In camps, fear of disease

Some slept on the threshold of their houses and others on pavements, roads and dividers, as long as it was under the open sky.

Residents of Kathmandu city under fear and terror of serial tremors compeled to take shelter in open sky in a park on Sunday. (Express Photo By Perashant Ravi)

For families forced out of their homes, life in tents has brought another fear besides the aftershocks and the rumours of a “larger quake yet to come”. They are worried about their children falling ill.

The Gadhoke family of 14 has put up a white plastic tent in a large open space near Bir Public Hospital. “With our four children, we roamed around hungry until we found this space on Saturday evening,” says Deepak Gadhoke, 30. When rain lashed the tent Sunday night, the children huddled into the middle while the elders struggled to seal the openings.

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“We are worried about disease,” says Kamal Bahadur, Deepak’s brother. “We are worried for our children.” Outside the tent sits their father Kamal Bahadur, 53, cooking peas. “Hospitals are dirty; this area is vulnerable to disease,” he says.

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Sudarshan Daudel, 40, and his family of 18 have camped here since Saturday. “When it rained last night, we put blankets beneath our children to keep out the damp. Yet one child is down with fever.” “We have had just one meal in two days,” says his brother Deepak Khatri, 38.

Members of almost all families are out of the camp during the day, looking for whatever they can find. Cooking rice near Khatri is Nabaraj Dhungana, 36, with his family of seven including five children, the eldest 12. “We couldn’t put up a tent as it started raining, so we just pulled the plastic cover over us,” he says. “I’m worried for my children,” says his wife.

Thousands of cars lined the streets late Sunday night with families sleeping in them. Some slept on the threshold of their houses and others on pavements, roads and dividers, as long as it was under the open sky.

Cousins Soniya Tamang, 20, and Muna Tamang, 19, say most in their family slept on the ground as their car could accommodate only three at a time. Madhav Giri, 35, resting next to a Maruti 800, says, “We couldn’t sleep even inside the car, which kept shaking.”

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