Extreme hardship looms for Nepal

Restricted trade could spell disaster for land-locked country, warns WFP

NEPAL/ PHILIM: Warning of severe shortages of food and fuel in Nepal caused by the ongoing major disruptions in imports across its southern border with India, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) predicted extreme hardship for the land-locked country if prices of basic food staples continue to soar.

“If trade remains restricted and food prices continue to rise, a serious humanitarian crisis will be hard to avoid,” David Kaatrud, WFP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement.

According to the WFP, the border blockage that began in September to protest Nepal’s new constitution has already slowed trade, causing a food and fuel shortage since the last three months.

“People are struggling to feed their families as the cost of food rises beyond their grasp,” Kaatrud said.

Nepal is heavily dependent on imports, especially from India and border disruptions have led to the cost of some basic food staples, such as cooking oil, rice, lentils, sugar and salt to soar in recent weeks as supplies dwindled.

The UN agency said that the average price of lentils, pulses and cooking oil have increased by more than 30 percent since August and more than 50 percent since last year and in remote areas, including parts of the country worst hit by the 25 April earthquake and aftershocks, the price of food commodities has increased even further, doubling in some cases.

In Gorkha, a community close to the earthquake epicentre, a 25 kg sack of rice now costs 5,000 Nepali Rupees ($46.80) up from 2,500 Rupees ($23.40) before the blockade and the price of cooking oil and sugar has also doubled in the town, WFP said.

Additionally, WFP said that the price of fuel also increased across the country, with the cost of refilling a cylinder of cooking gas costing from 1,500 Nepali rupees ($14.00) before the blockade to between 8,000 and 11,000 rupees ($75 and $102) today, an increase of as much as 630 percent.

At the same time, the UN agency noted that a quarter of people in Nepal on less than $1.25 a day, and on average spend 60 percent of their income on food, which means that most have only a limited capacity to cope with shocks. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2015.

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