Nepal: Urban resilience in Pokhara (Part 2)

Nepal is defined by its diversity and natural beauty, highlighted by the majestic young mountain range of the Himalayas. But this beauty comes at a steep price. Nepal is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to natural disasters, suffering from floods, landslides and fire throughout the year while living in constant fear of an impending large earthquake.

In order to limit the impact of disaster, the Government of Nepal launched the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium (NRRC); a coordination mechanism that brings together diverse partners with the aim of strengthening resilience to disaster. Under the NRRC, 5 Flagship priorities have been set with each flagship coordinated by a government ministry and international agency. These flagships are:

1) School and Hospital Safety
2) Emergency Preparedness and Response
3) Flood Management in the Kosi River Basin
4) Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction
5) Policy and Institutional Support for Disaster Risk Management

An emerging issue is urban risk as Nepal is the fastest urbanising country in South Asia. This urbanisation is being done in a haphazard manner with little planning and poor infrastructure. As a result, urban populations are increasing their vulnerability to natural disasters, specifically earthquakes. The concept of urban risk reduction is relatively new in the disaster risk reduction field. The issues surrounding urban risk reduction are complex and cut across several of the Flagship programs of the NRRC. The focus of urban risk reduction has been primarily focused on the Kathmandu Valley; the most at-risk city in the world to earthquakes. However, Nepal has 57 other growing cities; each requiring comprehensive disaster risk reduction to strengthen resilience to disaster.

With funding from DfID, Practical Action and ActionAid have been working, under the Building Disaster Resilience of Communities (BDRC), to strengthen resilience in Pokhara, Nepal’s 2nd largest city, a popular urban destination for tourists and highly vulnerable to disaster. The NRRC joined the BDRC team to learn more about community based urban risk reduction in Pokhara.

Pokhara is highly vulnerable to a variety of disasters, including floods and earthquakes. Urban growth in Pokhara has been rapid, with many of the most built-up areas (26% increased of built up land in the last 20 years) occurring in the highest risk parts of the city. Much of this construction has been done haphazardly with a lacking compliance or enforcement of earthquake resistant building codes. In addition, many vulnerable communities live directly under the threat of flood from the powerful Seti River. In 2010, a flash flood in the Seti wreaked havoc for communities downstream in Pokhara. Given this high disaster risk, the BDRC project is working on a multi-faceted approach to strengthening disaster resilience, with particular focus on vulnerable groups in Pokhara.
BDRC has 3 overall objectives:

1) Enhancing the capacity of vulnerable communities to reduce the impact of disaster
2) Mainstreaming and strengthening institutional capacity to implement disaster risk reduction
3) Supporting small mitigation measure to immediately reduce vulnerability to disaster.

In a field visit with BDRC, the NRRC was given the opportunity to witness activities related to each of these objectives.

Mainstreaming and strengthening institutional capacity to implement disaster risk reduction

The sustainability of disaster risk reduction requires comprehensive integration into government institutions. The BDRC has been working actively with the Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City to ensure government processes and local bodies are actively involved in disaster risk reduction. This mainstreaming is primarily through the enforcement of Nepal National Building Code in Pokhara and through a government led and community based early warning system.

Construction of Earthquake resistance buildings are a crucial component to urban resilience to disaster. Nepal Government has passed Nepal National Building Code that incorporates the need to earthquake resistant building constructions. However, the implementation, enforcement and compliance to the building code is lacking which has led to haphazard construction and the creation of new risk, mainly in urban areas. The enforcement of the building code is the responsibility of municipal authorities. The BDRC has been working with officials from Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City to ensure building code implementation is a core element in new building permits.

As a result of BDRC support, the Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City has established a Earthquake Safety Section section solely responsible for compliancy checking of submitted structural design/drawings of new buildings with National Building Code. This section is responsible for the building permission and monitoring of building constructions at field. In order to promote building code implementation, the building permit approval process has been revised to incorporate earthquake safety aspects. New building requests are required to obtain permits to begin construction. The application for a permit has been updated to ensure that building requests submit the necessary design/drawings that details how earthquake safety features will be incorporated. The municipal authorities are then responsible for reviewing and approving these designs before a permit can be issued. With this process in place, municipal authorities have noticed an increase in their capacity to review and ensure building designs are complied with National Building Code. However, they still highlight the need to strengthen awareness of building code and to increase capacity to visit construction sites to ensure compliance.

The BDRC is also working with the District Emergency Operating Centre (DEOC) and communities to establish an early warning system for floods. An early warning system will provide vulnerable communities critical warning of impending flood risks which will allow these communities to gather their valuables and evacuate to a safe area. This early warning system is also linked with the DEOC to monitor water levels and ensure information is being shared between communities and government institutions, which will strengthen warning and response to disaster.