The Sorry Saga of Bhutan's North
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Showing posts with label Disaster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disaster. Show all posts
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Over 150 huts gutted by fire in Bhutanese refugee camp
Thursday, 21 January 2010 10:03
More than 150 huts were gutted by fire in the Bhutanese refugee camp located in Beldangi, Damak, Jhapa, last night.
The fire that started from the hut of Lal Bahadur Lamgade at about 10.15 pm, Wednesday spread across the camp due to lack of fire fighters.
Although people in the refugee camp had informed fire brigades in Mechinagar, Damak and Bhadrapur as soon as the fire started, they did not turn up in time.
No casualty except a minor injury has been reported. A Bhutanese refugee Prithvi Lal Tamang has sustained burn injuries due to the fire.
The fire was taken in control at about 1.30 am, Thursday by the refugees with the help of police. nepalnews.com
..............Follow up...............
Aid reaches hundreds of fire-affected Bhutanese refugees
Friday, 22 January 2010 17:01
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More than 400 refugees from Bhutan, who became homeless when fire swept through the Beldangi refugee camp in eastern Nepal Wednesday night, have now received emergency aid.
The government, UNHCR, and its NGO partners (Caritas, Lutheran World Federation, the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia) and WFP are providing immediate emergency assistance, according to a press release issued by UNHCR on Friday.
UNHCR and its NGO partners said they will distribute plastic sheets, blankets, mosquito nets, soaps, cooking kits, as well as materials such as bamboo to help the affected families rebuild their homes.
In total, an estimated US $39,000 will be required for emergency relief and reconstruction materials, said UNHCR.
Immediately after the fire, the homeless families temporarily moved to their neighbours and relatives huts, offices of the community based organisations and the camp school.
UNHCR said it will soon relocate the affected families to vacant huts in the camp or will build new huts.
The fire, which broke out at 9:45 p.m., destroyed 28 traditional thatched huts, including 31 huts that were dismantled to stop fire from spreading further. Another 13 huts were partially damaged.
Preliminary investigation suggests that the fire started accidentally from a candle in a hut.
Forty personnel from the Armed Police Force managed to control the fire within an hour with two fire engines from Itahari and Birtamod. There has been no serious injures or casualties. nepalnews.com
Over 150 huts gutted by fire in Bhutanese refugee camp
Thursday, 21 January 2010 10:03
More than 150 huts were gutted by fire in the Bhutanese refugee camp located in Beldangi, Damak, Jhapa, last night.
The fire that started from the hut of Lal Bahadur Lamgade at about 10.15 pm, Wednesday spread across the camp due to lack of fire fighters.
Although people in the refugee camp had informed fire brigades in Mechinagar, Damak and Bhadrapur as soon as the fire started, they did not turn up in time.
No casualty except a minor injury has been reported. A Bhutanese refugee Prithvi Lal Tamang has sustained burn injuries due to the fire.
The fire was taken in control at about 1.30 am, Thursday by the refugees with the help of police. nepalnews.com
..............Follow up...............
Aid reaches hundreds of fire-affected Bhutanese refugees
Friday, 22 January 2010 17:01
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More than 400 refugees from Bhutan, who became homeless when fire swept through the Beldangi refugee camp in eastern Nepal Wednesday night, have now received emergency aid.
The government, UNHCR, and its NGO partners (Caritas, Lutheran World Federation, the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia) and WFP are providing immediate emergency assistance, according to a press release issued by UNHCR on Friday.
UNHCR and its NGO partners said they will distribute plastic sheets, blankets, mosquito nets, soaps, cooking kits, as well as materials such as bamboo to help the affected families rebuild their homes.
In total, an estimated US $39,000 will be required for emergency relief and reconstruction materials, said UNHCR.
Immediately after the fire, the homeless families temporarily moved to their neighbours and relatives huts, offices of the community based organisations and the camp school.
UNHCR said it will soon relocate the affected families to vacant huts in the camp or will build new huts.
The fire, which broke out at 9:45 p.m., destroyed 28 traditional thatched huts, including 31 huts that were dismantled to stop fire from spreading further. Another 13 huts were partially damaged.
Preliminary investigation suggests that the fire started accidentally from a candle in a hut.
Forty personnel from the Armed Police Force managed to control the fire within an hour with two fire engines from Itahari and Birtamod. There has been no serious injures or casualties. nepalnews.com
More than 150 huts were gutted by fire in the Bhutanese refugee camp located in Beldangi, Damak, Jhapa, last night.
The fire that started from the hut of Lal Bahadur Lamgade at about 10.15 pm, Wednesday spread across the camp due to lack of fire fighters.
Although people in the refugee camp had informed fire brigades in Mechinagar, Damak and Bhadrapur as soon as the fire started, they did not turn up in time.
No casualty except a minor injury has been reported. A Bhutanese refugee Prithvi Lal Tamang has sustained burn injuries due to the fire.
The fire was taken in control at about 1.30 am, Thursday by the refugees with the help of police. nepalnews.com
..............Follow up...............
Aid reaches hundreds of fire-affected Bhutanese refugees
Friday, 22 January 2010 17:01
Share this
Twitter Myspace Digg Del.icio.us Slashdot Furl Yahoo Googlize this Blinklist Facebook WikioExport PDFPrintE-mail
More than 400 refugees from Bhutan, who became homeless when fire swept through the Beldangi refugee camp in eastern Nepal Wednesday night, have now received emergency aid.
The government, UNHCR, and its NGO partners (Caritas, Lutheran World Federation, the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia) and WFP are providing immediate emergency assistance, according to a press release issued by UNHCR on Friday.
UNHCR and its NGO partners said they will distribute plastic sheets, blankets, mosquito nets, soaps, cooking kits, as well as materials such as bamboo to help the affected families rebuild their homes.
In total, an estimated US $39,000 will be required for emergency relief and reconstruction materials, said UNHCR.
Immediately after the fire, the homeless families temporarily moved to their neighbours and relatives huts, offices of the community based organisations and the camp school.
UNHCR said it will soon relocate the affected families to vacant huts in the camp or will build new huts.
The fire, which broke out at 9:45 p.m., destroyed 28 traditional thatched huts, including 31 huts that were dismantled to stop fire from spreading further. Another 13 huts were partially damaged.
Preliminary investigation suggests that the fire started accidentally from a candle in a hut.
Forty personnel from the Armed Police Force managed to control the fire within an hour with two fire engines from Itahari and Birtamod. There has been no serious injures or casualties. nepalnews.com
Monday, September 21, 2009
Roofing fund for 64 families
21 September, 2009 - Unable to provide the collateral for obtaining rural micro credit loans, or even qualifying for any government social services, 64 households in Bhutan’s poorest dzongkhag, Zhemgang, faced this year’s monsoon without adequate shelter.
In an effort to prevent this situation from recurring, HRH Ashi Kesang Wangmo Wangchuck, recently donated aNu 3m for households unable to obtain rural scheme loans. Village communities identified and selected 64 households that are in most need of the funds. HRH Ashi Kesang Wangmo Wangchuck also personally met with all 64 households during a recent tour of the dzongkhag.
As a result of the meetings, the funds will be used to replace the roofs of 64 houses in four gewogs in the upper Kheng region, with corrugated galvanised iron (CGI). The Nu 3m fund will cover procurement, transport, labour and construction phases of the initiative.
Member of parliament (MP) for Zhemgang, Tshering Dorji, said, adequate housing for many financially disadvantaged families is a severe curtailing factor. “Food and clothing are usually at a satisfactory level for families in the dzongkhag, but proper housing is not,” said the MP. Most houses in the dzongkhag use banana tree leaves, tarpaulin sheets, plastic or bamboo mats, for roofing their houses.
“By providing a proper roof over their heads, it’s also a move towards poverty alleviation,” said MP Tshering Dorji. “Men and women can go out to earn their living with the knowledge that their families, their children, will be safe and secure,” added the MP.
Installation of the CGI roofs is already underway and roofing of all 64 houses is expected to be completed within three months.
By Gyalsten K Dorji
Quake kills ten in Bhutan: report
By Zareer Hussain (AFP) – 14 hours ago
GUWAHATI, India — A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan Monday, killing at least ten people and damaging monasteries and other buildings, state-run media reported.
"Ten people were killed of which three victims are of Indian origin," Bhutan Broadcasting Service, the country's national radio reported Monday night.
The three Indians died after they were hit by falling boulders in the eastern district of Samdrup Jongkhar and their bodies have been handed over to Indian authorities in Bhutan.
Seven people died after buildings collapsed in two regions east of the capital Thimpu, an official at the government's disaster management unit said.
Bhutan's home minister Lyonpo Minjur Dorji said officials are coordinating with the district authorities to help those affected.
According to the US Geological Survey, which initially put the quake at 6.3-magnitude before revising down, the epicentre was located just inside Bhutan's border with India, 180 kilometres (115 miles) east of Thimpu, at a shallow depth of 7.2 kilometres.
Dorji said three people were injured in Munggar and some buildings had caved in, most of which were made of mud and stone.
The quake sent boulders down hillsides in eastern Bhutan, blocking roads to remote, hilly regions, he added. Homes and monasteries were also damaged.
"There are reports of landslides in some areas and power and telecommunications networks have been disrupted in eastern districts of Bhutan," Dorji said.
The Bhutanese newspaper Kuensel reported online that monasteries and other buildings had been damaged in Munggar.
Sherab Tenzin, district magistrate of Munggar, told AFP by telephone shortly after the quake struck that many of the mud and stone buildings in the area showed signs of damage, but there was no widespread destruction.
Teams of police and rescue personnel were moving out across the region to assess the damage, he said.
The tremors were also felt in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka and in Lhasa, the capital of the Chinese region of Tibet, according to Chinese state media.
Strong tremors lasting up to 20 seconds were felt 125 kilometres away in Guwahati, the capital of India's northeastern state of Assam, where nervous residents ran into the streets.
Cracks appeared in several buildings in the city but there was no serious damage, witnesses said.
Home to just over 600,000 people and wedged in remote hills and mountains between India and China, Bhutan held its first democratic elections for a new parliament and prime minister in March last year.
The country had no roads or currency until the 1960s and allowed television only in 1999. It also famously uses the principle of 'Gross National Happiness', and not common economic indicators, to measure national well-being.
Most of its largely Buddhist population live by subsistence farming, animal husbandry and forestry.
GUWAHATI, India — A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan Monday, killing at least ten people and damaging monasteries and other buildings, state-run media reported.
"Ten people were killed of which three victims are of Indian origin," Bhutan Broadcasting Service, the country's national radio reported Monday night.
The three Indians died after they were hit by falling boulders in the eastern district of Samdrup Jongkhar and their bodies have been handed over to Indian authorities in Bhutan.
Seven people died after buildings collapsed in two regions east of the capital Thimpu, an official at the government's disaster management unit said.
Bhutan's home minister Lyonpo Minjur Dorji said officials are coordinating with the district authorities to help those affected.
According to the US Geological Survey, which initially put the quake at 6.3-magnitude before revising down, the epicentre was located just inside Bhutan's border with India, 180 kilometres (115 miles) east of Thimpu, at a shallow depth of 7.2 kilometres.
Dorji said three people were injured in Munggar and some buildings had caved in, most of which were made of mud and stone.
The quake sent boulders down hillsides in eastern Bhutan, blocking roads to remote, hilly regions, he added. Homes and monasteries were also damaged.
"There are reports of landslides in some areas and power and telecommunications networks have been disrupted in eastern districts of Bhutan," Dorji said.
The Bhutanese newspaper Kuensel reported online that monasteries and other buildings had been damaged in Munggar.
Sherab Tenzin, district magistrate of Munggar, told AFP by telephone shortly after the quake struck that many of the mud and stone buildings in the area showed signs of damage, but there was no widespread destruction.
Teams of police and rescue personnel were moving out across the region to assess the damage, he said.
The tremors were also felt in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka and in Lhasa, the capital of the Chinese region of Tibet, according to Chinese state media.
Strong tremors lasting up to 20 seconds were felt 125 kilometres away in Guwahati, the capital of India's northeastern state of Assam, where nervous residents ran into the streets.
Cracks appeared in several buildings in the city but there was no serious damage, witnesses said.
Home to just over 600,000 people and wedged in remote hills and mountains between India and China, Bhutan held its first democratic elections for a new parliament and prime minister in March last year.
The country had no roads or currency until the 1960s and allowed television only in 1999. It also famously uses the principle of 'Gross National Happiness', and not common economic indicators, to measure national well-being.
Most of its largely Buddhist population live by subsistence farming, animal husbandry and forestry.
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