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On April 25, Nepal was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 8,000 people and injured tens of thousands of others. The earthquake leveled thousands of buildings around the Kathmandu Valley, including several UNESCO World Heritage sites. It also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest that left eighteen people dead. Nepal is one of the world’s poorest nations and the international community has pledged to assist it in reconstructing buildings and providing humanitarian assistance to its population. However, the nation’s political difficulties may inhibit future relief efforts as a notoriously corrupt bureaucracy has thus far failed to remedy the problems that Nepali citizens are facing.
This topic brief will focus on the scope of the Nepali earthquake and its aftershocks, describe the international assistance that is being provided to Nepal, and discuss the challenges that Nepal will face in the coming months as a result of the earthquake. It is hoped that this topic brief can give extempers a good grounding in this unfortunate international disaster, which could significantly factor into the NSDA International Extemp topic area on “Crises and Natural Disasters.”
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