Landslides, airport restrictions, and bureaucracy are continuing to add to the logistical challenges of delivering relief supplies to earthquake-stricken Nepal ahead of next month’s monsoon season, although aid agencies and their logistics and express partners say they are making progress.
The United Nations’ lead agency for all UN aid activities, the World Food Programme (WFP), said today that it had been able to deliver life-saving food aid to more than 1.1 million people, but said it was “racing against the clock” to reach survivors before the monsoon season starts. Agencies estimate around 8 million people have been affected by the 7.8 magnitude and 7.3 magnitude earthquakes that struck the Himalayan nation on 27 April and 12 May, including more than 8,500 fatalities.
Those involved in the logistics efforts said that further tremors and aftershocks had continued since 12 May, leading to further landsides and blocked roads. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said: “Landslides and rains are expected to aggravate the condition of roads, adding to the logistical challenges.” It highlighted Dolakha as among the districts most affected by the 12 May quake, with its immediate priorities being for shelter and food.
But despite this – and the race against time to get shelter and food to those in need ahead of the June monsoon season – logistics specialists on the ground in Nepal have reported that bureaucracy is adding to the already significant geographical and logistics challenges, for example, preventing the free movement of relief cargo into Nepal from India by road, while access by aircraft flying aid into Kathmandu airport remains restricted.
Political tensions between the various global and regional powers and a “paper-chase” to get landing permits for chartered freighters at Kathmandu airport has been a problem since the first earthquake, but those trying to truck relief shipments into the country before the monsoon season slows down transit times have reported that bureaucracy is proving the biggest obstacle.
Logistics sources said that under non-emergency conditions, cargo for Nepal is generally imported into Delhi and then moves to Calcutta, from where it is sent to Ruxol/Birganj in Nepal, while from Bangladesh it is moved via Petrapole/Benapole. The distance by road from Calcutta to Kathmandu in Nepal is approximately 900 km and takes about four days on the road – the transit time is so long because the terrain is mountainous, congestion slows operations down, and no truck movements are allowed at night.
Amit Dawar, Director for Value Added Services at DHL Global Forwarding, told Lloyd’s Loading List.com that before the 25 April quake, every commercial shipment moving into Nepal needed a Letter of Credit (LC), while for Aid and Relief material, the consignee in Nepal had to approach the Nepal government for a certificate for duty exemption.
“Based on these documents, an application is made to the Nepal consulate in Calcutta for issuance of a recommendation letter to Indian customs,” he said. “After receipt of this letter, Indian customs will allow the transhipment to Nepal and the Nepal customs will also clear the goods. The total time taken for this procedure is 15 working days, which includes the road transport time.”
However, procedures were loosened immediately after the earthquake. “For about 7-10 days immediately after the earthquake, the movement of goods for Aid and Relief was allowed speedily without any formalities to be done with the Nepal government or the transhipment formalities at the border,” he explained. “Hence goods were able to move very quickly – that is, basically it took 4-5 days transportation time from Calcutta to Nepal to cover the 900 km distance.”
But bureaucratic procedures have now again been tightened with pre-quake rules now in place even for Aid and Relief, a position taken by the Nepali government on the basis that the situation had stabilised. “Nepal being a landlocked country, unscrupulous elements could take advantage if free movement of goods is continued to be permitted,” said Dawar. “If duty is exempted, then these trucks are not checked at the border.
“[But] to make it easier, the Nepal government could draw up a list of legitimate NGOs registered with them. If the goods are routed through these established NGOs, who become the consignees, then the duty could be exempted and the processing time from the Nepal government and their consulate in India can be reduced to seven days.”
DHL is continuing to play a leading role in the relief effort’s air logistics operations, with the company’s Disaster Response Team (DRT) handling cargo alongside the US Air Force at Tribhuvan Kathmandu International Airport since 27 April. It has so far handled and moved more than 2,000 tonnes of aid for onward trucking to a nearby UN staging centre.
But other express and logistics firms have also contributed to the efforts. UPS today told CEP-Research that the UPS Foundation had expanded its aid contribution, “in response and recovery, to approximately US$800,000 to partner organizations CARE, WFP, UNHCR as their needs assessments continue”. It said UPS had worked to coordinate relief shipments with partner agencies both with the initial earthquake and after the second quake this month.
It said examples of UPS-coordinated relief activities included: on 12 May, a UPS-funded UNHCR flight landed carrying 36 tonnes of plastic sheeting used for temporary housing structures; on 11 May, a UNICEF charter flight that landed in Kathmandu carrying 36 tonnes of health and water kits along with early child development supplies; and on 10 May, a consolidated relief charter out of Dubai International Humanitarian City (IHC) landed in Kathmandu carrying 36 tonnes of supplies including tents, health kits, wheelchairs, plastic sheeting and oral hydration salt for The UN Refugees Agency (UNHCR), World Health Organization (WHO) and Handicap International (under UNHRD).
Moreover, the company said UPS funds were also supporting commercial transport for The Salvation Army to get 1,000 tents and mosquito nets from Pakistan to Nepal; UPS coordinated a relief shipment containing donated medical supplies from UPS customer Henry Schein from the US to Nepal in support of the World Health Organization and International Medical Corp; and other relief efforts include positioning basic medical supplies from Medshare’s Decatur, GA facility to their San Leandro, CA facility for further staging to be sent to medical relief teams traveling to the Nepal area over the next 2-3 weeks.
UPS said it was also working to deploy a Japan-based distribution centre manager to participate in the United Nations Logistics Cluster, led by its partners at the World Food Programme (WFP), which had been activated for relief support.
Meanwhile FedEx, after pledging $1 million in aid on 1 May – in cash, transport support and a chartered flight to deliver critical medical aid and supplies to Nepal – has increased its commitment to a second pro-bono aid flight.
FedEx said its three main humanitarian aid partners, Direct Relief, Heart to Heart International, and Water Missions, had “jointly gathered enough relief supplies to fill two wide-body airplanes”, with FedEx and the relief teams “working through a flurry of last-minute logistics” to gather freight in two locations: Memphis and Dubai. The first flight took place on 8 May, with the second due to take place last week, although at the time of writing it was unclear whether this had been successfully completed.
FedEx said that between the two charter flights, the supplies would positively impact thousands of lives.
