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To ensure never again
JAN 15 -
Memories of Jan 15, 1934 still haunt 83-year-old Krishna Man Dongol. Then, an eight-year-old boy Dongol escaped unscathed from the most devastating tremor (magnitude of 8.4 Richter scale) in the history of the country. Dongol is one of the few who witnessed, survived, and lived through the memories of 1934 quake that claimed lives of 8,519 people.
“I was out shepherding. All of a sudden, I see a cloud of dust shrouding the entire region. I could see nothing. The noise around me made me realise something bad had happened, but it took me a while to realise it was an earthquake,” remembers Dongol, a local resident of Khokana village located on the outskirts of Kathmandu Valley.
“Everything started shaking, people were screaming and houses started collapsing,” recalls Dongol about the incident. Dongol lost his mother, younger brother and sister in the disaster. His two-storied house was completely destroyed, compelling family members to live without food for days inside temporary tents build as a part of rehabilitation efforts.
Being an earthquake prone region and given the fact such high magnitude tremors recure every 80 to 85 years, Nepal’s preparedness of now does not nearly suffice what it requires in reality.
According to Thir Bahadur G.C, under secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, the government is primarily focused on providing compensations and rehabilitation to the affected communities after the disaster occurs.
“There is lack of programmes to prepare and mitige so that the affected local communities are able to cope with natural calamities which occur frequently in the country,” G.C. said.
A data provided by the Home Ministry states that although the direct damage caused by natural disasters — including earthquakes — accounts for Rs 1.2 billion annually, the government, through its Central Disaster Relief Committee, allocates a negigable Rs 50 million to awareness and mitigation efforts. In light of the damages, this is clearly not enough.
Different ministries are also involved in providing budgets to deal with the aftermath of disasters, such as floods and landslides, and these go beyond the allocated budget by the government,G.C. said. Last year, for instance, the government allocated around Rs 150 million as compensation for flood victims in the western tarai region of the country.
“We don’t really have to face a resource crunch during the disasters, but what we do need is a reform of the institutional mechanisms and legal framework to reduce the impacts of any disaster inside the country, instead of working after the disaster occurs,” GC emphasised.
Meanwhile, on Oct. 11, 2009, the government approved a National Strategy on Disaster Risk Management in Nepal, which deals with the mechanisms needed for preparedness, response, and recovery from any disaster.
GC said that the preparedness programmes would work towards providing safety measures and awareness to mitigate the impacts of the disaster. Likewise, response programmes are to be provided during the time of disaster, while recovery includes compensation and rehabilitation programmes for affected communities and infrastructures.
According to Amond Mani Dixit, executive director at the National Society for Earthquake Technology, Nepal, the indirect loss caused by any disaster is more than five times the direct loss calculated during the time.
“So, it is high time for all concerned stakeholders and the government to play a proactive role towards ensuring safety and mitigation to reduce peoples’ vulnerability to the disasters,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NSET in coordination with government and other donor agencies, is working for preparedness and mitigation mechanisms to deal with disasters across the country. NSET,with support from the United Nations Development Programme, has implemented the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Program (MDRIP) in 12 out of total 58 municipalities and is dealing with five major activities to improve the disaster safety.
Among the five major activities are Risk Management, Disaster Risk Reduction and Response Master Planning, Implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction Initiatives, Capacity Building, and Community Education and Awareness.
Likewise, the School Earthquake Safety Programme has already been implemented in around 100 schools across the country. It provides safety packages for students, teachers, and local communities to help secure them in the event of an earthquake. The safety package includes retrofitting of school buildings, reconstruction of earthquake resistant schools, providing trainings for local masons about technology that helps to build earthquake resistant houses in communities, and awareness about safety measures on earthquake. Programmes for the construction of earthquake resistant hospitals and settlements are also being implemented further, stated NSET officials.
A study conducted by the UNDP has ranked Nepal as the eleventh ‘Most at Risk’ country to earthquakes and the thirteenth for flood risk. Likewise, another study conducted by the World Bank in 2005 classifies Nepal as a ‘hot spot’ for geophysical and climate hazards.
“An increase in unmanaged settlements as a result of the increase in populations in the urban areas, particularly inside the Kathmandu Valley, is raising threats for potential earthquakes,” said Dixit. And this enormous potential for disaster can only be combatted with preparedness and not regret.
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