Copyright: WFP

Overview
Nepal, with a population of 27 million people, is a food-deficit country struggling to recover from civil war. One of the poorest countries in South Asia, Nepal is also prone to frequent natural disasters, increasing the vulnerability of food insecurity for people across the country. Together with political unrest, this complicates the logistics efforts.

Team
The WFP Logistics team in Nepal consists of 4 international and 24 local staff.

Activities
Port Operations
Nepal is a landlocked country and hence there are no port operations. Food commodities enter the country by road from the port of Calcutta, India. While there is a railway line from Calcutta to the border, it is not being used.

Storage
In Nepalgunj in the far west, leased warehouses ensure storage capacity of 5000 mt. In 2008, establishment of contingency food stocks in Nepalgunj enabled WFP to respond within 48 hours to the Governments' request to provide food to 50,000 people effected by the major Koshi dam and flood disaster. In Kakarvitta, in the far east, there is a similar storage capacity of 5000 mt in leased warehouses. In Biratnagar, the seven refugee camps housing Bhutanese refugees, each have a rubhall providing a total storage capacity of 2000 mt.

Surface transport
There is no railway inside Nepal and overland transport is carried out by locally contracted trucks. In the absence of large transport companies, the transport of commodities is managed through agreements with local transport associations or cooperatives.

There have in the past been delays on transport due to damages on the east to west highway, and a rice-import ban from India. The highway has been repaired however, and WFP has a waiver for rice import from India.

In the Tarai region continuing political unrest is causing WFP to perform vehicle convoys to safely manage food transportation and deliveries through road blockades.

Air operations
WFP has also established an airlift program to deliver food to Humla, Mugu, Dolpa and Jumla districts. These districts are extreme food deficit area and cannot be accessed by other means. To carry out this air transport, WFP uses local air operators, but has also contracted two MI8 helicopters.  

Other WFP Logistics Services
WFP are assisting the Ministry of Health with helicopter transport of doctors to health camps in remote areas. Support in terms of seed transport has also been provided to FAO in the past.

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