The floods in Nepal led the United Nations and its humanitarian partners to launch an urgent financial appeal of 42.6 million euros to assist more than 84,000 people affected by the tragedy of August 26. The multisectoral plan will have an operational duration of four months and was triggered to prevent epidemic outbreaks and ensure essential supplies before the sharp drop in temperatures in the high-altitude communities in the Himalayas.
According to the latest consolidated official toll, the violence of the floods and the collapse of landslides along the mountainous border line claimed at least 1,295 lives in Nepali territory, with 4,898 citizens still missing. In the Chinese sector of Tibet, authorities counted 31 dead and 531 people whose whereabouts remain uncertain.
The magnitude of the devastation led the UN Resident Coordinator in the country, Lila Pieters Yahia, to formalize the joint appeal with the Kathmandu executive. The official warned that "families have lost everything: their loved ones, their homes, their livelihoods" and that the appeal aims to bring money, shelter, medical assistance, clean water, and protection to the most remote communities before the arrival of winter.
The on-the-ground strategy includes the immediate delivery of direct cash transfers to households and the distribution of thermal protection kits and portable generators in temporary housing, with the aim of restoring household electricity and ensuring autonomous heating points to halt deaths from hypothermia when the first cold waves reach the Himalayan valleys in the coming weeks.
