Talking to The Week, Prof. Jiba Raj Pokharel, Director of Center for Disaster Studies at Institute of Engineering (IoE) says, “The change in people’s perception and preparedness level are only marginal improvements.[break]
“Due to lack of awareness, the primitive belief that natural disasters are a consequence of one’s evil deeds still persists in some remote areas of our country. However, even in urban areas, people haven’t really bothered in planning ahead for disasters,” he added.
Identified as one of the global hot spots for natural hazards, Nepal faces multitudes of disasters, from floods to landslides, fires, epidemics, cold waves and the imminent catastrophic GLOFs (glacier lake outbursts flood).
Located in an active seismic region, lying between the collisions of Indian and Eurasian plated moving continuously, it is also prone to devastating earthquakes.
Moreover, rapid population growth and urbanization with wide disregard to earthquake-resistant building codes places Nepali cities at even greater risk.
In face of such impending dangers, the lack of preparedness and planning in people here is baffling, to say the least.
“How prepared are we for an emergency?” Ravi Shakya, 36, repeats the question asked of him as he thinks hard before answering, “Well, not really!”
Shakya, who lives and owns a mobile phone shop in the narrow lane of Saugal in Patan, shares he’s not sure what he would do in case of an emergency like fire. “Probably (I’ll) try to extinguish it with water. But then there’s never enough water in the house.”
After last year’s September earthquake, he says he is quite concerned about the structure and location of his house. However, when asked if he has prepared a Go-bag, he asks, “What’s that?”
After some explanation, he adds, “Immediately after the earthquake last year, we had readied ourselves with food, water, money and other stuffs but we haven’t stored anything as such.”
But reflecting on the preparedness level ourselves, how many of us have really prepared a go bag or an emergency kit? How many of us know first aid? Who and where do we call during emergencies? What are the numbers? Do we have fire extinguishers in our homes? Do we know how to use it?
Currently, 12 out of 17 fire engines in Kathmandu are defunct, leaving only five fire engines to handle fire accidents of the entire Valley. To add to the tragedy, they have to deal with scarce water supply, shortage of firefighters, narrow lanes and busy traffic.
This year, though the government allocated a budget of Rs 11 million for the repair and maintenance of the fire engines in the entire country, most of which are more than 25 years old, the number of fire trucks and engines are still highly inadequate to cater to the entire population.
As ill-equipped as Kathmandu is in responding to any major fire or disaster, it is essential that safety precautions are taken beforehand.
“Accidental fires are quite common in urban areas. Compared to the frequency of fires, self-preparedness to handle such outbreaks seems very less,” says Prakash Shrestha of Group Four Security Services Nepal (GFS).
“Only INGOs and some corporate offices make sure that they have fire extinguishers and alarm systems installed in their buildings. For residential areas, we’ve installed these systems for a few INGO officials, but the number of our Nepali clients has been nil.”
With the price ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 18,000, Shrestha says, probably the cost factor also has prevented Nepali people from keeping fire extinguishers in their homes. But, he stresses, with the risks involved, it is essential they are prepared for fire, have fire handling equipments handy as well as know how to use it.
However, the biggest disaster-related threat in Nepal still is from earthquakes. As history and previous studies have shown, deaths and losses in terms of the intensity of destruction per event of an earthquake are much larger than other hazards.
Following last September’s 6.8 Richter scale earthquake, where there were many cases of injuries sustained by people jumping off buildings or getting pushed and trampled by hordes of panic-stricken people, reports indicated that the people are still highly unprepared on how to respond during such earthquakes.
Ganesh Kumar Jimee, Program Manager for Disaster Preparedness and Response at National Society for Earthquake Technology - Nepal (NSET), says that the only way to be mentally prepared for earthquake is to accept its inevitability and start preparing right away.
Major earthquakes in Nepal have occurred at an interval of quite a long time, almost 75-100 years. Therefore, Jimee says, people are quite relaxed about it and don’t feel the urgency to be prepared for it.
“But if we calculate, then another major earthquake is already due. Awareness is vital for preparedness and effective response. Without it, there could be equal or more harm done than the actual disasters.”
And preparedness can make all the difference. In 2010, whereas the 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Haiti killed 200,000 people, there wasn’t a single death reported in Christchurch in New Zealand which was also hit by an earthquake of the same magnitude.
Experts credit this to the preparedness and strict enforcement of earthquake-resilient building codes in New Zealand.
Unfortunately, despite having a National Building Code since 1994, the Nepali Government has failed to enforce it due to negligence and corruption. According to an NSET survey, a majority of the buildings in Kathmandu, including hospitals and schools, have not adopted earthquake-resistant measures during construction.
Their structural assessment of hospitals and health institutions of Kathmandu Valley a decade ago showed that about more than 80 percent of hospitals would collapse if an earthquake as powerful as the one of 1934 were to repeat.
A different survey by NSET also estimates that the structures of 25 per cent of the schools in the Valley are so poor they need to be torn down, and nearly 50 per cent have to be retrofitted.
Moreover, many of the hospitals have not even prepared any emergency or disaster management plans. According to Dr Vaidya, coordinator of Hospital Preparedness for Emergency (HOPE), if a disaster were to strike now, “only two hospitals – Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj and Patan Hospital would be prepared to handle the crisis.”
Though the government took a formal step to address disaster response with Natural Calamity (Relief) Act, 1982, three decades ago, Rudra Prasad Khadka, Under Secretary of Disaster Management Section at the Home Ministry says the government was and still is mostly focused on post-disaster rescue and relief rather than preparedness and risk reduction.
“There hasn’t been any budget allocation solely for disaster preparedness and awareness program at the Home Ministry. Previously, most awareness campaigns were done by NGOs,” says Khadka. “Moreover, disaster management is not a responsibility of just one department. From Physical Planning Ministry to Local Development, everyone has to be involved in enforcing disaster preparedness policies and increasing awareness level.”
Sensitizing people has been a challenge, Khadka admits, and that is where most works need to be done to actually have people preparing seriously and planning for response.
With US$146 million disaster risk reduction action plan of Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium, the government finally has been stirred to focus on preparedness aspects as well.
Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, section chief, adds, “Besides building warehouses and preparing for post-disaster rescue and relief actions, we’re planning to work at the community level and reach people out through training, response planning and community activation programs. But we’re still in the initial phase of the process.”
Though there is a lot to be done at the national level, waiting and doing nothing is not an option.
“Preparedness has to start from individuals,” says Jimee, “Preparing go-bags and emergency kits for yourself and your family, learning first aid, knowing how to respond during an emergency, fixing a meeting point after a disaster, having emergency exits and evacuation plans will be crucial.”
However, efforts have to be made to take this to the community level, he stresses, as self-preparedness will not be sufficient in case of a major disaster. He also believes it will help to sensitize people more and they will be more serious if preparedness programs are done together.
Meanwhile, conducting emergency drills at least 2-3 times a year, issuing regular notices and announcements and advertisements through mass media, and demonstrations and awareness campaigns will be essential to keep the people on their toes.
Everyone realizes that disasters cannot be eliminated or deferred, and so preparedness can be the only key to face the inevitable.
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