The World Food Programme (WFP) said Tuesday it will try to get emergency food aid to 1.4 million people in Nepal over the next three months following the country`s devastating earthquake.
The UN agency, which put the total number affected by the quake at eight million, said its first aid trucks had on Tuesday reached the district of Gorkha, one of the areas worst hit, and that the first distribution of rice would take place on Wednesday, using stocks that WFP already had in the Himalayan state.
Staff said trucks trying to reach survivors were struggling due to landslides and poor roads.
A helicopter is being sent to the area to transport food onwards to more remote villages that are inaccessible by road.
Emergency food supplies, including high-energy biscuits, are due to be brought in by air from Bangladesh and Dubai in the next days.
A plane from the WFP-managed UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Malaysia arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday carrying field hospitals, medical supplies and aid workers.
"Despite their own personal tragedies and difficult working conditions, our Nepali staff and their international colleagues are working flat out to help those in need of humanitarian assistance," said Pippa Bradford, WFP`s country director and representative in Nepal.
"Time is of the essence to get food to those who urgently needed it."
WFP is also providing logistics, telecommunications and air transport support for the entire aid operation in Nepal and said this role would cost it $34 million over the next three months. The emergency food aid was budgeted at $116.5 million.
The organisation hopes to have two helicopters operational in the coming days to transport humanitarian cargo and aid workers to the worst-affected areas.
Initial estimates from WFP`s assessment teams -- working with satellite imagery and existing data -- indicate that around 1.4 million people in priority areas urgently need food assistance.
Five teams are now conducting field assessments in 11 districts to verify these findings.
The Rome-based organisation has launched an appeal for funds with donations possible at www.wfp.org/nepal.
