Shelter, food priorities for Nepal after earthquake: UN

Six months after the April earthquake in Nepal, the priority is to provide shelter and food before the harsh winter begins, a UN humanitarian official said.

"While much has been achieved, the humanitarian community remains committed to meet remaining needs," Xinhua quoted Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Nepal as saying on Friday.

"We must ensure adequate shelter and food security, particularly for more than 80,000 families," McGoldrick said.

He said the humanitarian community was proud of the support it provided to the people of Nepal, but that present conditions were a concern.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), humanitarian partners, with the government of Nepal, provided emergency shelter to over 700,000 families, but the effect of the coming cold weather is a concern with many people still without permanent durable housing.

The April and May earthquakes left 8,891 people dead and destroyed more than 600,000 houses, OCHA estimated. During the height of the emergency, some 188,900 people were temporarily displaced.

Over the last six months, humanitarian partners provided food for over 1.4 million people, established temporary classrooms for 300,000 children and supported health authorities to restore all damaged health facilities by June.

More than 500,000 people received multi-purpose cash assistance, which helped them bridge the economic gap caused by devastated livelihoods.

"The humanitarian team is looking forward to the establishment of the national reconstruction authority," said McGoldrick.

"Once it becomes operational, we will see rapid expansion of reconstruction across the earthquake affected areas."