Nation mourns death of thousands

Kathmandu, April 23

As the nation mourns the death of 8,961 people in the last year’s earthquake, disaster preparedness still remains key concern of the people.

No significant effort has been made to enhance the capacity of search and rescue in the event of a devastating earthquake and the trend of constructing buildings and structures haphazardly has not stopped in the absence of proper implementation of building codes and poor performance of the government functionaries.

Work to reconstruct damaged structures has not begun in the earnest due to government’s inefficiency and differences among major parties regarding reconstruction modalities and setting up of an authority.

“Although the government has increased the stock of relief materials in its regional warehouses and has procured some heavy equipment like crane and dozer, we have not been able to develop dedicated trained search and rescue teams. We still lack the manpower and equipment to carry out search and rescue in the rubble of concrete structures,” said Rameshwor Dangal, chief of the Disaster Management Division of Ministry of Home Affairs.

Geologist Prof Bishal Nath Upreti said, “The April 25 earthquake could have been worse in terms of casualties. But fortunately it occurred during day time, that too on Saturday, and not in monsoon or winter. As we live in a seismic zone and big earthquakes can happen any time, we should consider last year’s earthquakes as a wake-up call and enhance disaster preparedness.”

Building codes should be properly implemented while constructing houses, he said. “Unfortunately, we are still building weak structures. Government should not let this happen and should properly monitor and implement building codes. Everywhere in the world, malls and residential buildings are constructed by builders and contractors but here people construct structures on their own,” he said. Political parties and leaders do not have sensitivity towards improving the situation.

Since the April 25 temblor more than 30,000 aftershocks were recorded by the National Seismological Centre, according to its chief Lok Bijaya Adhikari. Of them 448 aftershocks were of above magnitude four, according to him. The experience showed that the earthquakes or aftershocks below magnitude six did not make substantial damage to the structures or the people’s lives, he added.

More than 22,302 people were injured and around one million houses and structures were fully or partially damaged due to the 7.6 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks, according to Nepal Disaster Risk Reduction Portal. The government has estimated that property worth $7 billion was damaged by the temblor and its aftershocks.

Instead of increasing the capacity, National Seismological Centre has cut staff; one year ago it had 14 staffers but now only six remain, according to Adhikari.

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