Having particularly seen how the South Koreans are prepared to manage all kinds of disaster risks, both natural and manmade, at both the central and local levels, I personally believe that we can learn many things from it.
In Nepal, at the central level, the home ministry is directly engaged in the management of disaster management programs in coordination with other ministries, departments, civil society, and NGOs and INGOs. Although the local units such as village and district development committees and municipalities also participate in disaster risk management, their importance is not very highly valued. Since the local level is given less importance, if not totally ignored, it makes it very difficult to map out real disaster vulnerability scenarios.
At the national level, we now have National Strategy for Disaster Risk Management in Nepal (NSDRMN) and National Disaster Management Policy (NDMP) outlining a comprehensive and a holistic approach to disaster risk management, something that has been applied in many other countries for years. Although NSDRMN was approved by the cabinet in October 2009, it is still confined to government dossiers. Therefore, the government should, without any delay, make sure that NSDRMN materializes and gets active on the disaster risk management front at the earliest. Coming up with policies and bodies in papers but not doing anything to implement those in practice can be disastrous.
Also, national disaster risk management legislation and management practice in Nepal are focused on core government functions. It means that micro-level disaster vulnerability analysis generally does not get addressed in disaster risk management plans. This is where Nepal can learn from the South Korean practice, where micro-level disaster incidences are regularly monitored. There is an urgent need in Nepal to establish a central-level disaster risk management authority without any delay to deal with known and unknown risks locally and assess the threats and vulnerabilities along with coming up with plans to minimize the risks in case of any major tragedy.
Disaster risk management is about saving precious lives and properties, and it is the government´s duty to take it seriously. We have been lucky so far, but who knows what we might have to face tomorrow.
The 9/11 attacks in the US was an eye-opener to many countries since it exposed that there are new kinds of threats to citizens emerging each day and many countries upgraded their disaster management agencies to deal with such kinds of disasters. South Korea, too, accelerated its activities and upgraded its plans and actions on increasing safety standards to protect its citizens against any untoward incidents, be it natural or manmade such as terrorist attacks. Korea introduced its first National Safety and Disaster Management Master Plan in 2005 (2005-2009) focusing on natural and human made disasters, effective top-down co-ordination system, integrated disaster management preparedness plan and rapid disaster responding system. Korean disaster risk reduction experts believe that proper safety reduces individual vulnerability to disasters.
After the establishment of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) as an independent watchdog for disaster risk reduction and emergency management, the Korean government realized that it needs to review its first master plan on a periodic basis. According to current NEMA Administrator Dr Y S Park, every national risk reduction agency needs to monitor risk at micro-level to protect lives and livelihood of their citizens. He further says that since risks are changing with changing nature everyday, we need to prepare for unknown risks that can harm the citizens, both born and unborn.
However, in Nepal, there are no agencies like NEMA that serves like a watchdog to the government´s plans and policies for disaster risk management. Therefore, an independent body, with functions and rights quite similar to that of Korean NEMA headed by someone who has contributed to international disaster risk reduction and knows and understands Nepal well i e what threats it is vulnerable to, and the best way to minimize those, if not completely avoid those. If we do not have any Nepali expert who meets the requirements, then it does not harm to hire a foreign expert who can train the next generation of disaster risk managers in Nepal. And the government should heed the body´s suggestions and plan accordingly. Furthermore, like in Korea, the body has to be fully autonomous and appointments to it made strictly on knowledge and experience basis, so that there is no danger of it being politicized and defunct, as it usually happens in Nepal.
Disaster risk management is about saving precious lives and properties, and it is the government´s duty to take it seriously. We have been lucky so far, but who knows what we might have to face tomorrow. Common sense dictates that we be prepared to deal with any such incidents. Globally, these days one of the measures of government´s efficiency is how rapidly it can mobilize its resources to save lives in case of a disaster. Therefore, to prove its efficiency and that it cares for the people, Nepali government, too, needs to have an effective disaster risk management system in place. It makes people feel more secured, and that feeling of security is what the government has to provide to the people of Nepal who are increasingly feeling insecure.
Writer is a monitoring and supervision officer, Nepal Red Cross
aryalmona@gmail.com
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