A Nepalese man in Whangarei says conditions will only get worse for people in Kathmandu and surrounding areas in the wake of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake.
Obi Khanal, an air quality officer with the Northland Regional Council, feels very lucky his family, and those of the four other Nepalese families inNorthland he knows, are safe and well. But with fuel and food running out, and no power or water, the next two weeks will be hugely difficult.
"The whole thing [Kathmandu] will be like a rubbish bin. People are living out in the open, under tarpaulins and tents, but soon the weather will start to have an effect, and there's no sanitation."
Mr Khanal is from a small village 400km west of Kathmandu, but lived in the city for 17 years and has family there. He has been in Northland for 11 years, and was last in Kathmandu in October.
As families mourn and farewell their dead, the conditions in the city will worsen, Mr Khanal said. Nepalese funerary rites include a mourning period of 13 days, before the body is burned on a pyre.
"On the news I can see these bodies burning, and especially as an air quality officer, I know it's just going to be adding to the pollution."
While a lot of attention has been focused on Kathmandu and Mt Everest and its base camp, Mr Khanal said the smaller villages in the hills would be really struggling.
"Those people are so isolated. The only way in to bring food and medicine will be by helicopter.
"The expectation of the Nepalese people is not much, because they don't have much. They will just want the aftershocks to stop and for family members who are injured to get better."
Mr Khanal thought it could easily be 30 years before Nepal was back to anything resembling its pre-earthquake state.
