The Nepal Relief Effort.

On Saturday (25/4/15) a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck at the shallow depth of just 15km (9 miles) in the centre of the country. In a country where most of the buildings were constructed before building codes or safety standards were introduced the effect of this 'quake was devastating. The death toll currently stands at 5,200 and is widely expected to exceed 10,000. There have been at least 11,000 injuries and some 8 million people are estimated to be in need of emergency assistance.

Responding to a disaster of this size is an absolutely mammoth task and even writing about it is hugely time consuming. For example in responding to Typhoon Haiyan that struck the Philippines in 2013 I had to read through 100 pages of daily reports listing the number of people killed and how they'd died. How many people had been injured, what - if any hospital - they were being treated in and if that hospital had adequate supplies. They also covered how much of the communication infrastructure such as roads and telephones had been destroyed and what rate they were being repaired. The daily reports also considered how much relief aid was arriving in the country, how it was being distributed and how many people were still in need.

Already committed to the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which itself is an entirely man-made humanitarian disaster I simply do not have the time to respond to the Nepalese earthquake in the same way.

However I cannot ignore what I see on the news and it is becoming increasingly apparent that there is a logistics bottleneck at Kathmandu airport. This is the only airport in Nepal capable of handling the large transport aircraft needed to fly relief supplies in. Unfortunately it only has the one runway which is used for both take-offs and landings. The airport apron where aircraft are loaded/unloading and refuelled is only big enough to handle 9 aircraft at a time compared with say London Heathrow that can handle 180. Given the sheer numbers of foreign nationals that need to be evacuated from Nepal in order to take the pressure off the country and the sheer tonnage of supplies that need to be flown in this simply not enough.

The obvious solution I can think of is for Kathmandu to be closed to private air traffic and control of it to be handed to the Nepalese military. All relief flights can then instead be diverted to land at Delhi international airport which is far larger boasting three runways and a dedicated cargo hub. At Delhi the private flights can be unloaded, their contents prioritised and reloading onto military transport aircraft which hopefully the World will lend to the effort. With all military transport aircraft essentially being the same type they can be quickly unloaded at Kathmandu and reloaded with evacuees who are flown to Delhi from where they can travel on as normal.

Once the supplies have arrived in Kathmandu there is another bottleneck in terms of getting them from the airport to the areas they are needed. Even at the best of times Nepal's roads are notoriously difficult. In fact I think both the UK show "Top Gear" and the US show "Ice Road Truckers" did specials in the country because it's got some of the toughest roads they could find. The aftermath of an earthquake is most certainly not the best of times with many roads being blocked by falling debris or damaged to the point of being impassable. Therefore it might be worth prioritising what heavy plants - cranes, frontloaders etc - that are available towards clearing the major roads rather then recovering the dead from collapsed buildings in urban areas. Medium to heavy lift helicopters such as Blackhawks, Pumas and Chinooks are always incredibly useful in situations like these although the weather in Nepal is also terrible.

Obviously once the paths have been cleared for relief supplies to be delivered those supplies still need to be sourced and paid for. Yesterday the UK's Disaster's Emergency Committee (DEC) was launched and immediately raised USD28million. Those in the UK can continue to donate here; http://www.dec.org.uk/?gclid=CJaE6KSlnMUCFWgOwwodVJcAVA

Clearly I don't want to discourage people from contributing to the DEC appeal but as an umbrella organisation it does fund charities such as Save the Children who have a questionable record of political independence particularly in Syria. Political interference and ego driven turf wars are the things that plague international aid efforts with all the charities wanting to be able to show their donors how they've been helping the photogenic injured child while the more boring but essential tasks like logistics planning get ignored.

The problem that political interference within disaster relief effort can cause was rather neatly highlighted by the Bali 9 who were executed on Monday (28/4/15) afternoon (GMT). In his efforts to get these Australian drug smugglers freed Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that Indonesia should reciprocate for all the aid Australia sent to the country following the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. He appeared to be saying that because Australia had donated money to Indonesia it should get a say in how the Indonesian legal system operates. This prompted a campaign in Indonesia to give Australia it's money back and the political storm is unlikely to have aided the recent response to Cyclone Pam.

Fortunately the Nepalese government has taken steps to prevent this type of undermining of national sovereignty by making sure all relief efforts go through them to prevent overlap and waste.

Therefore I think it's better for people to donate directly to UNICEF because they accept donations internationally and being a United Nations body their entire existence is one long battle against egos and political interference;

http://www.unicef.org./


20:10 on 29/4/15 (UK date).

Edited at around 14:00 on 30/4/15 (UK date) to add the stuff about the Bali 9 which I somehow managed to forget despite it being one of my main points.