Nepal Flood Camps Face Sanitation, Menstrual Hygiene Crisis

Scores of women queued at a school sheltering Nepal flood victims, jostling to receive personal-care supplies, as concerns over sanitation and menstrual hygiene mount days after the catastrophic disaster. 

Thousands of people displaced by Wednesday's flash floods are living in temporary relief camps, their homes either washed away by rivers or buried under silt and mud.

While authorities and aid groups have ensured that they have a roof over their heads and food to eat, many women at a school camp in Nuwakot



district said they have had to contend with inadequate toilet facilities and unsanitary conditions.

"There are privacy as well as sanitation concerns," said Anju Bhujel, 40, who has been living at the camp with her two young children after the family home was swept away. 

She said there are just three toilets for more than 400 people. None of the toilet facilities have access to tap water. A volunteer said authorities were in the process of connecting them to a pipeline. Menstrual hygiene is a particularly pressing concern.