Experts advise for continued preparatory steps to safety

Kathmandu, June 25: Experts have advised for giving continuity to pre-preparedness to remain safer at time of natural calamity reasoning that Nepal remained ever more prone to big earthquakes in future and that the region had been witnessing earthquakes at successive periods for the last 300 million years.

At an interaction on 'Crisis Management and Media's Role' organized by Mass Communication Committee, Nepal National Commission for UNESCO, associate professor and geologist Tara Nidhi Bhattarai presented a geological study on the reasons why earthquakes occur and said Nepal would always remain prone to risk of earthquakes.Bhattarai said many did not even know of the fact that Nepal had a geological map. "In the map one can know where the person's area lies and know the possible impact of earthquake beforehand. We can get the knowledge if it would be appropriate to build a house in a certain locality and know of the possible damages," he said.

He added that Nepal lacked the equipment to properly measure an earthquake measuring above 6 on the Richter scale.

On the occasion, journalist Kapil Kafle presented a working paper on 'Role of Nepali media in earthquake crisis' and added that the media was fully aware of the role it needed to fulfill during the crisis. Kafle stressed the need for life insurance for journalists, medical treatment and trainings on collecting news at times of crisis.

Federation of Nepali Journalists President Dr Mahendra Bista said the media houses were themselves not in a quake-friendly environment and added that it was not clear as to how the media would disseminate information during such crisis.

National News Agency (RSS) General Manager Shreeram Singh Basnet said there were no provisions for mitigating the crisis in media sector in Nepal and added that the journalists did not even know where to run and gather during such crisis. "There is no clear policy on mitigating crisis," he said adding, "Let us rebuild Nepal in such a way that the world would view Nepal as a role model; we need to make our lives more earthquake-friendly," Basnet said.

Journalist Hari Sharan Lamichane called on the National Planning Commission for seeking media's involvement in reconstruction and recovery phase as a mechanism. Engineer Sanjay Jha said people would be able to build secure house if they tested the soil before launching the construction work. RSS

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