The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun food distributions to 180,000 people in response to the Nepal floods. The tragedy has affected 1.7 million people, with nearly 461,000 of them displaced from their homes and in desperate need of assistance. The distributions are going on as the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) warns of more floods in coming days.

Within 48 hours after the floods, Nepal Food Security Monitoring System (NeKSAP) supported by WFP, issued a first assessment of the damage, playing a vital role in determining the extent of food insecurity in flood-affected districts. According to the latest report, almost half a million people in impacted areas are currently food insecure, and 300,000 people have very little access to food and are urgently in need of food assistance.

“Many people whose homes have been washed away were extremely poor already, living in rudimentary shelters and struggling to make ends meet. Families that have lost food stocks have nothing to fall back on,” said WFP Representative and Country Director Pippa Bradford. “WFP is working around the clock to provide food to the poorest to ensure that they have enough to eat,” she further added.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) indicates that over 80 percent of land in the Terai has been inundated. People living in these areas have lost their homes, food stocks, livestock and crops. It is expected that the floods will impact the rice and wheat harvests in this area, which is the ‘bread basket’ of Nepal, thus resulting in food shortages in the coming months. The area already has high rates of malnutrition, with 14 percent of children aged 6-59 months acutely malnourished. These children, along with pregnant women and nursing mothers, are particularly vulnerable to water-borne diseases and food insecurity after disasters.

To prevent malnutrition, WFP, along with the Government of Nepal and its partners, will be providing 200 MT of fortified food to 19,500 pregnant women and nursing mothers and about 27,700 children aged between 6 to 23 months, across 13 flood affected districts of the Terai.

WFP has begun distributing two-week rations of rice and yellow split peas to people in Saptari, Bardiya, Banke and Rautahat districts, in coordination with local authorities. An additional 40,000 displaced people in areas of Rautahat where the local markets have been restored will receive cash to help them buy food.