View Point (Spotlight Weekly)

Disaster Challenges And Measures In Nepal

By LEKH NATH POKHAREL

A disaster is an event, man-made or natural, sudden or progressive in occurrence, the impact of which is such that the affected communities must respond through measures, which exceed their own immediate capabilities. Nepal is a disaster-prone country because of its geo-physical conditions. The major disasters in the country include earthquake, flood, landslide, fire, thunderbolt, windstorm, soil erosion, glacier lake outburst, and flood.

A strong to moderate earthquake is expected to occur anytime in Nepal. This calls for timely preparedness. The shaking of the earth’s surface caused by rapid movement of its rocky outer layer is called an earthquake. Earthquakes occur when energy stored within the earth is suddenly released. This energy is transmitted to the surface by earthquake waves.

The destruction an earthquake causes depends on its magnitude and duration, or the amount of shaking that occurs. The size varies from small, imperceptible shaking to large shocks felt over thousands of kilometers. Earthquakes cannot be prevented, but the damage they cause can be greatly reduced with proper communication strategies, structural design, emergency preparedness planning, education, and safer building standards. In response to the tragic loss of life and great cost of rebuilding, many countries have established earthquake safety and regulatory agencies. These agencies require codes for engineers in order to regulate development and construction. Buildings built according to these codes survive earthquakes better and ensure that damage is reduced. Nepal has experienced massive earthquakes, such as those of 1834, 1934 and 1988. Dense population and urbanization have often exacerbated the scale of death and destruction. With population continuing to grow and people continuing to move into cities, the risk of severe future disasters is increasing.

Flood, in general, is a relatively high flow of water above the mean flow level that may overtop a natural bank in some reaches of a stream. The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage defines floods as “A relatively high flow or stage in a river marked by higher than usual”. Flood is a natural phenomenon. Often, it is seasonal in nature. It is very difficult to control a river for a long period of time. When flood level exceeds the natural bank, it inundates the agricultural land, villages or towns causing enormous loss of life and property. Flood disasters have assumed catastrophic proportions, as in 1993 when the death toll exceeded 1,300 people and over 90,000 families affected. In the recent floods and landslides, more than 500 people have lost their lives and close to 55,000 families have affected.

Landslides are the movement of large amounts of earth, rock, sand or mud or any combination of these. Landslides can be caused by earthquakes, volcanoes, soil erosion, rainfall or human activity (e.g., vegetation removal, construction on steep terrain). The rate of movement of a landslide can vary from exceptionally slow - centimeters per year - to a sudden and total collapse - such as an avalanche perhaps with millions of tons of debris. The distance traveled by landslide debris can also vary greatly, from a few centimeters in ‘ground slumps’, to many kilometers when large mudflows follow river valleys.

Disaster management is a difficult task. The suddenness of a disaster and its destruction, especially during a very serious natural calamity, makes it difficult for the normal administrative set-up to cope, especially in the midst of limited funds and resources. Nepal is facing a number of additional problems like poor public awareness, low literacy rate, mass poverty, fatalistic nature of some people, difficult and undeveloped physical infrastructure, unplanned settlement, lack of political commitment, slow decision making process and so on. Lack of cooperation and coordination among various disaster management-related agencies and their behavioral indifference, duplication of relief works, inadequate funds and resources and the lack of modern technology, especially early warning systems, have made disaster response more complex.

Policy measures could help to solve many of these problems. As public awareness is one of the vital problems in managing disasters in Nepal, it is necessary to work toward increasing the literacy rate. Moreover, disaster management course should be included in the school and university curriculum. It is also necessary to train schoolteachers, selected students, women leaders, health workers and social workers to educate others in measures to prevent or mitigate the natural disasters.

Such programs may convince people to shed the misconception that they are helpless in front of the wrath of nature. To attain this, quick decision-making becomes vital. Moreover, active people’s participation is also necessary. Moreover, it will be helpful to include a disaster-management component in development plans and the programs of concerned agencies.

There also is an urgent need to improve road infrastructure, transportation and communication facilities to carry out rescue and relief works effectively and efficiently. In order to prevent inappropriate constructions, the building code should be strictly implemented. To prevent duplication of relief works and the lack of cooperation, mutual understanding and frequent dialogue between the focal persons should be established.

The Natural Disaster Relief Act, 1982 should be amended and Natural Disaster Relief Regulations formulate in a way specifying the role, functions, duties and responsibilities of all the disaster-management-related agencies. This way, no agency could ignore or shift its responsibilities. Being a developing country, Nepal lacks sufficient resources to provide adequate assistance to natural-disaster victims. Reconstruction and rehabilitation programs have been far from adequate because of resource constraints. The government, nevertheless, has been trying to cope with natural disasters to the best of its capacity.