MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Gallus
Australia will contribute $100,000 to help the victims of the recent devastating floods and landslides in Nepal.
The funds, in addition to $100,000 announced earlier this week for India's flood victims, will go to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Nepal Appeal.
Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Chris Gallus, says that like the India IFRC appeal, the Nepal relief effort aims to provide immediate assistance to up to 20,000 people.
Family kits of food, clean water and building materials are urgently needed.
Mrs Gallus said an estimated 100 people had died in Nepal over the past two days as a result of rains, floods and landslides.
'On Thursday, police and soldiers pulled 41 bodies from the rubble of a Nepalese village that was destroyed by a landslide,' she said.
'In a separate incident, one person was killed and 44 others are feared to have died when a bus plunged into a river after a landslide'.
Before the events of the past two days, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies put the death toll at 422.
Mrs Gallus said that Red Cross had expressed a 'growing concern' for flood and landslide victims in Nepal as heavy monsoon rains extended westwards across the country.
'Almost 260,000 people have been badly affected by the floods and as many as 32,000 people have been left homeless,' she said.
Roads and highways have also been damaged in different parts of the country, and diseases such as encephalitis, typhoid and dysentery have been reported.
Media contact:
Craig Bildstien (Office of Mrs Gallus) 0407 604 437
Jo Elsom (AusAID) 02 6206 4960 / 0412 804 489