Nepal: Urban resilience in Pokhara (Part 3)

Nepal is defined by its diversity and natural beauty, highlighted by the majestic young mountain range of the Himalayas. But this beauty comes at a steep price. Nepal is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to natural disasters, suffering from floods, landslides and fire throughout the year while living in constant fear of an impending large earthquake.

In order to limit the impact of disaster, the Government of Nepal launched the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium (NRRC); a coordination mechanism that brings together diverse partners with the aim of strengthening resilience to disaster. Under the NRRC, 5 Flagship priorities have been set with each flagship coordinated by a government ministry and international agency. These flagships are:

1) School and Hospital Safety
2) Emergency Preparedness and Response
3) Flood Management in the Kosi River Basin
4) Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction
5) Policy and Institutional Support for Disaster Risk Management

An emerging issue is urban risk as Nepal is the fastest urbanising country in South Asia. This urbanisation is being done in a haphazard manner with little planning and poor infrastructure. As a result, urban populations are increasing their vulnerability to natural disasters, specifically earthquakes. The concept of urban risk reduction is relatively new in the disaster risk reduction field. The issues surrounding urban risk reduction are complex and cut across several of the Flagship programs of the NRRC. The focus of urban risk reduction has been primarily focused on the Kathmandu Valley; the most at-risk city in the world to earthquakes. However, Nepal has 57 other growing cities; each requiring comprehensive disaster risk reduction to strengthen resilience to disaster.

With funding from DfID, Practical Action and ActionAid have been working, under the Building Disaster Resilience of Communities (BDRC), to strengthen resilience in Pokhara, Nepal’s 2nd largest city, a popular urban destination for tourists and highly vulnerable to disaster. The NRRC joined the BDRC team to learn more about community based urban risk reduction in Pokhara.

Pokhara is highly vulnerable to a variety of disasters, including floods and earthquakes. Urban growth in Pokhara has been rapid, with many of the most built-up areas (26% increased of built up land in the last 20 years) occurring in the highest risk parts of the city. Much of this construction has been done haphazardly with a lacking compliance or enforcement of earthquake resistant building codes. In addition, many vulnerable communities live directly under the threat of flood from the powerful Seti River. In 2010, a flash flood in the Seti wreaked havoc for communities downstream in Pokhara. Given this high disaster risk, the BDRC project is working on a multi-faceted approach to strengthening disaster resilience, with particular focus on vulnerable groups in Pokhara.
BDRC has 3 overall objectives:

1) Enhancing the capacity of vulnerable communities to reduce the impact of disaster
2) Mainstreaming and strengthening institutional capacity to implement disaster risk reduction
3) Supporting small mitigation measure to immediately reduce vulnerability to disaster.

In a field visit with BDRC, the NRRC was given the opportunity to witness activities related to each of these objectives.

Supporting small mitigation measure to immediately reduce vulnerability to disaster

In support of the capacity building and mainstreaming work, the BDRC is supporting mitigation activities to reduce vulnerability of community to disaster. This includes retrofitting works in vulnerable schools and small-scale mitigation works.

The BDRC has selected 11 school buildings that are to be retrofitted or constructed for earthquake resistant. This work will ensure school students are able to study in a safe school environment and it also demonstrates the importance of building code while also providing training to masons on earthquake resistant construction of buildings.

In addition, the BDRC has worked through community groups (such as RELFECT) and government institutions (such as Water Induced Disaster Risk Reduction Office, District Development Committee, Municipality and the disaster management committees atwards) to identify small scale infrastructure projects that are needed. By working through these groups and government institutions, BDRC is providing infrastructure support based on community demand. As a result, an evacuation bridge has been constructed in a vulnerable slum community to ensure community members have a safe escape route from floods. In addition, a watch tower over the Fewa Lake has been constructed to reduce the risk of drowning in the high traffic areas in the lake (this watch tower will be managed by the Armed Police Force).

These small mitigation projects help to immediately reduce vulnerability to disaster while also demonstrating to community members and government officials the importance of disaster risk reduction in strengthening resilience to disaster.