Nepal will receive $20 million from the United Nations fund to compensate for losses and damage caused by climate change. The financial assistance is intended to deal with the consequences of devastating floods in August along the border with China's Tibet Autonomous Region, the Nepalese government announced late last night, quoted by Reuters, reports BTA.
The floods on August 26 have claimed the lives of about 1,500 people, and over 5,000 are still missing.
According to official figures, the disaster has affected approximately 60,000 people from 15,000 families. Damage to infrastructure is estimated at about $2.7 billion. Among the affected facilities are roads, bridges, schools and 13 hydroelectric power plants.
Initial official estimates indicate that the necessary funds for recovery could exceed $4.7 billion. The UN aid covers less than 1% of the amount needed by Nepal to overcome the consequences of the floods.
The support from the Loss and Damage Response Fund is intended to "help address the serious damage caused by the climate change-related disaster," Nepal's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment said in a statement.
The country requested the funding in a letter to the fund in August, less than a week after the floods.
In September, in his first speech to the UN General Assembly, 36-year-old Prime Minister Balendra Shah called the disaster in Nepal a warning to the world. He blamed climate change for the floods, even though the country is a small contributor to global emissions.