Introduction
Nepal
is geographically, ecologically and culturally diverse country. The disaster
risk is also high in the country and people are at high vulnerability. Hence,
Nepal is ranked at top 20th most hazard prone country, 6th
in climate change, 11th in earthquake and 30th in flood
risk. Floods, landslides, debris flow, thunderbolt and epidemics are some
hazards recurring each year and high chance of occurring hazard like
earthquake, glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs), drought, avalanche and snowstorm.
Thriving urbanization makes Nepal further prone to such disasters.
Disaster
scenario of Nepal
The
earthquakes of 1934 A.D., 1980 A.D. 1988 A.D., 2015 A.D. and the flood of July,
1993 A.D., 2008 A.D., and 2014 A.D. are the most devastating disasters which
not only caused heavy losses of human lives and physical properties but also
adversely affected the development process of the country as a whole.
Being
a developing country, Nepal lacks strong mechanism to widely share the
knowledge and the information to the poor communities. More importantly, the
vulnerable communities and poor people have not been able to mitigate, prepare
for, effectively respond and overcome the impact of multiple hazards in various
parts of the country.
According
to the Ministry of Home Affairs, since 2000, each year, an average of 329
people lost their lives due to various disasters and property loss of more than
1 billion rupees.
Types of Hazard
|
Prevalence
|
Natural Hazards
|
|
Earthquake
|
All of Nepal is a high-hazard
earthquake zone
|
Flood
|
Terai (sheet flood), Middle Hills
|
Landslide and landslide dam breaks
|
Hills, Mountains
|
Debris flow
|
Hills and Mountain, severe in areas of
elevations greater than
1700 m that are covered by glacial
deposits of previous ice-age
|
Glacial Lakes Outburst Floods
|
Origin at the tongue of glaciers in
Higher Himalayas, Higher
Mountains, flow reach down to middle
Hill regions
|
Avalanche
|
Higher Himalayas
|
Fire (forest)
|
Hills and Tarai (forest belt at foot
of southern-most Hills)
|
Drought
|
All over the country
|
Windstorms
|
All over the country
|
Hailstorms
|
Hills
|
Lightening
|
All over the country
|
Human Induced Hazards
|
|
Epedemics
|
Tarai and Hills, also in lower parts
of Mountain region
|
Fire (Settlements)
|
Mostly in Tarai, also in mid-Hill
region
|
Accidents
|
Urban areas, along road network
|
Industrial/ Technological Hazards
|
Urban / industrial areas
|
Soil erosion
|
Hills
|
Social disruptions
|
Follows disaster-affected areas and
politically disturbed areas
|
Disaster
risk reduction initiatives
The
national and international legislative and institutional initiatives taken by
Nepal to reduce the disaster vulnerability are as follows:
- Hyogo Framework of Action (2005-2015)
- Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030)
- Draft Disaster Management Bill and Policy of Nepal
- National Strategy for Disaster Risk Management in Nepal
- National Building Code (NBC)
- National Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA)
- National Disaster Response Framework (NDRF)
- Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA)
- Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan (DPRP)
- Local Disaster Risk Management Planning Guideline, 2011
- Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium
- National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC)
- National Platform for DRR
- Additional Initiatives
- A standardized approach to incident/crisis management that is scalable and flexible;
- Well-organized cooperation and interoperability among responders;
- Inclusive multi-hazards preparedness at all levels;
- Efficient resource coordination among the stakeholders and authorities;
- Integration of best practices and lessons learned for continuous improvement.
Key
Messages
- Focus towards cost effective DRR
- Build aware, prepared and empowered community
- Build trained, equipped and connected state disaster response force
- Enhance cooperation among DRR stakeholders
- Adopt sustainable development by recognizing the interrelationship between disaster and development
- Learn lessons from huge disasters such as: 2015 Gorkha Earthquake and Build Back Better (BBB)
- Maintain DRR momentum after the immediate disaster response
Data,
facts and figures: 2013 and 2014
· Major disaster in 2013
§ Landslide in Jumla, Badaki killed 8 people.
§ Fire
of April affected 172 families in Parsa district.
§ Another
fire of April affected 250 families in Bardia district.
§ Floods
and landslides of June killed 1 person and affected 317 families in Khalange,
Darchula.
§ Another
landslide of June killed 8 people and affected 114 families in Malika, Dailekh.
In this year thunderbolt claimed highest
number of human deaths. A total of 146 people lost their lives due to
thunderbolt in 2013 followed by the floods that claimed 132 lives. Landslide
killed 87 people, fire killed 59 and various other disasters killed 36 people.
Other disasters e.g. cold wave, epidemics, heat wave, air crash, boat capsize,
windstorm, heavy rainfall, drowning, avalanches etc. killed 36 people. In
this way, a total of 460 people were killed by various types of natural
disasters in the year 2013.
·
Major disaster in 2014
§ The
‘Jure Landslide’ of Sindhupalchowk killed 33 people, 123 have been missing and
affected 478 families.
§ Floods
and landslides of August killed 211 people and affected 35,989 families in
Banke , Bardia, Surkhet and Dang districts.
Floods alone killed 128 people in 2014
and most of them were killed in Mid-Western Region of Nepal. This year
thunderbolt stood at third position which killed 96 people while it was number
one killer in the year 2013. Landslide killed 113 people; fire claimed the
death of 62 people, snowstorm (Hudhud) killed 28 people and all other remaining
disasters such as: heat weave, cold weave, animal attack etc. killed 60 people.
A total of 487 people lost their lives due to the above mentioned disasters
in the year 2014. This year, more people were killed than in the previous
year.
Comparison
of 2013 and 2014
Human death by
major disasters
|
|||||||
Disaster
|
Fire
|
Flood
|
Thunderbolt
|
Landslide
|
Snowstorm
|
Other
|
Total
|
2013
|
59
|
132
|
146
|
87
|
0
|
36
|
460
|
2014
|
62
|
128
|
96
|
113
|
28
|
60
|
487
|
Human death by
minor disasters
|
Human death,
missing and injury
|
|||||
Disaster
|
2013
|
2014
|
2013
|
2014
|
||
Drowning
|
7
|
8
|
Death
|
460
|
487
|
|
Windstorm
|
3
|
3
|
Missing
|
165
|
357
|
|
Heavy
Rainfall
|
5
|
5
|
Injured
|
517
|
473
|
|
High
Altitude
|
0
|
1
|
||||
Air
Crash
|
1
|
14
|
||||
Boat
Capsize
|
7
|
8
|
||||
Avalanche
|
7
|
10
|
||||
Epidemic
|
4
|
11
|
||||
Cold
Wave
|
2
|
0
|
||||
Total
|
36
|
60
|
||||
Human death,
missing and injured by months
|
||||||
Months
|
Human
death
|
Human
missing
|
Human
injured
|
|||
2013
|
2014
|
2013
|
2014
|
2013
|
2014
|
|
January
|
20
|
14
|
0
|
0
|
37
|
25
|
February
|
22
|
19
|
0
|
0
|
19
|
32
|
March
|
34
|
12
|
1
|
3
|
89
|
29
|
April
|
37
|
35
|
2
|
3
|
99
|
52
|
May
|
21
|
45
|
7
|
3
|
62
|
55
|
June
|
95
|
46
|
40
|
0
|
50
|
77
|
July
|
77
|
35
|
55
|
14
|
34
|
36
|
August
|
73
|
150
|
35
|
250
|
49
|
119
|
September
|
57
|
60
|
20
|
20
|
45
|
39
|
October
|
10
|
68
|
4
|
64
|
18
|
7
|
November
|
4
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
2
|
December
|
10
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
12
|
0
|
Total
|
460
|
487
|
165
|
357
|
517
|
473
|
Reference
National Disaster Report, 2015
