Nepal's first Humanitarian Staging Area (HSA) was inaugurated today at the Tribhuvan International Airport here which is aimed at mitigating natural disasters like major earthquakes.
HSA is developed by United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in collaboration with Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and humanitarian partners. Department for International Development (DFID) has supported the construction of HSA.
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bamdev Gautam and WFP Nepal country director Pippa Bradford jointly inaugurated the HSA which is capable of supplying food and other essential materials to 2,50,000 people for one month during major disasters.
Gautam said that Nepal does not have necessary preparedness and infrastructure to deal with major earthquake and the new facility can play a key role in mitigating such disasters.
The government will construct such facilities in different parts of the country to deal with emergency situation coming out of major natural disasters, which can arise at any time, he added.
Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs Surya Prasad Silwal has called international donor agencies to provide assistance for constructing such facilities in various parts of the country.
DFID has provided 2 million Euro for establishing humanitarian facilities in Kathmandu and other major parts of the country.
The facility will act as major hub for airlifted and overland humanitarian assistance entering Kathmandu valley in case of an emergency.
HSA is the first of the four planned staging areas in Kathmandu. The other three are planned at Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC), Tribhuvan University (TU) and Bhaktapur.
Kathmandu lies in one of the five most earthquake prone zones in Asia and a major earth quake like the one which happened here in 1938 could destroy 60 per cent of the structures leaving more than one million people homeless, according to experts.
