The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun food distributions to 180,000 people in response to the Nepal floods.

A press statement issued by the WFP read that the humanitarian organisation has begun distributing two-week rations of rice and yellow split peas to people in Saptari, Bardiya, Banke and Rautahat districts, in coordination with local authorities. An additional 40,000 displaced people in areas of Rautahat where the local markets have been restored, will receive cash to help them buy food.

Likewise, WFP, along with the Nepal Government, will be providing 200 metric ton of fortified food to 19,500 pregnant women and nursing mothers and about 27,700 children aged between 6 to 23 months, across 13 flood affected districts of the Terai.

According to the latest report, almost half a million people in impacted areas are currently food insecure and 300,000 people have very little access to food and are urgently in need of food assistance, read a statement issued by WFP on Friday.

“Many people whose homes have been washed away were extremely poor already, living in rudimentary shelters and struggling to make ends meet. Families that have lost food stocks have nothing to fall back on,” said WFP Representative and Country Director Pippa Bradford. “WFP is working around the clock to provide food to the poorest to ensure that they have enough to eat,” she further added.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) indicates that over 80 percent of land in the Terai has been inundated. People living in these areas have lost their homes, food stocks, livestock and crops. It is expected that the floods will impact the rice and wheat harvests in this area, which is the ‘bread basket’ of Nepal, thus resulting in food shortages in the coming months.