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The death toll from the flooding in Nepal has reached more than 600 ahead of a team arriving from the UK to provide support.
669 people have been confirmed dead, while almost 2,500 people are missing, Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said on Saturday.
Simon Marks discusses the topic and looks at to what aid is being brought into the impacted areas.
00:49 | Simon's joined by Hemanshu Kafle, co-founder of GeoSutra, a geomapping company in Nepal - who've been using their drones to deliver aid.
04:52 | Simon contemplates on international effort, highlighting Trump's 'staggering' contributions.
Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp
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0:00
The UK, with our puny now international assistance budgets
0:05
can devote £5 million to the Nepali search and rescue effort. And the Americans have contributed so far only $500,000
0:14
when they've got three times as many missing nationals in the tragedy as we have
0:21
Never mind all of the Nepalis and the Chinese and the Indians missing
0:25
It's just staggering. Nepal's foreign minister is appealing for international support, saying billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild
0:35
But aid is also urgently needed in the search and rescue operation, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged £5 million
0:42
For that effort, there are at least 33 British citizens missing, including a 12-year-old girl
0:49
I am joined this afternoon by Hamanshu Kaflay, co-founder of GeoSutra, a geomapping company in Nepal
0:58
They have been using drones to deliver aid. And Mr Kaflay joins me this evening from Kathmandu
1:05
Mr Kaflay, thank you very much indeed for being with us on the programme. What is the situation there tonight
1:11
I gather that there were warnings being issued to people about a possible second flood
1:18
Thank you, Simon. Yes, as you all have been updated, the flood went through an area of 240
1:25
kilometers all across Nepal. So the devastation is quite intense. And there's still a higher risk
1:32
right now because two more lakes have been formed at the top. And there's still a chance of the lake
1:38
breaching. So that is still the current danger all of us are in. The government has been putting
1:43
out notice along with the Chinese government. They have been trying to assess the situation
1:47
and keep us more posted. We been talking to lots of people in this country on LBC who are trying to trace missing loved ones in the region that was hit by these floods and they obviously hearing nothing and I think in some cases they are
2:07
increasingly pessimistic about the outcome. How significant is the operation to try and search
2:16
and rescue people because, you know, there's an enormous amount of ground that has to be covered
2:21
by rescuers. And with every passing hour, hope, unfortunately, must be beginning to fade
2:29
That is true. In the tunnels up in the river, the main objective right now is to rescue people
2:36
within it. The government has been trying. And so far in the situation, what we can see in Nua
2:42
The court is the government has used all forces that it can, as well as civil society and other groups of members, as well as the international community
2:50
Everyone is there. Everyone is trying to give on their behalf. But yes, some situations, some difficulties have been occurring, like the army is pretty stretched out on rescue missions as well
3:00
So they have not been able to deliver aid as much. So civil society organizations are taking in the charge
3:06
We've been using high payload delivery drones to provide aid to the other side of the river
3:12
I myself use my drone to find dead bodies within the river as well
3:16
as well as to try to contact the people from the other side, get a head count and assess the situation
3:22
And tell me more about that drone effort. In practical terms, what does that look like
3:28
Is that a widespread effort? No, so currently we only have one drone that is 100 kilo capacity in Nuangkut
3:35
And the problem is there's a lot of villages right across the river
3:40
that have no access to the other side because all of the bridges are gone
3:44
And to reach that area, you have to take a roundabout of almost eight hours through rough terrain So it is very difficult within by using a drone drone it a one flight right across the river So we been trying to use drones to send aid to the other side
4:00
But imagine what could be done if there were hundreds more of them
4:05
Yeah, that is the problem we have been running into. There aren't a lot of high-delivery drones in Nepal
4:11
We have been trying to get drones from India as well, as well as trying to seek out from the international community
4:17
I hope from this interview as well, we try to find more drones in Nepal and we can make sure that the aid is more dispersed easier because the army and the armed police forces are busy in rescue missions
4:30
So, you know, the civil society has to step up and we have been trying to seek drones for this reason
4:37
Hamanchu Kafle, I'm enormously grateful to you for being with us this afternoon from Kathmandu, the co-founder of GeoSutra, a geo-mapping company in Nepal
4:46
And as you heard there, they've been using drones to deliver aid
4:51
I want to take just a few moments to talk about the response to this Nepali tragedy on an international level
4:58
I was telling you that Andy Burnham has pledged £5 million to the search and rescue effort, 33 missing British citizens in Nepal
5:07
By contrast, President Donald Trump in the United States has contributed just half a million dollars in aid to Nepal
5:17
even though at least 90 American citizens are missing. And I think it speaks volumes about the extent to which President Trump continues to embrace a profound degree of isolationism in US foreign policy
5:31
I mean, yeah, he's more than happy to take military action against Venezuela, to seize the country's oil, to fight a futile war in Iran from which he can find no exit
5:42
But when you realise that the UK with our puny now international assistance budgets can devote million to the Nepali search and rescue effort And the Americans have contributed so far only
5:58
when they've got three times as many missing nationals in the tragedy as we have
6:05
Never mind all of the Nepalis and the Chinese and the Indians missing
6:08
is just staggering. the extent to which the United States no longer even aspires to be a world leader when it comes
6:18
to disaster response I think has never been more obviously on display and the more you look at those
6:24
videos of what happened in Nepal the collapse of a glacier up on the border with Tibet a wall of
6:31
water without any warning sweeping people away they had no chance most of them of escaping it
6:36
the images of people who have been rescued from the mud aboard earth movers that carry them to safety
6:43
It is an absolutely extraordinary moment that this is happening after the American president
6:50
has closed the US Agency for International Development, shredded aid budgets, defunded programs, including several in Nepal
7:00
But right now, in that Nepali mud, there are American citizens, Many of them were on a pilgrimage to a sacred site in Tibet
7:09
Their families back in the United States must now come to terms with a White House that can't find more than half a million dollars to help in rescue and recovery efforts that could find their loved ones
7:26
$500,000 at a time when the US president's personal wealth has risen by more than $2.2
7:36
billion since he returned to office 19 months ago. It's an extraordinary thing for us to all contemplate
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