AFP, GORKHA, Nepal:For the villagers of Sirdibas in Nepal, one of hundreds of isolated mountain communities dotting the vast Himalayan region, a trip to the nearest market meant a difficult three-day journey by donkey even before the recent 7.8-magnitude earthquake. Since the quake struck on April 25, however, flattening villages and killing more than 8,700 people, that rudimentary trail has been cut off, and the monsoon rains mean it cannot be repaired for months.
Almost every house in Sirdibas, in the worst-hit district of Gorkha west of the capital Kathmandu, was damaged by the quake -- a story echoed in countless communities across Nepal, where at least half a million homes were destroyed. But villagers say getting supplies is the biggest battle -- a worry that becomes even more pressing as the monsoon nears. We don't have access to market, we can't buy anything and we need rice and cooking oil, said 60-year-old Lani Gurung, one of around 100 villagers who gathered to speak to the local United Nations coordinator Susan Robertson on a recent visit. Many villages in Gorkha in the foothills of the Himalayas were inaccessible by road even before the quake. They are now even more cut off, forced to rely on helicopter deliveries for basic supplies. The UN estimates that 2.8 million people are in need of assistance after the quake, and more than 800,000 of those are in hard-to-reach areas. It has warned that access problems will worsen significantly in the coming weeks as the monsoon rains begin.