Govt-community should work together to prevent economic loss

Lalitpur, Apr. 26

Japanese disaster experts on Friday said that the state and communities need to work together in reducing vulnerability in order to prevent huge economic loss.

"Disasters cause serious damage to economies. Haiti lost about 123 per cent of its total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010 earthquake," Professor at the Disaster Mitigation Research Centre at the Nagoya University Satoru Nishikawa said at the fourth anniversary commemoration seminar of the devastating 2015 Gorkha Earthquake.

The US$ 6.48 billion economy of Haiti witnessed the loss of US $ 8 billion in the tremors and the entire economy had collapsed, Nishikawa said.

Similarly, Guyana experienced loss equivalent to about 59 per cent of its GDP in the 2005 floods, Tajikistan about 23 per cent of GDP in the 2008 extreme temperature and Thailand about 13 per cent of its GDP in the 2011 floods.

Nepal witnessed a loss of about US $ 9.3 billion in the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake which was about 35 per cent of its then economy.

Many businesses, specially the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the mid-hills and mountains, were damaged while some of the infrastructure projects such as the Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project experienced a serious geological damage.

Prof. Nishikawa further said that since the vulnerability scared away the foreign tourists and investors, the economy might get worse in the future.

"People at the lowest rung in the society are the most vulnerable and tend to suffer worse during the disasters. They are easily and repeatedly hit by the disasters, and chain of poverty can cause social unrest," he said.

He said that the loss of livelihood pushes more people into poverty.

Similarly, Shu Oyama, Deputy Mayor of Higashi-Matsushima City in Miyagi, Japan, said that building city was about building people, therefore, helping in the neighbourhood and revitalisation of the community should be given topmost priority in the post-disaster recovery efforts.

Senior Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Nepal Kozo Nagami recommended the government to enhance the capacity of the Department of Archaeology (DoA) to facilitate the early and resilient rebuilding of the damaged cultural heritages and historic monuments.

"We want to enhance the capacity of the DoA in order to facilitate the reconstruction of the crucial cultural and historical heritages damaged in the country. There is a small cooperation, one JICA expert is deployed at the DoA to implement the rebuilding plan of Shiva Temple and Degu Taleju Temple at the Hanumandhoka Durbar Square," he said.  

He pointed towards the need for creating strong connections and cooperation among the stakeholders to preserve and recreate the heritage.

Chief Executive Officer of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Sushil Gyawali said that the proposed National Disaster Management Authority would work in disaster preparedness and risk mitigation in the future.

The seminar on 'Sharing of experiences and lessons learned on build back better recovery' was jointly organised by JICA and the NRA.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 27 April 2019.