Fighting Disasters
Of Building Codes, Plans & Practices

By Tej Kumar Karki

PLANNING is always seasonal, occasional and a contingent event in Nepal. In the month of May and June, the planning for drinking water management reaches its peak and suddenly disappears with the start of the monsoon. The same is true for the hydropower planning. People never get organised for their local development until they are stuck either by water shortage or the sewer line blockage. As soon as the problem is over, they disappear and one has to wait for the next blockage to see them organised again.

In 1934, A.D. 16875 men died and 318,139 houses were destroyed by an earthquake in Nepal. This motivated the then government to mobilize the state for planning and rehabilitation. The new road areas were massively widened under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Juddha Shamsher.

The another earth quake in 1988 also claimed hundreds of lives and damaged properties. About 721 people died and 105, 099 houses were destroyed throughout the nation. This immediately urged the government to form an earthquake rehabilitation project with topmost priority. The donors started pouring money for planning and disaster mitigation. Millions of rupees were invested to the people for the reconstruction of their houses. Large number of technical personnel from the Ministry of Housing and Physical Planning were mobilized to erect the hundreds of schools damaged by the earthquake. Manuals and hand books were designed and published to show the low cost earthquake resistant construction techniques.

Seminars and workshops flooded the cities to discuss about the earthquake and its mitigation. Also advantages were grabbed to go abroad to receive training and studies in earthquake. A UNCHS project known as "building code" emerged in the Ministry of Housing and Physical Planning and many national and the international consultants took the advantage of it. However, with time, the momentum is over and all have started moving in the same usual manner, as if the earthquake threat is over for ever. This scenario will continue until the next earthquake hits the nation.

Similarly the floods of 1993 kicked off the water and flood related disaster mitigation projects. Many workshops seminars and studies overwhelmed the market. However, with time the momentum faded.

Experts say that an earthquake equivalent to that of 1934 is due in Nepal. If it occurs the damage will be the worst in the densely populated areas of Kathmandu Valley. Despite this, no body is very serious to think in terms of the earthquake safety. Narrow roads, lack of open spaces and building development without engineering details is a common phenomena in the valley.

People tend to encroach roads rather to contribute land for widening it. The narrow and twisting roads with unsafe and tall building development is creating a huge death trap in the valley from where no one can escape in the case of an earthquake. Many people might die due to the delayed rescue caused by the street blockage by the debris. Similarly, in the absence of public open spaces, rehabilitation will be extremely difficult.

A housing survey conducted in 1971 had revealed that nearly 70% of Kathmandu-Lalitpur housing stock was older than 30 years. Almost 65% of the households lived in brick houses with mud mortar in Kathmandu city core. One out of every four houses were in bad condition and, 72% of the housing units were structurally unsafe in ward 19. Most of the buildings were built in reinforced concrete without proper engineering design and supervision and feared to be the most vulnerable in the event of an earthquake similar to that of 1934.

A Kathmandu Valley earthquake Risk Management Project has estimated a huge casualty if an earthquake similar to the 1934 occurs in Nepal. According to the project, 40,000 people are likely to die and 95000 people will be seriously injured in the valley. The 60% of the valleys buildings will collapse and 900,000 people will be homeless. Most of the water supply system, electricity roads and bridges are going to be damaged.

It will take about one year to restore the water supply and the electricity system in the valley. By this we can well imagine the loss of private and public property. The theft and diseases are the other serious areas. The areas nearby the rivers are succeptible to the liquefaction of the soil at the time of the earthquake. Some of the hospitals are in such zones and are prone to damage. The hospitals can not cater to the estimated injured of 95000 and further damaging of the hospitals under liquefaction will further aggravate the situation.

Are we all prepared to think on minimizing the damage and casualties of a possible earthquake? Have we ever explored ways to minimize the national cost for mitigation and rehabilitation? However, our past records reveal that we start thinking only after a disaster. Without a disaster or an earthquake damage, it is difficult to convince the people and government about the importance of planning in advance.

Today people are seriously opposing to contribute their land for wider roads. The land pooling schemes in Balaju and Bagmati corridor are being seriously opposed by them. They utilize various political groups to fail the town planning projects. However, after an earthquake similar to 1934, all will agree to contribute land for making wider roads. The meaning and importance of town planning will be clear to every body. Substantial government and international resources will be diverted for the rehabilitation development. The national government, army and police all get mobilized. The government officials, technicians, and NGOs all get mobilized to work. There will be no need to demolish buildings and pay compensation for making wider roads since most of them would be already collapsed.

With this multi sectoral movement, participation and priority, a planned development of Kathmandu Valley could be anticipated. Every development needs a thrusts, national commitment, multisectoral support and war like seriousness. Absence of these conditions is the major cause why we fail in meeting the development objectives. In the nations like ours, such a condition can never be expected except in the case of a disasters such as earthquake.

Even in the developed countries like Japan and the UK, the urban development and planning is mainly influenced by the disasters and wars. The great fire of London motivated the planners to plan the city. Similarly, the earthquakes and the world war damage of more than hundred cities of Japan provided them an opportunity to plan their city in a spacious manner.

However, specially to a least developed nation like ours, prevention should be the major approach than the cure since it involves huge cost. Seriousness in early planning would minimize the casualties and cost of mitigation and thereby saves the national financial resources required for the far and remote area development. Massive awareness campaign, land use planning, building by laws enforcement, widening of roads and preservation of public land is very essential. Debris clearing equipment, fire brigades, water supply alternatives should be located at the strategic places to ensure swift relief. Mitigation plans, strategies of relief operation and safety approach of city planning should be emphasized.

Many plans and strategic documents have already been drawn for the planned development of Kathmandu Valley. The title of the latest study is "Regulating Growth: Kathmandu Valley" prepared by NPC/IUCN in 1994. However, these studies receive the least priority. It is said that dozen of studies have been prepared for Kathmandu Valley. It is true but due to lack of governments commitment it never gets a chance to be implemented. It is not the fault of the studying agency but the negligence of the government to implement it. Are we all are waiting for the next disaster to implement the plans?

Pain Of Learning Maths

By Rishi Ram Paudyal

IF YOU ask students of grade nine and ten, (especially of private schools) which subjects they thought were most difficult to study, the majority of them would probably answer ‘Maths’ before they pronounce other subjects.

What is the reason behind maths beings so difficult for the students? Is the subject itself so hard to understand or are the teachers not trained enough to teach the subject properly? Or the students do not have aptitude for maths?

Whatever the reasons, it seems, at least, there is something fishy going on in teaching maths. Let’s study this problem.

A student studies maths the whole academic year and sits for the final exam. He or she waits for the results anxiously but when the results are out, the student finds that the symbol number is missing. Utterly disappointed the student waits to get the mark-sheet and he wonders what marks he has obtained. After a week or two the student goes to school and asks for his/her result sheet. As he/she runs his/her eyes through the paper, to his/her the dismay, her/he discovers student zero mark in maths.

How does it happen? Has the teacher taught the student throughout the year only how to get zero mark in the exam? Or the student himself was so stupid that he/she couldn’t learn anything in maths and gets zero in the exam every time.

Before a student reaches grade nine, he spends eight years in a government school and eleven or twelve years in a private (boarding) school. If he has spent so many years studying maths in each class, how can his/her knowledge on maths be zero? Could it be possible that the more years student studies maths, the more he/she forgets and obtains zero in the exam. If so what is the students going to get in the next annual exam? Obviously, she he should get below zero. But how will the maths teacher mark his answer sheet? Now he/she will have to be genius enough to invent numbers below zero. Will it be possible for a teacher who can’t teach anything to the student a whole year to invent number below zero? But it will be impossible.

When a student fails his/her maths exam only getting zero mark, he/she is forced to go through many physical and mental tortures. The most awful torture for him her is to attend tuition classes from the same teacher who was unable to teach he/she the whole year. This happens mostly in a private boarding school. In a government school the failed student may have a choice as to whether to join a tuition class or not and whether to study from the same teacher or not. In a private school, the failed student becomes helpless, as the institution enforces the school rule which demands compulsory attendance in the tuition classes. No doubt private schools love to run coaching classes as they know it is the easiest and the shortest way to earn money. Since they seem to be purely business oriented institution, why would they bother to care about the economic condition of the parents? They won’t be able to buy a car, land and property and won’t be able to build a houses in a few years if they don’t apply and tricks to rob parents.

The other torture the students has to go through is to be scolded very badly and to be punished severely. The same teacher does his best to get the best result in the tuition class too. He humiliates the students to encourage him/he to study and beats him/her with a stick severely to make him understand how to solve maths problems.

The robbed, brutally punished, and demoralised student sits for the final exam the following year and gets the same result-the hollow number. He cries bitterly the whole pain of the year. He will never find maths easy in his whole life because he knows the pain of studying maths.