It horrifies me that so many people have rebranded the devastating earthquake in Nepal as a Hollywood-style disaster movie.

Fairly soon after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck 10 days ago, the demands began for an instant aid response, and criticisms that food, water and shelter, as well as rescue helicopters, weren’t arriving that very minute to help the survivors soon hit the headlines.

Expectations of a swift and clean resolution to a real-life emergency are now the norm, thanks to the instant response nature of the internet coupled with the two-and-a-half hours max required by a Hollywood superhero to save the day, humanity or the Earth.

So it has now become standard to criticise response to any massive natural disaster as too slow.

Phrases such as “stranded with no prospect of helicopter rescue” are bandied about in media reports about foreign climbers on Everest, the choice of words implying criticism that they haven’t been rescued yet. Please don’t get me wrong – I have every sympathy for everyone affected by this dreadful natural disaster, especially the bereaved, those left homeless with little or no food and water, and relatives waiting to hear that their loved ones are safe.

I, too, would like help and resources to reach them as soon as possible – but it simply isn’t realistic.

Gographically Nepal is one of the most difficult areas to reach. Located in the Himalayas, the landlocked country contains eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Everest, and its capital Kathmandu, which bore the brunt of the earthquake, is surrounded by four mountains.

With this comes extreme weather that can easily hamper any rescue efforts, which is precisely what has happened since the quake happened, and add to that the fact that any rescue aeroplanes heading for Nepal must be capable of performing at high altitude.

In addition, many of the other local people affected live outside Kathmandu, in places so remote they’re almost unreachable, just like the base camps of Everest, where foreign climbers and their local guides have been trapped if they were lucky enough to survive the avalanches.

Astonishing amounts of money have been raised in this country – around £19million was donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee Nepal Earthquake Appeal in one day – and other countries, but that money does not translate into bottles of water arriving in Kathmandu a day later.

The Nepalese government has admitted that there have been “weaknesses” in its response, but what government can ever be permanently prepared for a disaster on this scale?

Nepal is not a rich country and is reliant on foreign help in the aftermath of the quake – and it’s more than 80 years since the last one struck.

Earthquakes happen roughly on a 75-year cycle in the region – ironically two weeks ago Kathmandu was hosting a seminar for 50 earthquake specialists to discuss how to be better prepared for the next one – and it tends to be falling buildings that kill people when one strikes.

In Nepal, where the population in the Kathmandu valley is growing at the rate of 6.5% every year, poverty dictates that buildings, both existing and new, are flimsy as planning regulations are not enforced – and its government tends to prioritise its citizens’ more immediate concerns, such as water quality, rather than a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence it cannot prevent.

On a far smaller scale, the unrealistic calls for response to this disaster reminds me of what happened in Brighton and Hove when snow fell over the past few winters.

Once the immediate delight that snow had fallen and settled had worn off and people began to struggle to get to work and to the shops, everyone demanded snowploughs appear to clear their road right now.

Councils came under fire both for failing to have sufficient snow ploughs available immediately and for spending hundreds of thousands of pounds to buy them, because, let’s face it, snow is relatively rare here.

This is not to minimise the scale of the disaster in Nepal.

It’s a reminder that humans are only human, even when equipped with the most advanced technology, and it’s inhuman to expect anyone to perform superhuman rescue operations in real-life situations. Everyone is doing their best to help.