By Kshitiz Siwakoti, Kathmandu, June 15: The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) has claimed that they are more prepared than ever this year to mitigate the impact of floods and landslides for this monsoon season. 

Anil Pokharel, the Chief Executive of the NDRRMA has said that they had conducted meetings across various sectors of the governments, NGOs and organisations like the Red Cross Society to analyse the areas where there is still room for improvement.

“Unlike previous years where 11 clusters ranging from food and security, nutrition, shelter to early recovery were activated after disasters had struck this year we are activating them in advance,” Pokharel said. 

Pokharel further mentioned that they had realised there are not enough resources like tents and life jackets to combat floods and landslides at the district level. “This year we have mobilised more resources at the district level so that districts are better equipped for disaster response,” he added. 

The NDRRMA, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has prepared the 'National Monsoon Early Preparedness and Response Work Plan 2021' according to which it has estimated that around 1.6 million people and around 117,217 people are expected to be affected by floods and landslides respectively during this monsoon season. 

Beda Nidhi Khanal, the undersecretary of the NDRRMA has said out of 1.8 million people estimated to be affected by disasters for this monsoon 500,000 people are estimated to be most vulnerable and hence will require immediate attention. “We have calculated this data based on historical data, trends and predictions for this monsoon,” Khanal added.

Bishnu Dev Yadav, a senior Divisional Engineer at the Department of Water Resources and Irrigation has said that they have been able to mitigate the impact of floods on human lives and property damage by building embankments out of sacks filled with sand and by building gabion walls. “Over the years we have been able to save half of 100 lives that were normally lost during floods,” Yadav said. 

He further mentioned that Nepal’s extremely high elevation difference and vast network of rivers within a small area increases the risk of floods. “The problem of floods have been further exacerbated due to the Indian government elevating embankments along rivers that divide the two countries,” Yadav added.

Engineer Yadav has also expressed his grievances by stating that the construction of structures has happened with the budget provided for the last fiscal year. “We require nearly 15 million rupees for emergency work but we have not been provided with the budget we require for this monsoon season,” he said. 

However, Chief Executive Anil Pokharel has mentioned that there are no lack of funds for this year for disaster response. “The NDRRMA has 1 billion rupees reserved solely for disaster response. Even if the funds dry up we can mobilise the PM relief fund which contains 2 billion rupees,” he said. 

From this year the government has started Impact Based Forecasting which is supposed to provide information before landslides hit to reduce loss of human lives in the nine districts of Sindhupalchok, Gorkha, Rasuwa, Jajarkot, Dailekh, Syangja, Myagdi and Baglung all of which are considered to be vulnerable to landslides. 

According to Pokharel landslides are exacerbated due to haphazard digging of soil to construct roads without any research. “Until last year we had been failing with regards to landslides, however, we hope with this new impact-based forecasting we are able to save more lives this year,” he added.

The ministry of home affairs along with NDRRMA admits that this National Monsoon Early Preparedness and Response Work Plan 2021 is a work in progress and despite meticulous planning, there will still be chinks in the armour. Further to make matters worse Nepal is still trying to recover from the second wave of covid 19 and this coupled with the deadly forest fires Nepal experienced this year have all increased the risk posed by natural disasters.