KATHMANDU, April 30  -- Five days after Saturday's massive earthquake, millions of Nepalese people are still in desperate need of disaster relief as their country grapples with all sorts of huge challenges posed by the disaster.

The 7.9-magnitude earthquake, the Himalayan country's worst in eight decades, has so far claimed more than 5,000 lives and injured over 10,000 others. A total of 8 million people, more than a quarter of Nepal's population, were affected.

As time is running out for the rescue of survivors, the grieving Asian country finds itself faced with numerous obstacles on the tough road to disaster relief and recovery.

DIFFICULT ACCESS

The expiry of the 72-hour "golden period" means chances to find survivors have become slimmer, but domestic and international rescue teams did not give up.

Dozens of countries have sent rescue crews to the quake-stricken areas, including China, the United States, Britain, Russia, Germany and Israel.

But rescue efforts have been hampered by damaged roads, ineffective communication, power outage and landslides, which block roads and bridges leading to rural areas that are close to the epicenter.

Air transit has also been impeded, making it hard for rescue workers to land and aid materials to be delivered.

Frequent closures of Kathmandu's main airport amid aftershocks had prevented international aid from landing. And rescue helicopters have been unable to land in some remote mountainous areas.

It took almost three days for Xinhua reporters to finally arrive at Gorkha, some 70 km from Nepal's capital. And the town was in rubble and debris as hundreds of houses crumbled into pieces.

On the same day, another group of Xinhua reporters made to Sindhupalchok, a badly stricken county in the northeastern part of Nepal, via roads that used to be wide and neatly paved but have now became inaccessible to most vehicles, except for motorcycles.

Rocks of different sizes kept falling on the roads from the hills, imposing great threats to travellers.

Children who have survived the catastrophe, sitting on crumbling heaps of rubble that once were their home, stared blankly into the distance, wondering what life had in store for them after all this.

SHORT SUPPLIES

Difficult access has not only hindered rescue operations, but also delayed the delivery of disaster relief supply, making shortages of basic necessities acute.

The United Nations estimates that at least 2 million people will be in need of tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months.

Even though a number of countries and organizations have pledged aid for Nepal, less than half of the aid has been delivered as of Wednesday, worth about 22 million U.S. dollars, according to statistics from the United Nations.

About 200 people have reportedly protested outside the parliament building, demanding buses ferry them to their villages and to speed up the distribution of aid.

The lack of medical support would especially impact pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, putting them at a greater risk of complications and deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth, said Colin Rogers, head of emergencies for CARE International UK, a humanitarian agency in Britain.

In order to cope with the dire situation in Nepal, several international medical teams have been dispatched to the quake-stricken areas.

Pakistan mobilized four airplanes to carry a temporal hospital of 30 beds to Kathmandu, including surgeons, experts, medical supplies, tents and blankets.

Britain chartered a plane to send search and rescue experts, medical personnel as well four sniffer dogs to Nepal, along with 11 tonnes of rescue equipment.

Russia, Canada, Italy, Singapore and Germany, among many other countries, also dispatched medical experts and rescue teams to the Himalayan country.

China's international search and rescue team also played an important role in the international rescue mission in Nepal. They worked for 34 hours without break and on Tuesday successfully recovered one man who had been trapped in rubble for about 62 hours.

People at the scene cheered excitedly and gave a round of applause as the rescued man was lifted onto a stretcher.

RISKS OF EPIDEMIC OUTBREAKS

Shortages of relief materials have generated anger and fear among some earthquake victims and could hamper efforts to control the outbreak of epidemics.

The United Nations had warned in a report earlier this week that diarrhea was already a growing problem and a measles outbreak was feared due to a shortage of vaccines.

Villagers in Khokana in Lalitpur district near the capital were already suffering from an outbreak of diarrhea, Nepal state news agency RSS reported.

As thousands of homeless people are forced to live outdoors, their health situation has been a concern to authorities and relief organizations due to a lack of safe drinking water, food and sanitary facilities.

In addition, the dead bodies buried under the ruins could be another possible source of epidemics, making the rescue and clean-up efforts more pressing.

"BUILDING BACK"

Post-disaster construction would be rather challenging for the impoverished Asian country following a disaster of this size and geographic reach.

Nepal's Home Ministry said 134,864 houses were destroyed and another 92,971 homes damaged across the country. This includes some of Nepal's most valuable historic buildings, such as the partially collapsed Hanuman Dhoka Palace at the Durbar Square of Kathmandu.

A Nepalese officer told Xinhua that early estimates showed that the Himalayan country would lose about 30 to 40 percent of its gross domestic production (GDP) due to the powerful earthquake, while pessimistic analysts believed that one year of Nepal's GDP was reduced into rubble and ashes.

Martin Sajdik, president of the UN Economic and Social Council, said that Nepal was not able to come back to its feet by itself, stressing that rebuilding of the country requires assistance from the international community.

"Nepal is a country that will continue to be at high risk from natural disasters and we must look to mitigate future disasters in our response by building back safer," Rogers said.

This involves building houses with improved capacity to survive hazards, and working with the community to improve their ability to respond to and recover from shocks themselves, the humanitarian aid expert said.