Nepal: Urban resilience in Pokhara (Part 1)

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.

Enhancing the capacity of vulnerable communities to
reduce the impact of disaster

BDRC has focused efforts to strengthen disaster resilience of the most vulnerable community groups in Pokhara, specifically those living in the slum areas of the city. The NRRC visited one slum area in Pokhara that the project was supporting. Most people living in these areas are migrants from West Nepal who have come in search of work. These slum areas are directly in the path of a potential flood from the Seti River. Before BDRC, these communities had little awareness of how they could organize and reduce their collective vulnerability to disaster.

The BDRC supported these communities to link them with government mechanisms to make their voice heard. Specifically, the BDRC established REFLECT community groups which brought a sense of organization whereby community people could discuss and raise issues and identify what means were available to address these issues to be brought to the disaster management committee for action. By linking the grass roots REFLECT community group with the disaster management committee, the community is now aware of how they can have their needs addressed. Already, the REFLECT group identified a need for an evacuation bridge in the event of a flood. Previously, the community was helpless if a flood were to occur as they had no defined evacuation route from the at risk area. However, as a group, REFLECT raised their concerns with the disaster management committee, which reports to the municipal ward and where actions can be taken. Through this process and support from BDRC, an evacuation bridge was built, giving community members a level of safety they did not have before.

In addition to supporting communities to organize and work within government structures, BDRC is strengthening the financial resilience of community members. Most individuals in the slum areas are either unemployed or work in the dangerous field of collecting sand , gravel and boulder from the river. Research has demonstrated that the poor are the most vulnerable to disasters; as they tend to live in high risk areas and lack the financial capacity to recovery quickly from disaster. By focussing on livelihoods, BDRC is providing those in poor communities with skill based livelihood trainings. These trainings are based on market demand in order to increase the employment opportunity to those being trained; trainings include plumbing, electrical house wiring , cooking and mechanical driving .

In addition to the practical trainings in these areas, participants are developing the confidence and social skills to be leaders and active contributors to their communities. With a higher income in an industry less vulnerable to the shocks of disasters, the participants of these livelihoods training through BDRC are contributing to strengthen their financial resilience to disaster.