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 Disposal of the hundreds of bodies still being found six days
after the 7.9 magnitude quake devastated the Himalayan nation of 28
million people was becoming a problem for officials, who have
ordered immediate cremations.
"Morgues are full beyond capacity and we have been given instruction
to incinerate bodies immediately after they are pulled out," said
Raman Lal, an Indian paramilitary force official working in
coordination with Nepali forces.
Aid was slowly beginning to reach remote towns and villages nestled
in the mountains and foothills but the overpowering smell of bodies
trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings in the capital was
making it hard for residents to return to their homes.
Many Nepalis have been sleeping in the open since Saturday's quake.
According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed
or damaged.
Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said Nepal would need at least $2
billion to rebuild homes, hospitals, government offices and historic
buildings and appealed for help from international donors.
"This is just an initial estimate and it will take time to assess
the extent of damage and calculate the cost of rebuilding," Mahat
told Reuters.
 The United Nations has said 8 million people had been affected, with
at least 2 million in need of tents, water, food and medicines over
the next three months.
A home ministry official said the death toll had risen to 6,204,
with 13,924 injured.
Information Minister Minendra Rijal said the government would
provide $1,000 in immediate assistance to the families of those
killed, as well as $400 for cremation or burial.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters earlier this week the
death toll from the quake could reach 10,000.
That would surpass the 8,500 who died in a 1934 earthquake, the last
disaster on this scale to hit the Himalayan nation sandwiched
between India and China.
UNPRECEDENTED SCALE
Home ministry official Laxmi Prasad Dhakal said that, even though
the 1934 quake was more powerful, there were fewer people living in
the Kathmandu valley then.
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"The scale of reconstruction will be unprecedented," Dhakal said.
"We have still not even been able to assess the damage in remote
areas, which have been completely devastated."Officials have said
the chances of finding any more survivors were fading, even though a
boy and a woman had on Thursday been pulled from the rubble where
they had lain trapped for five days.
As rescuers slowly started reaching outlying areas, witnesses
reported seeing 70 to 80 percent of buildings severely damaged in
Chautara, northeast of Kathmandu towards the border with China's
Tibet.
Anger over the pace of the rescue has flared in some areas, with
Nepalis accusing the government of being too slow to distribute
international aid that has flooded into the country.
It has yet to reach many in need, particularly in areas hard to
reach given the quake damage, poor weather and aftershocks.Tensions
between foreigners and Nepalis desperate to be evacuated have also
surfaced. In Ashrang village in Gorkha, one of the worst-hit
districts about four hours by road west of Kathmandu, hundreds of
villagers were living outdoors with little food and water even as
boxes of biscuits, juice and sacks of rice and wheat were stored in
a nearby government office.Nepal is also appealing to foreign
governments for more helicopters help the 20 at work in rescue
operations. China was expected to send more, home ministry official
Dhakal said.
In the Himalayas, climbing is set to reopen on Mount Everest next
week after damage caused by avalanches triggered by the quake is
repaired, although many have abandoned their ascents.
A massive avalanche killed 18 climbers and sherpa mountain guides at
the Everest base camp.
(Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill, Sanjeev Miglani, Ross
Adkin, Frank Jack Daniel, Andrew Marshall, Adnan Abidi and
Christophe Van Der Perre in Nepal; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by
Alex Richardson)
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