Safety Awareness should reach people

Kathmandu, Jan. 15: The nation is celebrating the 21^st Earthquke Safety Day 2019 on Wednesday amidst the reconstruction efforts to rebuild the private houses, cultural and historical monuments, health and education facilities and infrastructure.

The day is marked to comemortae the devastating earthqauke of 1934 that jolted Nepal and northern India.

However, the celebration has become a ritual and failed to reach the people who need information and awareness on quake safety.

The country that is at the epicenter of high-magnitude earthquake, still lacks strong institutional arrangements for the eqrthquake preparedness and post-disaster management. Many experts say the country has not moved much ahead in terms of disaster preparedness.

The 6.9 magnitude Gorkha Earthquake 2015 had devasted 14 districts, killed 9,000 people and damaged almost a million houses in 32 districts across the country. In the subsequent reconstruction efforts, the government tried to regulate the construction and public infrastructure – building codes were amended and a new legal instrument was executed for the quake-resilient reconstruction.

But the villages in the hills of central and western Nepal are full of two-room single storey houses – an irony to the entire reconstruction process.

A family of five in Phuyalgaun in Okhaldhunga has built a two-room house at the cost of Rs. 900,000. But the house is too small for the family so they are building other two rooms structure nearby without following the quake-resilient building code. The house-owner said that the building code was cumbersome and expensive so the new house would be built in a traditional way.

Jhilka Bahadur Majhi of Manthali in Ramechhap district has also built a two-room house which cannot offer the space required for his family. More than three dozen houses in the locality are following the same structure.

The post-quake reconstruction campaign failed to pursuade people that the quake-resilient house was for their own safety and it was not just a mean to obtain the Rs. 300,000 government grant.

The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has at times complained that the political leaders and mass media communited in such a way that the houses damaged in the 2015 quake should be, and of course would be, rebuilt by the government.

Scientists have been saying that the western part of Nepal would be hit by a major earthquake in near future, but there has been poor preparations to conduct rescue, relief and reconstruction operations in case of disaster.

But spokesperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs Ram Krishna Subedi said that Disaster Disaster Relief Committees were active in every district and budget for the disaster management had been sent to the districts.

However, such committees lack technical expertise and need to coordinate with the army, police and other governmetn agencies during disasters.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 16 January 2019.