Kathmandu, June 18

Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa today said the government would have to take responsibility for around 900 lives lost annually in the country due to natural disasters.

Natural disasters are natural events, but losses are due to weaknesses in government policies and programmes, said Thapa. He was speaking at the International Conference on Experience of Earthquake Risk Management, Preparedness and Reconstruction in Nepal on the theme of Risk2 Resilience organised by the Home Ministry, National Society for Earthquake Technology Nepal Academy of Science and Technology and National Reconstruction Authority.

“Nature is not an obstacle to mankind and its development, but people’s mentality. Earthquake itself does not kill people, but human-created structures do. Floods and landslides too are not hindrances to mankind, but people suffer due to their ignorance and erroneous laws and policies,” he said. Home Secretary Prem Kumar Rai, NRA CEO Yubraj Bhusal, and NAST Vice-chancellor Jeebraj Pokharel also spoke on disaster risk reduction and management.

Papers were presented by Chief Secretary of Province 3 Reshmi Raj Pandey on Policy Intervention and National Building Code Implementation, and Former Minister and lawmaker Ganga Lal Tuladhar on Parliamentarians for Enhancing Political Commitments for Disaster Risk Management.