A large number of infrastructure within the core areas of KMC are vulnerable to earthquake. Though KMC has made it mandatory for all newly-built infrastructure to follow the building code, the old buildings could cause the most damage to property and human lives during an earthquake

Kathmandu, January 23:

Earthquake preparedness activities were completely stopped after Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s only section, which looked into disaster management, was scrapped a year ago.

It was only during the week-long Earthquake Preparedness Day celebration that KMC realised the significance of the Disaster Management Section under pressure from various groups.

From January 1999 onwards, Nepal started celebrating Magh 2 as Earthquake Preparedness Day commemorating the Magh 2, 1990 BS earthquake, the biggest one ever experienced in Nepal.

Following the scrapping of the disaster management section during KMC’s restructuring, the Social Welfare Department was combined with the Public Health Department to form the joint Public Health and Social Welfare Department.

According to officials, the newly-formed department would look after activities related with disaster management but no work has been conducted since its formation.

“Maybe the KMC did not think about the section’s significance,” said Kumari Rai, who was looking after the disaster management section under the Social Welfare Department. “It was difficult conducting activities even while we had a separate section for disaster management. And following its scrapping no activity has been carried out since,” she said. Since its inception in 2001 the section organised awareness campaigns. The section’s objectives were to identify disaster prone areas and make information available to the local inhabitants.

They also conducted preparedness and mitigation programme to reduce the loss of lives and damage to properties caused during an earthquake. Also it intended to make arrangements for security, relief, rehabilitation and temporary settlements for disaster victims.

Rai, however, said the section did not have collective information about the total numbers of activities the section conducted. She used to devise plans and programmes as per the section’s objectives and implement them. The section, in coordination with the concerned bodies, collected information on disasters and update the information regularly, identified disaster prone areas and carried out studies and researches on them.

Also it prepared maps and drawings of the areas prone to disaster and collected information and organised awareness programmes which they disseminated through various media.

It also had plans to maintain a record of the organisations and associations in the city and in the neighbouring areas which were engaged in disaster relief work, make arrangements to set up a natural disaster relief fund, form a disaster task force and help the organisations and associations concerned coordinate during relief work, collect detailsof the damage caused by disaster and analyse it, help make arrange--ments for temporary settlements for the disaster victims, supply goods and materials necessary during relief operations.

It is KMC’s duty to work towards achieving public participation and help from donor agencies for the reconstruction of natural disaster-affected areas and bring about coordination among these agencies during reconstruction.

However, chief executive officer of KMC Dinesh Thapaliya claimed that KMC had recently reinstated the section as it felt the importance of disaster preparedness in the city. He confessed that nobody has been deployed to look after the section yet.

“We are thinking about working on this matter soon,” he said today. He tried to defend the decision of scrapping the section by claiming that its works involved coordinating with various departments which was difficult.

“We will form a Disaster Management Committee under the leadership of the KMC mayor,” he said.

Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City became the first municipality to implement the building code five years ago and KMC followed suit a year later.

KMC began implementing the building code which helps in constructing better infrastructure though they might not be fully earthquake resistant.

Executive director of National Society for Earthquake Technology Nepal Amod Mani Dixit said KMC’s decision to scrap the section was a tragic move.

“A section alone is not enough to look after disaster management in the metropolis. At least one director-level committee should be formed,” he said.

According to Dixit, a large number of infrastructure within the core areas of KMC are vulnerable to earthquake.

Though KMC has made it mandatory for all newly-built infrastructure to follow the building code, the old buildings could cause the most damage to property and human lives during an earthquake.

Hence the KMC, being the only metropolis of the nation, should come up with an exemplary move to keep its people safe during disasters.

Also timely arrangements for relief and proper awareness campaigns could decrease the damage which could be caused significantly. As Dixit said an earthquake of a high magnitude could take our civilisation back by as far as 50 years. Therefore it is time for KMC to seriously think about disaster preparedness.

1934’s earthquake:

• Lives lost 8,519 — 4, 296 in Kathmandu Valley, 2,244 in Lalitpur, 1,328 in

Bhaktapur and 724 in Kathmandu

district

• Houses completely damaged—4,084

in Kathmandu Valley, 1,000 in Patan, 2,359 in Bhaktapur, 725 in

Kathmandu district

• 10, 168 houses severely damaged— 4,170 in Patan, 3,735 in Bhaktapur, 2,263 in Kathmandu district