Nepal floods kill 1,399, finance minister Swarnim Wagle in India seeking rebuilding aid
Nepal's finance minister arrived in New Delhi for a three-day visit to seek Indian help after floods and landslides killed 1,399 people.
Neighbouring Nepal is dealing with one of the worst natural disasters in its history. Severe floods and landslides that hit different parts of Nepal on August 26 caused widespread destruction across the country. Rebuilding what has been destroyed and putting the shaken economy back on track has become the biggest challenge before the Nepal government.
In this difficult time, Nepal's finance minister Swarnim Wagle is arriving in New Delhi on Thursday on a three-day high-level visit to seek immediate economic, technical and infrastructural help from India.
According to Nepal's finance secretary Ghanashyam Upadhyay, Swarnim Wagle has come to hold talks with the Indian leadership on a special invitation from India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Roads, bridges, hydropower projects and settlements in Nepal suffered heavy damage after the August 26 floods. Because of this, the Nepali delegation will formally seek a large reconstruction package and cooperation from the Indian government.
According to the latest figures from Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, the flooding took its most frightening form in the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river valleys. In these areas, the water level in the rivers rose so suddenly that thousands of homes, roads and bridges were washed away. The disaster has killed 1,399 people so far, while 5,179 people, including foreign tourists, are still missing. Army and disaster management teams are working round the clock on relief and rescue operations in the flood-affected and difficult-to-reach areas. The floods have brought transport to a complete halt in many parts of Nepal, and power supply has also been disrupted after several major hydropower projects were submerged.
A joint team from Nepal's National Planning Commission and the disaster management authority has recently prepared a Rapid Disaster Needs Assessment Report. According to it, the floods have caused direct physical property damage of 274.48 billion Nepali rupees, while the country's total economic loss has reached 408.28 billion Nepali rupees. Nepal urgently needs more than 723 billion Nepali rupees (about 5.4 billion US dollars) for rebuilding damaged roads, power projects and resettling citizens. Raising such a large amount on its own is not possible for a small economy like Nepal's, so it is looking to the international community, especially India, for help.
During the India visit, Swarnim Wagle will hold bilateral talks with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. He will also meet external affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar and commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal. These meetings are expected to cover not just disaster relief but also India-Nepal trade, cross-border infrastructure projects and economic cooperation.
Nepal's finance ministry has also cited the devastating 2015 earthquake, when India, honouring its ties with its neighbour, announced aid of 1 billion US dollars and stood firmly with Nepal during the crisis. The Nepali delegation is confident that India will play an important role in post-flood reconstruction this time as well, along similar lines.
During his busy three-day visit, Swarnim Wagle will also address several important civic and business events. He will hold talks with experts at a special roundtable organised by former Indian foreign secretary and former Indian ambassador to Nepal, Shyam Saran. He will also brief Indian industrialists and investors on Nepal's economic policies and investment opportunities in reconstruction at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event. He will also speak at a lecture on development policy at the Delhi School of Economics' economics department.
