Disaster management: The way forward in Nepal

By Sheshkanta Kafle

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Nepal is showing no tangible progress despite worldwide efforts to mitigate the effects of disasters at cross-continent level, Nepal’s international commitment in areas of disaster management, investment of both money and labor by the government as well as non-government organizations in disaster mitigation efforts, people’s participation and contributions from other stakeholders. This necessitates a review of all actions and plans related to disaster management (and mitigation) in Nepal.

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Nepal has not yet created ‘the National Council on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management’ as per the provisions of ‘Disaster Risk and Management Act, 2074 (2017)’. It is a matter of both shock and surprise that why Nepal has dithered on setting up such a crucial council despite having committed to same in an international forum discussing ‘disaster’ and its management. This laxity and neglect on the part of the government of Nepal show the absence of political will on this issue. Concerned government agencies are still focusing on emergency response plan and a disaster recovery plan instead of disaster risk reduction and disaster management.

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Disaster risk reduction and management must have a friendly, considerate and sensitive approach to women, children, disabled and senior citizens. The study of disaster management has not yet been treated as high priority subject in Government agencies and other research centers. Nepal has its own peculiarities in the area of disaster risk reduction and management owing to its culture, physical topography, vulnerabilities, nature of disaster and resilience capacity compared to other countries. That is why we need Nepal-specific research in the area of disaster risk reduction and its management.

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The success of disaster risk reduction depends upon the restoration and recovery of damaged property and resilience of the community bouncing back in the normal life pattern after the strike of disaster. What we are doing at this moment is focusing more on the response and recovery phase of disaster management and neglecting the dimension of ‘risk reduction’. Political masters and highly placed officials in Nepal must rise above their selfish goal of diverting the public finance on unnecessary projects for their personal benefits and keep the interest of Nepalese people in ‘center stage’ of their decisions.