Kavrepalanchok, 21 Ashoj (Oct 7): Drones have been used in a village located in Ward No. 12 of Panauti Municipality of Kavre to send food and other materials to the locals after the rural roads were blocked due to incessant rains last week. From Sunday, an organization called We Team Nepal has started sending food items including rice to Magargaon in collaboration with Airlift Technology.
From Sunday, some amount of rice and materials were sent to Magar gaon after first testing, said Team Nepal’s volunteer Trisha Humagai. According to him, the materials prepared for the said village will be sent today. The organization took the help of drones for 85 families of the village after the geographical difficulty and rural roads were blocked. Humagai said that after receiving news that 85 families in the village who were affected by the floods needed relief materials including food, they decided to send them through drones until the road was built. According to him, there is a problem of food, electricity and nutrition in that village. Humagai said relief materials such as rice, solar lights, salt, oil, spices, sanitary pads, lactogen for children will be sent today through drones.
Since the road leading to the village from Panauti market has been damaged, drone flying material has been started from Bhumidanda in Ward No. 12. According to Humagai, who is also a social activist, up to 65 kilograms of food materials can be transported at one time through drones. “If the air flow is normal, relief can be sent up to 65 kg, otherwise we will send relief at the rate of 20 kg at a time”, he said. He said that it was late to send the material while completing the legal process on Sunday and said that the material will be sent today by drone.
Since the organization has received news of similar situations elsewhere, it has planned to send food materials through drones on a priority basis. For that, Humagai said that the data collection of the households and the settlements with no road connection were the most damaged. Due to last week’s landslide, the death toll in Kavre has reached 77 so far. 75 people were injured in the incident. This number is 31.56 percent of the number of deaths in the last week’s disaster. According to statistics, 244 people have lost their lives due to floods and landslides across the country. According to District Police Office Dhulikhel, 33 women, 28 men, nine boys and seven girls died in Kavera.
