National Council for Disaster Management (NCDM) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which aim to develop the country´s capacity as a disaster resilient community, are in pipeline, sources say. [break]
The formation of these bodies will be important for helping the National Strategy for Risk Management (NSRM) prepared by Home Ministry to materialize. The strategy has been forwarded to the cabinet for approval.
Nepal is deemed as the 20th most vulnerable country of the world in terms of natural disaster risk. As for water-induced disasters like landslides and floods, the country ranks 30th in the world. In view of earthquake risk, Kathmandu Valley belongs to the first category. According to a study (UNDPCRP 2004), the relative vulnerability of Nepal to earthquake places it in the 11th position among the risk-struck countries.
A top official of the ministry says the government now faces heightened challenges to respond to natural disasters as the effects of climate change have understandably been pervasive. "But the way we respond to as well as our level of preparedness is all the same as years ago," he said." Last year floods hit western Tarai in the second week of September. Our approach and mechanism are no longer in position to cope with such calamities happening contrary to its normal cycle."
According to National Strategy for Risk Management, the prime minister will head the NCDM. It will make policies and national and regional plans to tackle natural disasters. Likewise, NDMA will be responsible for implementation, facilitation, coordination and monitoring of the managerial affairs as a national focal body. It will work for response, recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation at the time of disasters.
As mentioned in the document, three different committees under NDMA will be formed, each entrusted with separate responsibilities in connection with pre\during\post disaster management.
"This strategy is a holistic guideline to cohere top-to-bottom activities of disaster management," said an official." The basic problem that makes our total approach to disaster a failure at large is that the issue of disaster risk reduction has not been mainstreamed into the national development process."
The concept of mainstreaming instills the prospect of disaster vulnerability and resilience in every plan and act of sectoral development and poverty reduction and, to that end, puts together every concerned government agency for cluster lead, officials say. "Haphazard development has been one of the major reasons behind increasing disaster risk. For example, a whimsically built road could cause landslides," they add.
Nepal, among 168 nations, partnered the declaration of Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-15 in 2005 by United Nations that requires each nation to follow a set of norms at par with its standard. International donor agencies that are working in Nepal have long been demanding to develop acceptable norms.
Apart from hardcore natural disasters, Nepal faces an equally massive threat of calamities directly emanating from human world. Epidemics, wildfire, industrial accidents, explosions and mass poisoning are some of the common phenomenon that do not seem to have received prompt and concerted response from the government. "The cholera epidemic in western Nepal could have been curbed earlier, provided that it was dealt with one-window policy and cluster approach," officials say.
Related story
Post-Earthquake Livestock Management
