International Strategy For Disaster Reduction Day
For Safety Of Human Lives

By Rajendra P. Khanal

THE United Nations General Assembly defined a decade from 1990 to 1999 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) in 1987 and adopted a resolution to drastically reduce damage from Natural Disasters. IDNDR started in 1990 as one of the major activities of the United Nations. The second Wednesday of the October was declared the IDNDR Day.
Cooperation

The IDNDR Day has been observed in Nepal since 1991 by organising meetings, seminars and training programmes. These programmes often receive a national focus and many governmental and non-governmental organisations have been involved.

The Nepal Geological Society (NGS) had, over the years been working in close cooperation with the IDNDR National Committee, Ministry of Home Affairs, UNDP/Nepal and Lutheran World Service Nepal in fulfilling the goals of IDNDR.

Nepal is a disaster prone country in the world. Because of her location characterised by rugged topography, very steep slope, variable climetic conditions, complex geological structures with active tectonic process and continued seismic activities, the country is prone to various types of natural hazards. These vary from snow avalanches and glacier lake outburst to flood (GLOF) in the higher Himalayas to fire and flood in the rest of the country. Landslides and earthquakes are frequent. They are causing extensive damage to the national economy and incurring heavy loss of lives and property every year. So many government and non-government organisations are involved in the disaster reduction and mitigation works in Nepal.

The concept of IDNDR has been instrumental in transferring the emphasis from relief and rescue to preparedness. Various agencies of His Majesty's Government of Nepal like Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Narcotics Control and Disaster Management, Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention, Department of Soil Conservation etc. are active in disaster prevention, mitigation and management works in close cooperation with various international agencies such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA), Asian Disaster Reduction Centre (ADRC), Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre(ADPC), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), International Red Cross Society (IRCS), United Mission to Nepal (UMN), Cooperation for American Relief Everywhere (CARE), World Food Programme (WEF),Save the Children Fund (SCF),Technical Cooperation of the Federal Republic of Germany (GTZ), Lutheran World Service (LWS), OXFAM etc. Besides these, various other professional and non-governmental organisations like Nepal Geological Society, Nepal Red Cross Society, Nepal Engineers' Association and NSET Nepal have also been providing highly valuable support to the natural disaster mitigation and management works in Nepal.

Based on the lessons from the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), the UN has established the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) as a global framework for action with a view to enabling all Societies to become resilient to the effects of natural hazards and related technological and environmental disasters in order to reduce human, economic and social losses. It involves a conceptual shift from an emphasis on disaster response to the management of risk through the integration of disaster reduction into sustainable development.

The implementation of the Strategy is premised at the establishment of partnerships between governments, non-government organisations, UN agencies, the scientific community, the media as well as other relevant stakeholders in the disaster reduction community.

The four goals of the strategy are to increase public awareness about disaster reduction to obtain commitment from public authorities to stimulate inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral partnerships, and to improve the scientific knowledge of the causes of natural disasters and the consequences of the impact of natural hazards.

National Participation, as the primary ingredient for sub-regional, regional and international cooperation with regard to natural disaster reduction is a critical factor of the success of the ISDR. 'ISDR National Committee' or 'ISDR Focal Point' is designated by the government of each country and serve as an interface between national and international levels within ISDR. In any event the national platform should be kept informed and copied on all relevant correspondence between the Secretariat and contacts at national level.

Involvement

ISDR- Day has been proposed by the UN for second Wednesday of October of every year from 2001.The Nepal Geological Society observed ISDR -Day by conducting a seminar on natural disaster reduction in cooperation with Ministry of Home Affairs and UNDP/ Nepal. All concerned authorities of HMG of Nepal, all relevant consulting firms, NGOs and INGOs and professional organisations as well as local political activists of all municipalities of Kathmandu Valley are actively involved in the seminar.

Imbalanced Development
A Serious Problem

By Jai Nayayan Jha

THE pattern of development and the structure of socio-economic relations must be so planned that they could result in greater quality in income and health. But the benefit of economic development must accrue more and more to the relatively less privileged class of society.

Object

With this object in view Dr. Harka Gurung, the then vice-chairman of National Planning Commission had pointed out, "people-oriented development and egalitarian distribution built in the production process are not only the current planning concept but are imperative in Nepal."

Social inequality stands as a major stumbling block of economic equality, while at the same time economic equality, from planning point of view is a pre-condition from lifting a society out of poverty.

Nepal in ideology is committed to the people oriented development and equalitarian distribution in the production process. In modern times egalitarian distribution of the national resources is being regarded as prerequisite for all-round development.

However, despite lofty ideology, the current trend of socio economic development in Nepal has been uneven. Almost all the development plans have envisaged that regional imbalance will be reduced by modification in investment patterns. The country is in the final phase of completing the Nineth development plan and the processes are on to launch the Tenth plan.

Balanced development was envisaged as the principal guideline of planned development in Nepal. The country was divided into five development regions to serve this propose. Nepal as a democratic and developing country is committed to set up an egalitarian society. However, the trend over the years has shown it amply that the aim of distributing the national profits on egalitarian way has not been achieved. As such, the planning process in Nepal has to be restructured and remodeled. The priority and the investment pattern have to be reviewed.

Discontentment and the frustration is increasing because of imbalanced development of the country. The trend over the years has shown that the investment has benefited more to the people of the capital or to the urban areas only. A large number of organisations including ministries, departments, regional offices, project offices are located at Kathmandu. This shows the centripetal tendency.

Some 80 per cent of the government officials are stationed in the Kathmandu Valley, while three percent in tarai, six percent in hilly areas and two percent in the Himalayan region.

Most of the power installments (60%) are located around the capital but a host of industrial areas lack electricity. Similarly 60.44 per cent of the civil servants are the dwellers of central region. Similarly 68.45 per cent of the civil servants are the speakers of Nepali language, whose population does not exceed more than 49 per cent.

More than 30 medical hospitals and a host of nursing homes and over 60-70 per cent of the medical doctors are stationed only in the Kathmandu Valley, which constitute 3 per cent of the land and 4 per cent of the total population of Nepal.

Development budget has long time been spent entirely in the central region with the major share to the development of the Kathmandu Valley.

Of the total number of bureaucrats the hilly Brahmans, Kshetriyas and the Newars have usurped 90.89 per cent.

In Kathmandu alone there are over one hundred fifty thousand vehicles, while other remote districts have still not seen any vehicle. Similarly, in the total of imported fuel 85 per cent of petrol, 65 per cent of diesel and 53.4 per cent of the imported fertilisers are consumed only in the Kathmandu Valley. Kathmandu alone has more than 200 kms of metalled roads, while rest of the places still lack metalled roads.

In 1991, 10 thousand and 611 houses were built in 33 municipalities of Nepal. But in the total of the houses built 61 per cent were only in the Kathmandu Valley. Of the total construction 68 per cent was done only in the Kathmandu Valley. Out of the total expenditure incurred in the construction of houses 77 per cent was incurred in the Kathmadu Valley alone.The income of Kathmandu people is eighth times higher than the people of other parts of the country.

Hence disproportional allocation of investment to the Kathmandu Valley and lesser to the other parts of the country can pose serious threat to the country in the days to come.

The contribution of tarai to the GDP of the country is 65 per cent but the allocation of the fund to this area is 26 per cent. Of the total income 80 per cent and of the total revenue 76 per cent come from the tarai. Still it gets the least share from the national budget.

Hence the investment pattern of the National Planning Commission has been faulty. The process of the fixation of the priority has been erroneous. Over the years identification of the basic problems of the country has been misleading. Even though the plans are formulated well however, on most occasions the plans or the allocation of funds are transferred to some other areas or to some unrelated sectors. Political pulls and pressure also helps considerably to transfer the project to own area. This is a great challenge to the National Planning Commission. This may threaten the peace and the tranquility of the country.

Imbalanced development has invited a number of serious problems to the country. It has widened the disparity person-to-person and place-to-place. The urban areas are getting well off. Migration of people in large number from the rural areas to the urban area has increased considerably. Hilly people are leaving their original home land and come down to tarai, destroy the forest and create environmental problems. The hilly area is being depopulated.

Because of the internal migration the population of Rajbiraj, Biratnagar and Kathmandu has increased by 47.60 per cent, 27.56 per cent and 24.3 per cent respectively. Similarly, the population of Janakpur has increased by 60 per cent during the period between 1954 and 1972. The forest resources of Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari and Siraha have destroyed by 55.6 per cent. The encroachment of forest resources was 5.4 per cent in 1964, which increased to 65.60 per cent after 13 years. During the period between 1961 and 1981 the population of tarai has increased by 118.5 per cent. The population density of tarai has grown from 85 per square mile in 1952/54 to 254 person per square mile in the year 1991.

The reasons of imbalanced development have been diverse and numerous. Firstly, since long time the major portion of the budget has been spent in the central developed region only. Since long time there has been centripetal tendency and a few developed areas have reaped the cream. Over the years the bureaucracy of the country has not been made representative of all castes, creed, and the geographical areas of the country. The decision-making authority over the years has concentrated to the hands of haves and not to the have-nots. They have influenced the major political, social and economic entities to transfer the budgetary allocation to their own areas or to the benefit of their own communities.

Now, since the Tenth Plan is in the offing and the planning process hither to for has not helped the lower strata of the society and the poverty is increasing at the rate of 2.2 per cent each year, the reviewed of the whole planning process is the only way out to ease the current situation.

After the restoration of democracy the aspiration of the people has grown in unprecedented way. The downtrodden and the backward communities are lagged behind in the entire socio economic and political areas. Hence a new approach of planning and implementation is necessary to do away with the problems. This also necessitates making the Planning Commission representative of all the geographical areas and the ethnic groups of the country.

Congenial

Balanced development can alone ensure equitable distribution of national profit, make available employment opportunites, reduce disparity and create a congenial atmosphere for exploring natural resources and establishing the egalitarian society in the country.

Why Teens Should
Quit Smoking?

By Avishkar Chandra Pradhan

A TEEN who smokes, chews tobacco or uses snuff, may have more chance of becoming addict to tobacco and it will be even harder to quit smoking. But if a teen uses tobacco occasionally, it is usually easier to quit using tobacco at an early age. Many smokers, who have tried to give up smoking, have found that it is an addiction and difficult to give up. Some have undergone withdrawal symptoms and have had to be hospitalised.

Studies have shown that each year many people are dying from smoke-related diseases, such as lung cancer or cancer of the larynx, pharynx, oral cavity, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas. If the number of smokers could be reduced, thousands of lies could be saved.

Nicotine is one of he dangerous components of cigarettes. It is also considered as one of the deadly compounds in cigarettes that makes it very hard to break the addiction. When a teen smokes a cigarette, the body responds immediately to the chemical reaction of nicotine. As a teen smoker breathes in smoke, nicotine is easily drawn into the lungs. Then, the bloodstream picks it up and is quickly pumped by the heart right to the brain. Consequently, nicotine causes a short-term increase in blood pressure, heart rate and the flow of blood from the heart. Breathing in smoke can cause many negative problems later in life.

Smoking habits of teens significantly increases a nonsmoker's risk of developing lung cancer. In fact, nonsmokers are exposed to when they share air space with someone who is smoking. Passive smokers inhale thousands of chemicals that can lead to deadly diseases and it has been classified as a known cause of cancer in humans. It affects many young children, spouses of smokers, and many unborn babies too.

Smoking is harmful to the artery, which causes a stiffness in the walls of the arteries. Heart attacks have also been a negative effect of smoking. A coronary spasm may occur which may lead to chest pain and a heart attack. Smoking also causes several changes in the blood, such as clustering of platelets in the blood and increased thickness of the blood which may lead to a heart attack. Therefore, many smokers' death is mainly caused by heart disease and cancers as proven by research studies.

Some of the advantages of quitting smoking:

Smokers will be more in control of their lives after they quit. The tobacco and advertising industries that are making money off of smokers and other people who smoke will no longer have control over their behavior.

Smoker's personal appearance will be much more attractive after they quit smoking. Their hair, clothes, and breath will smell better and their teeth will be whiter.

Smoking is a poor way to lose weight or keep from gaining weight. Physical activity has a much greater effect on weight than smoking.

There are some Quick Tips to help teen smokers quit smoking. First believe in yourself that you can quit. Think about some of the most difficult things you have done in your life. Think what's bad about smoking and what you'll get by quitting. White down why you want to quit (the benefits of quitting): live longer, feel better, for your family, save money, smell better, find a mate more easily, etc.

Set a quit date. Decide what day you will extinguish your cigarettes forever. White it down. Plan for it. Prepare your mind for the 'first day of the rest of your life", you might even hold a small ceremony when you smoke your last cigarette or on the morning of the quit date.

Begin a physical exercise which should be a simply incompatible with smoking. Do some deep breathing each day for 3 to 5 minutes. It relieves stress and helps your body recover from years of damage from cigarettes.

Drink lots of water. It will help flush the nicotine and other chemicals out of your body. On a card, write the words "I'm quitting for myself and for you".

Since teenagers are very receptive, unfortunately they have both positive and negative ideas. So it is wise to quit negative idea, i.e, smoking.