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Many struggle to find medical help as hospitals and health centers were destroyed as a result of the earthquake.
The survivors of the latest earthquake in Nepal are facing threats of widespread diseases due to lack of clean water and toilets, World Health Organization officials said Friday.
“After an earthquake of this magnitude, the water supply is often damaged and contaminated, increasing the risk that people drinking it could develop diarrhoeal diseases,” said Dr. Lin Aung, the WHO’s Representative to Nepal. “The crowded living conditions in temporary shelters increase the chance that these types of diseases could spread.”
Officials from the Nepalese army said that in rural areas many hospitals and heath centers had been destroyed and that the government was sending mobile medical assistance.
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"The water is thick and smelly, but we have to drink it," Kalpana Tamang, a Dukuchap village resident, told Al-Jazeera.
The WHO said that it had dispatched further resources to Nepal, including medicine and medical equipment to prevent the possible spread of diseases among the populations affected by Saturday's devastating earthquake.
The WHO also added that more than 2.3 million people have been displaced following the quake either because their homes were destroyed or because they fear returning to their homes in the event of aftershocks. Many of those displaced now live under difficult conditions in 16 makeshift camps in the capital Kathmandu.
According to the latest reports, the death toll from Saturday's earthquake has reached more than 6,200 people, while more than 14,000 were reportedly injured and thousands more still missing.
The government said that it will give about a US$1,000 in compensation for every family that was affected.
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