Amid media reports of senior UN officials threatening to pull the World Food Programme out of Nepal, the UN food agency has said it will stay by the side of Nepalis, “working hand in hand with the government” to support the ongoing recovery efforts.
The WFP Emergency Coordinator for Nepal, Richard Ragan, and the Chief District Officer of Gorkha, Uddhav Prasad Timilchina, visited Laprak following complaints that some of the rice to be distributed to earthquake survivors was damaged. Ragan and Timilchina saw that 120 bags of rice, out of a total 485 bags that had been delivered to Laprak on Tuesday, contained damaged rice.
The 120 bags were set aside by WFP’s local partner, the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) before any distribution, while the remaining 365 bags of undamaged rice had been distributed to the villagers. “We have launched an immediate investigation into why a quarter of the rice was unfit for distribution,” said Ragan.
“There are three possibilities: the rice could have been received damaged from the supplier, the damage could have happened during warehousing in high temperatures, or, finally, during transportation.
The answer will be made public as soon as we find out what happened. It is also important to note that none of the damaged rice was distributed and will be immediately replaced,” he said. WFP takes the quality of the food it distributes very seriously, and thoroughly investigates any complaints.
Complaints can be lodged at the following hotline numbers: 9855 092 192 (Nepal Telecom) or 9801 083 600 .
