'Let's build quake resistant structures by using local resources and technology'

 Kathmandu, Jan. 15

Nepal is observing the 26^th Earthquake Safety Day 2080 on Tuesday with various awareness and educational programmes across the country.

The main ceremony of the event is being organised in Chandragiri Municipality of Kathmandu district with the slogan 'Let's also use local resources and technology, let's build an earthquake resistant structure!!', according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA).

The country observes the Earthquake Safety Day on Magh 2 of Nepali calendar (which falls on January 16 this year) in the memory of the devastating earthquake of 1934 that killed more than 8,500 people and damaged more than 300,000 houses. Nepal started to commemorate this day since 1998.

According to Brahma Shumsher who wrote a book on the 1934 quake a year later, the quake hit central Nepal at 2:24 PM and tremors lasted for about 2 minutes. In a week following the quake, there were more than 28 aftershocks.

Since the country is said to be the 11^th in terms of the potential earthquake risks and has experienced powerful tremors in about every 100 years in the past several centuries, the Safety Day holds significance here.

Historian Mahesh Raj Pant has maintained that the oldest recorded earthquake that hit the nation was happened in 1280 BS (1223 AD).

The earthquake in 2015, which rocked the country about 81 years after the 1934 quake, killed 8,970 people and damaged about 800,000 houses, cultural heritages, education and health facilities as well as several development infrastructures.

A recent earthquake on November 13 last year killed 154 people in Jajarkot and Rukum West and damaged more than 26,000 houses.

Meanwhile, a three-year long risk assessment project undertaken by the government and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that concluded in February 2018, has estimated that if a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits central Nepal in the south, about 22,000 people would die, and 44.7 per cent of the residential buildings would be damaged in the Kathmandu Valley alone.

This projection was based on the ground shaking behaviour in the Kathmandu Valley during the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake. The estimates are made for the next one and a half decades. It also projected that about 86,860 people would be injured if a 7.8 Richter scale quake hits the nation, and 1,196,080 people would be in the need of evacuation.

Meanwhile, the federal ministries, provincial governments, district administration offices, district coordination committees, local governments and National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) are collaborating to mark the day with various events.

It is also decided to provide posters with the slogan of Earthquake Safety Day to schools across the country through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and to conduct awareness programmes related to earthquakes.

In addition, classes on earthquake safety as well as conduct artificial event practice (simulation) will be conducted at every school on that day in partnership with the concerned local government.

There have been projections of the possibility of a powerful earthquake in the western region of Nepal as this region has not received a major jolt in the last four or five centuries.

Speaking a programme in Lalitpur a couple of weeks ago, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' said that the earthquakes in Jajarkot, Bajhang and Doti within a year have foreshadowed this.

Even a year ago, 6 people died and hundreds of houses were damaged due to Doti-Bajura earthquake.

PM Prachanda said that there is indifference in the pre-disaster risk assessment and the corresponding structures and preparations. "Therefore, the series of earthquakes this time has forced us to have risk-resistant structures and continuous preparations accordingly. Now my emphasis is on making rapid preparations for reconstruction, preparing earthquake resistant designs, making strong structures and arranging sufficient budget," he had said, "This work should not be delayed."

The government has also maintained that it will not create another reconstruction body to carry out the post-quake rebuilding in Jajarkot and Rukum West but amend the laws to further empower the NDRRMA by equipping it with resources and by strengthening its organisational structure of this authority.

PM Prachanda had already instructed the Authority to make an action plan for adequate preparations for search and rescue equipment, tents for relief and other materials to be made in all provincial godowns, district godowns and local levels.

Similarly, the Cabinet has already decided that the Chief Secretary of the government will study and submit a report regarding the insurance of all buildings and structures including personal residences and government offices. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 16 January 2024.