose to at least 1,385, while 5,519 people remained missing 11 days after the disaster struck, according to official data from the two countries on Sunday.
Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said around 5,000 people, including 589 foreigners, remained missing.
More than 13,000 people have so far been rescued from the flood-hit areas.
Chinese authorities said at least 43 people have been confirmed dead, while 519 others remained missing in Tibet.
Of those missing, 850 are foreigners, according to official figures from Nepal and China.
‘We are not getting enough to eat’
With roads and bridges damaged due to massive floods and landslides, thousands of expectant and new mothers are struggling hardest to find a female-friendly space to breastfeed, get proper food and reach emergency care if labour turns dangerous, the local English daily Kathmandu Post reported.
The mothers also complain about cigarette smoke, the smell of alcohol and, on top of all that, unhygienic food and water, which upset their and their babies' stomachs.
Also, there are no vaccination facilities for children in the shelter camps.
"We are not getting food on time either. We are not getting enough to eat,” a new mother who wished to be identified only as Pariyar said.
Pariyar fled her home when floods struck her hometown, Trishuli, on the morning of August 26 and is now staying with dozens of strangers under one roof in a shelter camp.
“They aren’t giving any special food for babies. We are forced to feed that same heavy adult food to the small child. What would help most is simple: If only we had a decent, proper place to stay. That would bring some peace of mind," Sharmila Shrestha, another mother, complained.
She and her two kids sleep in a crowded classroom of a school-turned-shelter camp.
Hardest-hit districts
According to UN Population Fund estimates, around 4,430 pregnant women are living in areas across the 15 municipalities in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading, the districts hardest hit by last week’s devastating floods.
Based on the estimates, around 500 births could be expected in the following month, with roughly 74 women potentially requiring emergency obstetric care.
At Trishuli Hospital, the maternity ward has become an improvised outpost of crisis medicine.
Basanti Pancha, the head of the department, said the hospital has performed nine deliveries since the floods but was struggling to keep pace with everything else.
Women have kept arriving for fever, reduced fetal movement and urinary tract infections in pregnancy, she added.
Electricity is also unreliable, and a generator is the only source of power for surgeries.
“Previously, Kathmandu was just a two-hour road trip away. But now, by road, nobody knows how many hours it will take because of the landslides," Pancha added.
