Kathmandu, July 28

The National Assembly has suggested the government to adopt measures for disaster risk mitigation and management.

A team of lawmakers led by Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, chairperson of the upper House, recently visited different parts of the country after the incidents of floods, landslides and inundation claimed more than 100 lives throughout the country. The Tarai region was the worst-hit by rain-induced disasters.

The NA report recommended that the government prepare a master plan for lasting solution to problems facing people in the Tarai for decades due to floods and landslides during monsoon.

The NA has also urged the concerned authorities to make necessary diplomatic efforts with Indian counterparts for ending inundation problem in the Tarai settlements.

“Disproportionate exploitation of the Chure range has rendered the Tarai and Madhes more vulnerable to natural disasters. Therefore, the government should do needful to curb the ongoing encroachment of the Chure range,” the report stated.

It has also urged the government to incorporate the victims of flood and inundation into People’s Housing Programme which is currently limited to Dalits and highly disadvantaged families.

The government has been suggested to funnel the budget of this fiscal allotted for PHP in Province 2, bearing in mind hundreds of families rendered homeless as a result of the recent disasters in the province.

“The NA requests the government to relocate vulnerable settlements to safe places by making a policy of prohibiting settlements in disaster-prone areas,” it read.

The team of lawmakers during its field visits found that some embankments constructed on rivers banks under the People’s Embankment

Programme had been collapsed or were swept away by floods. It urged the government to review the programme’s modality to ensure quality of embankments and  their durability by developing an effective standard.

“It is necessary to redesign postal roads with culverts and bridges and humes pipes for drainage of rainwater. It is important to carry out plantation on the riverbanks by attaching priority to bioengineering, end encroachment on catchment area of rivers, put an end to the practice of constructing road infrastructure without environmental study, regulate and control the extraction of river products and establish emergency fund at local levels,” the report stated.

The NA has also stressed the need for coordination among the federal, provincial and local levels to enhance their disaster management capacity. Security agencies should be equipped with resource for effective search, rescue and relief operations and the locals should be equipped with resource for disaster management, according to the report.