Emphasis laid on making disaster-resilient country

Stakeholders and participants in a national conference pointed out the need to exchange information and experiences of studies, research, inventions and innovative activities undertaken from government, semi-government and non-government, private and the academic sector in the field of disaster risk reduction and management.

At a conference organized by the Ministry of Home Affairs in association of various stakeholder organizations here today, they underscored the need to increase investment in disaster risk reduction and livelihood protection programmes to make Nepal a disaster-resilient country.

In the conference themed 'Innovation and Enterprises for Disaster Resilient Nepal', Binod Singh, secretary at the MoHA said that it was necessary for one and all to pay attention towards the increasing incidents of natural disasters due to climate change lately and the impoverished communities being hardest hit.

He lamented that although Nepal was ahead in terms of laws and policies on disasters risk reduction and management (DRRM), lax implementation had led to massive natural disasters annually incurring huge loss of lives and properties.

Man Thapa, representative of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre, said the indigenous practices of local communities in emergency response in Nepal implemented since 2053 BS was not only exemplary within the country but also in Asian countries.

He shared that Nepal had accomplished many exemplary work in the sector of lightning, another natural disaster that has been claiming hundreds of lives in the country annually.

Similarly, Anil Pokharel, Chief Executive Officer at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority viewed that in lack of adequate research on DRRM from government agencies and lack of coordinated efforts to implementation of research and studies by various agencies, huge losses were being incurred in Nepal.

Likewise, Dinesh Shrestha, Vice-President of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce, said that industrial sector was also affected by disasters and the private sector had been joining efforts in search and rescue and other post-disaster operations such as relief distribution and rehabilitation under the corporate social responsibility of the private enterprises.

Pradeep Koirala, Joint-Secretary at the MoHA, argued that a lot of loss of lives and properties would be prevented if local knowledge, skills and experiences were leveraged for DRRM.

During the event, various presentations were made on disaster risk reduction and management related innovations in Nepal and researches from academic sector.