Foreign travellers caught in the disaster

A more pressing problem for many local people is the dwindling supply of food and potable water. Outbreaks of waterborne diseases are already being reported around the Kathmandu Valley, with health experts issuing warnings about the risk of epidemics due to the consumption of contaminated food and drink. The problems appear to be most acute in rural villages and in the shanty towns occupied by poor families in and around Kathmandu, where houses were simply not built robustly enough to withstand the force of the quake.

Foreign travellers caught in the disaster

Thousands of trekkers and tourists are still unaccounted for following the earthquake, and widespread damage to telephone and internet networks has left many families facing a long, worrying wait for news. Although reports are coming in from travellers who have been able to make contact with friends and relatives back home, the first reports of foreign casualties are also emerging, with deaths reported from South Africa, Australia, Britain, China, India, Estonia, America and Japan. The EU envoy to Nepal has reported that more than 1000 European citizens are still unaccounted for.