Home Minister alarmed by increased intensity of natural disasters due to climate change

KATHMANDU:  Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak has said the climate change is making the natural disasters more challenging.

Addressing the Third National Disaster Risk Reduction Conference here today, he reiterated that disaster risk mitigation is the need of the hour.

"Our country is full of geographical, ecological and social diversity. There is high risk of natural and man-made disasters in our country due to its geographical, climatic and environmental structure. It is necessary to built stronger structures for disaster risk reduction," the Home Minister said, pointing out the need of building strong and resilient structures related to disaster risk reduction from the federal to the local level wards.

Stating that the nation is at high risk in terms of disaster risk, the Home Minister stressed on the need of taking initiative for minimizing the disaster risk.

"I am confident that this conference will be important in terms of analyzing the disaster-related challenges and devising the strategy for addressing them, bringing together the multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional partners across the country," he said, adding that Nepal is one among the countries throughout the world which are highly sensitive in terms of the natural and man-made disaster hazards.

"Nepal has varied geography comprising the mountainous, hilly and the Tarai (plains) regions, which has made us rich in terms of natural resources, but there is the history that the country is extremely vulnerable from the viewpoint of disaster risk," Home Minister Lekhak explained.

According to him, growing incidents like flood, landslide, lightning and other climate change-induced disasters in recent years have made the issue more complicated. "The growing intensity of the disasters has made us even more vulnerable to climate change challenges. Our perspective towards disaster management should be multi-dimensional and scientific," he emphasized on the occasion.

Home Minister Lekhak said a community-based perspective and the active participation of the community are indispensable for disaster risk mitigation initiatives.

"Priority should be given to disaster management plan formulation, capacity enhancement and public awareness-raising at the local level. It is necessary to strengthen the policies and Acts related to disaster management as well as to ensure their effective implementation," he reiterated.

The Home Minister also argued that the damage caused due to disasters could be minimized by boosting the natural disaster forecasting technology and information system. He also shared on the occasion that Nepal has made significant progress in policy formulation and structural reforms in connection to disaster risk reduction and management.