Cover Photo: Training on search and rescue techniques using local resources, Kailali district Photo Courtesy: Mercy Corps Government of Nepal Ministry of Home Affairs NEPAL DISASTER REPORT 2011 Policies, Practices and Lessons Empowered lives. Resilient nations. Editorial Board Amod Mani Dixit Bishal Nath Upreti, Ph.D. Deepak Paudel Pitambar Aryal Pradip Kumar Koirala Shyam Sundar Jnavaly Surya Narayan Shrestha Contributors Bhubaneswari Parajuli Bijay Krishna Upadhyay Gopi Krishna Basyal Khadga Sen Oli Nisha Shrestha Niva Upreti Suraj Shrestha Suresh Chaudhary Reviewers Meen B. Poudyal Chhetri, Ph.D. Ramesh Guragain Design and Layout Chandan Dhoj Rana Magar Published by Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), Government of Nepal; and Disaster Preparedness Network-Nepal (DPNet-Nepal) with support from United Nations Development Programme Nepal (UNDP), ActionAid Nepal and National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET) This publication is copyright. But any part of this publication may be cited, copied, translated into other languages or adapted to meet local needs without prior permission from Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) and Disaster Preparedness Network-Nepal (DPNet-Nepal) provided that the source is clearly stated. The opinions and recommendations expressed or mentioned in this report do not necessarily represent the official position and policy of the Ministry of Home Affairs and DPNet-Nepal. ISBN: 978-99933-710-1-4 To order Nepal Disaster Report 2011, Contact Disaster Preparedness Network-Nepal (DPNet-Nepal) C/O NRCS, Red Cross Road, Kalimati Phone: 977 01 6226613, 977 01 4672165; Fax no: 977 01 4672165 Email: [email protected]; Website: http://www.dpnet.org.np Foreword | iii Acknowledgement | v Editorial NEPAL DISASTER REPORT 2011 Policies, Practices and Lessons tries to become a compendium of understanding, concepts, experiences and lessons of disaster risk management (DRM) and emergency response planning and capacity building in Nepal. It tries to reflect the current status of DRM in Nepal including peoples' aspiration and portrays the efforts made by people and agencies - the government at the central and local levels, the international development partners, the civil society and national private businesses, Editorial and the people at the ward, tole (neighborhood) and community levels, to get out of the vicious cycle of poverty and disaster vulnerabilities. Thus, this document is a compilation of facts of disaster occurrence and the efforts made in Nepal in reducing the impact of the disasters and in getting prepared for future events. The document looks into the level of natural hazards the country is exposed to, tries to explore the social, economic, and political meanings of disasters for the country, and tries to make a case on why and how Nepal should address the issues of disaster risk management in order to preserve and enhance the well-known resilience of the Nepalese to adversaries and vagaries of nature, safeguard peoples' life and property, and ensure incorporation of disaster risk reduction (DRR) into our developmental efforts. The message of this document is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1: Disaster Management in Nepal – An Overview lays out the context by providing facts on natural hazards in Nepal and their causative factors. It also provides a chronology of the development of DRM processes in the country including the government's initiatives in creating suitable policy and legal environments for effective DRR and response planning starting from the promulgation of the Natural Calamity (Relief) Act, 1982. These are given in the background of large disasters the country faced due to the 1988 Udaypur Earthquake, 1993 Floods in South-Central Nepal, lessons learned from managing these devastating events and the consequent milestone initiatives of the government such as the formulation of the National Building Code and the establishment of sector-specific Working Groups on Health, Logistics, Food and Agriculture etc. The establishment of the Disaster Prevention Technical Centre (DPTC), which subsequently metamorphosed into the Department of Water-induced Disaster Prevention (DWIDP), institutionalization of the annual Earthquake Safety Day, formulation and promulgation of the Local Self-Governance Act 1999, the Study on Earthquake Disaster Mitigation in Kathmandu Valley (SEDM) by MoHA and JICA in 2000-2002, efforts on Climate Change Impact Adaptation, constitution of the National Platform on DRR, formulation of the National Strategy for Disaster Risk Management (NSDRM), 2009 and drafting of the Disaster Risk Management Bill, preparation of Disaster Preparedness and Response Plans for a majority of districts, establishment and commissioning of the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), creation of Disaster Cluster Groups, participation of Nepal in Global initiatives in DRR including the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) and the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), participation in the formulation of Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA) and translation of its meaning to Nepalese context, formulation of National Action Plan for Disaster Management, participation in Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. vi | Nepal Disaster Report 2011 Experiences gained and lessons learned from such rich engagement of the government have also been described. Further, this Chapter 1 also reports on the milestone initiatives undertaken by the civil society organizations and NGOs and the lessons learned: e.g. establishment of Disaster Editorial Management section in the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), establishment of National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET) and implementation of the Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Risk Management Program (KVERMP), establishment and landmark contributions of Disaster Preparedness Network-Nepal (DPNet-Nepal), Disaster Management Network Nepal (DiMaNN), National Network of Community Disaster Management Committee (N-NCDMC), Nepal Geological Society (NGS), Nepal Landslide Society (NELS), The Society of Hydrologists and Meteorologists – Nepal (SOHAM-Nepal), Nepal GIS Society (NEGISS), Association of International NGOs (AIN), and the Centre for Disaster Studies of the Institute of Engineering (IOE). Collective efforts of networks and agencies under such milestone programs as DIPECHO projects, Developing DRR Terminologies in Nepali language, efforts on sensitizing CA Members on DRR, Mainstreaming DRR in Nepal's Education System, Study on Strengthening Legal Preparedness for International Disaster Response are also described in terms of their contribution, impacts, challenges and lessons learned. Chapter 2: Disaster Data Analysis for 2010 provides disaster statistics for Nepal during 1971-2010, with detailed description and analysis of disaster data for the year 2010. It reports that epidemic presents itself as the most lethal hazard with a total toll of 16,521 deaths from 3,413 events during the period of past four decades. The second and third hazards with huge toll of life are landslide and flood respectively. There were 95 episodes of damaging earthquake in Nepal or its surroundings, with a total toll of 873 lives dead. One has to remember that the medium sized Udaypur Earthquake of 1988 alone was responsible for a death toll of 721 persons and collapse / damage to several thousand houses. Epidemics (130 deaths), and Landslide (67 deaths), Fire (61 deaths), Flood (27 deaths) were the most lethal hazards in the year 2010. There were a total of 1,551 disaster events in the year (almost three events per day) and more than two disaster-related deaths per day. Total monetary losses due to disaster in 2010 amounted almost to 11 billion Nepali Rupees or about 1 % of GDP. The year 2010 is witnessed less disaster impact in comparison to the years 2008, and 2009. Chapter 3: Impacts and Lessons of Major Past Disasters reports the event details, casualty and other societal impacts, damage to the different sector of economy including building, infrastructure, and provides an account of emergency response made. The events considered are the Udaypur Earthquake of 1988, the 1993 Flood of South-Central Nepal, Koshi Flood of 2008, and the 2009 Jajarkot Diarrhea Outbreak. While the events as well as the impacts have been described in details, the report has tried to distill out the major lessons and the needs for intervention in national mechanism of response in a strategic way. Chapter 4: Good Practices of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) provides details accounts of about 13 DRM programs and concepts implemented in Nepal and rightly considered as the "Good Practices". These are: 1) Disaster Preparedness and Response | vii Planning for all administrative districts of Nepal, 2) Early Warning System - Forewarned is forearmed – a flood early warning system in Kailali district, 3) Establishing Community Based Early Warning Systems in Nepal – a flood early warning system implemented in Chitwan and Nawalparasi districts of Nepal, 4) Promoting Safer Construction Practice- Training the masons in Nepal, 5) Building Code Implementation in Dharan Municipality, 6) Child Centered Disaster Risk Reduction in Sunsari District, 7) DRR Income Generation Program (IGP)/Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction Program implemented in Ilam, Jhapa and Panchthar districts, 8) Developing and Implementing Emergency Response Plan of Bheri Zonal Hospital, 9) School Earthquake Safety Program (SESP), 10) Disaster Editorial Preparedness for Safer Schools (DPSS), 11) Community