Two decades after Nepal began dealing with natural disasters in an organized way, rescue and relief operations remain deficient. Official policy stresses the need for early warning and weather forecasting systems, preventive planning and hazard mapping with risk assessment in order to minimize damage. If the experience of the last fortnight is any indication, disaster management is still based on emergency relief and rescue. Those who survive disasters often end up facing new afflictions and challenges

By KESHAB POUDEL

Under an emergency helicopter rescue mission, more than 200 people in Jagatpur Village Development Committee of Chitwan district survived the ravages of Rapti River. But they now face the threat of water-borne diseases.

As they live in the lowland adjoining the banks of the Rapti River, the people of Jagatpur are bracing for another year of flood. With the cloudburst upstream, the villagers have no option but to prepare for the worst.

A house : On the verge of collapse
A house : On the verge of collapse
Purna Bahadur Bamjan and his five-year-old sister, Sukumaya, of Chatiban Village Development Committee of Makwanpur district lost their entire family in the landslides that struck on the night of August 22. The two children received Rs. 10,000 each in compensation.

Rescued from floods and landslides, many victims find themselves forced to live under new threats. If these families are not provided medical facilities and temporary residence in safe areas, they would still remain vulnerable. In the terai districts of Mahottari, Dhanusha, Sarlahi, Saptari, Rautahat and Siraha, many houses were washed away by flash floods and farmers have lost their crops.

Who will rescue them in case diseases break out? Had the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology developed an early-warning system on the possibility of torrential rainfall, human life and property could have been saved. If the Department of Mining and Geology identified hazardous mapping zone, human settlements would have been more secure and safe.

Although more than half a dozen organizations are entrusted with pre-disaster management work, little has been done to rescue people of vulnerable areas before tragedy strikes.

Disaster management means everything between the mobilization of the army, police and limited resources and the granting of thousands of rupees in compensation for the destruction of property worth billions of rupees. The victims who lose property along with family members, are given Rs.10, 000 along with packets of relief material. That is what relief-and-rescue operations are all about.

According to the Home Ministry’s Department of Narcotics Control and Disaster Management (DNCDM), the government had distributed Rs.6.4 million relief and rescue packages until Tuesday afternoon to victims of the disaster through district and regional disaster management committees.

Although the early figures may rise, the natural calamities of July 22 and 23, which rocked more than 21 districts, including those in Kathmandu valley, have resulted in 241 deaths, 104 injuries, and 44 disappearances. The department says the disaster has affected 7,821 families and destroyed 6,447 houses.

The damage to the infrastructure has obstructed the transport movement. Flash floods washed away a 60-meter-long bridge in Mahara River of Mahottari district, 300 kilometer east of Kathmandu, affecting transport movement on the East-West Highway for a couple of days. The Rapti River destroyed a 500-meter road stretch in Makwanpur district. Krishnabhir, a roadside ridge 70-km west of Kathmandu, continues to show signs of instability, releasing tons of debris.

The government claims it has been making efforts to reopen the highways and to relieve and rescue victims. But it is yet to make a significant impact. As in previous occasions, the Central Disaster Relief Committee (CDRC) has directed concerned authorities to conduct relief and rescue work. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and members of his cabinet have toured flood- and landslide-affected areas by helicopter.

If one sees the work at Krishnabhir, one gets a fair idea of how the government machinery functions. It is an example of Nepal’s disaster management preparedness. For the last four years, landslides continue to disturb regular vehicle movement in the area. The Department of Roads has spent tens of thousands of rupees to stabilize the road. But that has not worked.

Although various recommendations have been made to minimize risk and to prevent the loss of life and property, no one seems to be prepared to implement them and avoid repeating similar mistakes.

According to the annual report of Department of Water-Induced Disaster Prevention (DWIDP), since 1983 an average of 300 people lost their life in flood and landslide each year. In 1991,1992 and 1997, the death tolls were below 100. The flood of 1993 was largest in the last 18 years, which killed 1,336 people and destroyed many infrastructures, including four bridges on Prithvi Highway, the dam of Bagmati Irrigation Project and Kulekhani hydro-power project.

Vulnerable to Disaster

The fluctuations in the number of casualties are not the result of effective disaster preparedness. Rather, it is due to the fluctuation in rainfall. More the torrential rains falls, greater the damage. The people in the hills have added human activities such as cultivation, deforestation and quarrying. “Therefore, the probability of the occurrence of disasters is very high in case of landslide hazard in this region,” write Satoru Morikawa, an expert from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and Prakash Man Shrestha of the DWIDP in their paper.

Although Nepal is prone to natural disasters, officials have hardly made serious efforts to identify possible vulnerable sites and discuss the failures of the past and share the knowledge in the dry season.

As soon as rainy season approaches, officials begin talking about natural calamities, loss of life and planning for disaster preparedness. As the government lacks short-term warning systems and long- term precaution procedures, every solution ends in temporary rescue-and-relief work.

Studies on flood damage assessment and natural disaster preparedness conducted by SMEC in association with CEMAT in 1993 clearly pointed out what pre-cautionary measures are required to prevent massive damage. It recommended the establishment of an agency within the government to undertake planning studies and to co-ordinate implementation of flood projects under donor and/or government funding. It suggested the need of a flood-management approach on a river-basin-wise basis to provide a more coordinated and sequential protection system for the rural communities.

Experts argue that floods and landslide in Nepal are generated in several different ways such as cloudbursts in the Siwaliks and middle mountain range, extended periods of rainfall or by glacier lake outbursts flood in the high Himalayas.

Flood and landslide management consists of constructing embankments, retaining wall, dams for storage of water and flow storage in detention basin. There require taking such measures as hazard zoning, insurance, emergency rehabilitation programs and warning system.

Haphazard Planning

Whether in the case of rescue or rehabilitation, operations are undertaken in a haphazard manner. As soon as landslides or floods hit an area, the government calls out the army and police for emergency operations and sends packages of relief material along with the rescue teams. After the situation has been normalized, nobody takes follow-up action.

During the recent floods and landslides, Royal Nepalese Army personnel and police were mobilized to rescue the people and search for missing people following torrential rainfall of August 23. As the water level subsided and the threat of landslides was reduced, rehabilitation workers pulled out along with rescuers.

Army and police personnel save the lives of many people trapped in the flood, but the rehabilitated population is forced to live under the threat of landslides. The rescue mission in disaster areas was suspended, but people are yet to get relief packages, health and other services.

The army has mobilized medical teams and flown them to various parts of affected areas to provide primary health care. The team of the Ministry of Health is yet to reach many areas where the contamination of water has already affected the victims.

Although the government claimed that adequate health teams were dispatched and relief packages are being distributed through the district administration, many victims have not seen the doctors in their areas. The natural calamity has affected 22 districts but only a few have medical teams and hospital. In one rescue mission, 18 injured were brought to Kathmandu by helicopters for treatment.

“Because of its topographical and geological characteristics and torrential rain during the monsoon season, the country frequently suffers from different kinds of water-induced disasters like soil erosion, landslides, debris flows and flood,” said Damodar Bhattarai, chief of the Technology Development Division of the DWIDP.

Nepal frequently suffers from various types of natural calamities caused by the actions of water such as soil erosion, landslide, and slope failure, floods and bank erosion. Annually, the natural calamities destroy public property, crops and infrastructures worth billions of rupees.

Anthropogenic factors such as deforestation, farming on steep slopes, overgrazing and slash-and-burn type of shifting agriculture on hill slopes are also said to aggravate the occurrence of landslides and soil erosion, causing land degradation. “According to a study conducted in 1984, landslide density in Nepal ranged from 0.2 per linear kilometers on stable land under undisputed conditions to 2.8 per kilometer on very susceptible lands fully exposed to human influence. Available data indicate that about 12,000 landslides\slope failures occur each year in Nepal,” write Bhattarai, Dr. Ryosuke Tsunkai and Amoda Nanda Mishra in a paper.

Reports Never Implemented

There are more than half a dozen reports lying in various ministries and departments, but the recommendations have never been implemented. Once the impact recedes, the documents are sent to the library for preservation.

After the 1993 natural calamities, a high-level committee recommended the setting up of a strong team for rescue and rehabilitation, but that is yet to be implemented. The country still lacks transport plane and helicopters to effectively carry out rescue and rehabilitation work.

The National Action Plan on Disaster Management 1996 contains, among other things, measures related to geological, hydrological and meteorological hazard assessment, awareness-raising programs, training, disaster management information system, national land use and land core plan, improvement of national capacity for disaster management and institutional structures. The plan draws a clear-cut line to prevent natural calamities.

JICA has been providing technical and other support to Nepal in the area of dealing with natural calamities. Thanks to the support of the Japanese government, the WIDPD was established several years ago. The United Nations Development Program has established the Disaster Prevention Center to support Nepal’s effort to deal with natural calamities.

Although the water-induced disaster of this year was the largest after that of 1993, the level of preparedness is so ineffective that the people have to wait for weeks to get relief. The government has established a Central Rehabilitation and Rescue Center in Simara and it will take some more days to assess the damage and reach the people. Water-induced disasters present regular and serious threats to many people. But there is no agency coordinating efforts to reduce these risks or mitigate the damage.

Legal Provisions

Pre-disaster activities are a very new concept in Nepal. Government activities were mainly directed toward the post-disaster phase, including relief, rescue and rehabilitation, in the 1980s. The Natural Calamity (Relief) Act 1982 enunciates the significance of pre-disaster and post-disaster activities.

The act makes provisions for the disaster relief committees at the central, district and local levels. The Central Disaster Relief Committee (CDRC) and District Disaster Relief Committee (DDRC) are functioning while regional and local levels committees can be constituted in times of disaster. CDRC, formed under the chairmanship of the home minister, prepares plans and policies on overall aspects of disaster management in coordination with various ministries. The DDRC is responsible for carrying out post-disaster activities.

The objectives of the CDRC is to prevent natural disasters as far as possible and to minimize their adverse effect on society through proper preparedness planning and effective rescue-and-relief operations as well as to rehabilitate victims and reconstruct the damaged infrastructures. But the country is yet to develop an effective mechanism for this purpose.

The CDRC is responsible for identifying disaster-prone areas and the extent of vulnerability and for formulating plans and programs on preparedness, response, mitigation and reconstruction and rehabilitation. It also formulates policy to increase awareness among the people and concerned authorities on the possible causes and effects of natural disasters, including ways and means of combating them.

The CDRC also set priorities in strengthening the capability of disaster relief management, hazard mapping with vulnerability and risk assessment, installation of reliable early warning and weather forecasting systems at the central and regional and district levels.

Initiation of flood-line survey in major rivers and identification of safe havens\emergency sites for victims in all the districts, prevention and mitigation covering settlement policies, watershed management, river training, embankments, zoning laws, building codes are priorities of the CDRC. But precious little has been done over the years.

Failure of Institutions

There are number of departments mandated to respond in times of natural disasters, but they do not have coordinated efforts. The recent experience has shown that the country requires an effective disaster warning and prevention system in place.

The Department of Narcotics and Drugs Control and Natural Disaster Management, the sole agency involved in post-disaster operations, does not have physical infrastructures under its command. It has to rely on the district administration to carry out relief and rescue operations.

The DWIDP is designated as the lead coordinating agency and its mandate and authority have been broadened to facilitate a coordinating role. The DWIDP has been carrying out river training works for mitigation and prevention of various problems caused by flooding. It takes emergency and long-term preventive measures. Currently, the DWIDP is implementing a Disaster Mitigation Support Program Project with the cooperation of the government of Japan through JICA support since September.

The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, which is supposed to provide flood warning system, failed to predict even 24 hours of rain and formation of cloud in and around the central region. As the equipment available with the department is antiquated and insufficient, it has to rely on old system of meteorological forecasting. Torrential rain is one of the most devastating monsoon hazards. It occurs when cloud outburst in certain areas pouring the record rainfall. Kathmandu valley alone saw 170 mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period, a record in the valley. The Department of Meteorology did not issue any warning through the mass media.

The Department of Narcotics Control and Natural Disaster Management, which is only agency providing specific resources for disaster relief\rehabilitation measures, showed lackluster performance. The Department of Mines and Geology, which is supposed to provide specific resources for landslide and environmental hazard mapping, seemed to be equally unaware.

The Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management, responsible for providing specific resources commensurate with river training works to manage the upper watershed of the rivers, was also silent. The Department of Health Services, too, failed to promptly despatch medical teams to flood-affected areas.

Nepal’s mountains are collapsing under the onslaught of human life and activity. The 20th century brought unprecedented growth to the mountain areas. Today more than two-thirds of the population lives on the narrow strip of mountain and plain where the land meets disasters.

Because of location characterized by a rugged topography, very high relief, variable climate conditions, complex geological structures with active tectonic process and continued seismic activities, the country is prone to various types of natural calamities. The sharp vertical topography of the country is highly vulnerable to potential disasters like landslide, slope failure, soil erosion and debris flow.

Steep slope gradient, intense precipitation and sparse forest has made hills even more vulnerable to erosion. Average annual precipitation is around 1,600 mm. The variation ranges from less than 300 mm in the dry rain shadow regions to more than 5,000 mm in the west region like Lumle of Kaski district.

Cost of Disasters

Regardless, assessments that take into account a wider range of cost categories will allow the government, communities, businesses, and individuals to invest in mitigation that is more appropriate and cost-effective than past efforts have been.

After the massive floods and landslides of 1993, society’s understanding of the enormous and wide-ranging effects was greatly expanded and the need for preventative measures was recognized. No community in the lowland terai and high mountains remain safe. The loss caused by the monsoon rain cannot be expressed fully in simple rupee terms alone. The annual damage done to human life is simply incalculable.

When a community is hit by natural calamities, all of its social institutions are likely to be affected. Indeed, the entire social fabric that defines a population as a community can be seriously weakened. People relocate – some permanently – neighborhoods are destroyed, friendships are severed, support networks are broken and domestic relationships come under greater stress. Schools, social groups and families are apt to never be the same.

The stress of coping with daily needs and activities while trying to rebuild homes and lives under distressed conditions can take a heavy emotional toll. Family roles and responsibilities undergo considerable change. Economic hardship and living conditions worsen and reliance on the agencies to provide basic needs grows. Life patterns are interrupted and family relationships change.

While the state machinery, neighborhoods and friends come together in the immediate aftermath, as days turn into months, relentless physical and emotional burdens are likely to damage these bonds. Homelessness becomes a major problem in many areas and large numbers of families are forced to live in horrific conditions for long.

Not everyone in a community is equally vulnerable to a natural disaster. Even after the recent disaster, some segments of the population living in the capital were able to continue to meet their daily needs largely uninterrupted, whereas other rural people were virtually destroyed. The plight of many in need of help, such as the elderly, the illiterate and those living in isolated areas, did not readily come to the attention of the authorities.

A disaster of such magnitude raises some important questions: Were these storms a rare event or part of a new pattern of more frequent disasters? Why was it such a surprise? Is Nepalese society becoming more vulnerable to extreme events and, if so, what actions should it take to reduce the effects?

Officials still use traditional methods to estimate the damage caused by natural calamities in terms of loss of houses, crops and infrastructure. The traditional method of calculation overlooks many additional costs to the affected families and residents. Traditional approaches to mitigation such as elevating structures and establishing and enforcing building codes are no longer enough in and of themselves. Can the distribution of Rs.10, 000 for death and Rs.5000 for other flood victims compensate for the damage? What kind of relief can that amount of money provide and who will be rescued?