Organization:Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium

The Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium (NRRC) was launched by the Government of Nepal (GoN) and a group of international organizations working to promote the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) in 2009. It exists to bridge the spectrum of development and humanitarian partners in order to support the Government of Nepal in taking action to implement long-term Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). The founding members of the NRRC were the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and the World Bank. Since 2009, new NRRC members have included AusAid, the Department for International Development (DFID), the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission (ECHO), the embassy of Japan, the US Embassy and the World Health Organization (WHO). The NRRC has developed a Disaster Risk Reduction Action Plan that builds on the GoN National Strategy for Disaster Risk Management (NSDRM). Based on consultations with key stakeholders to identify disaster risk reduction priorities that are urgent and viable, five flagship areas were identified and proposed. Consortium members act as coordinators of these flagship areas together with the relevant Government Ministry.

Location: P.O. Box 107 Kathmandu, Nepal

Background

Nepal is one of the 20 most disaster prone countries in the world with a high level of exposure to multiple hazards, most prominently earthquakes, floods, landslides, windstorms, hail storm, fire, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) and avalanches. Natural disasters have claimed the lives of more than 27,000 people between 1971 and 2007, indicating an average loss of more than 2 lives per day due to natural disasters. More people are killed by natural disasters in Nepal than any other country in South Asia. In addition to high mortality, more than 50,000 people were reported as injured, 3,000 people missing and about 5 million people affected by natural disasters from 1971-2007.

While all of Nepal is at risk of one or more natural disasters, the Kathmandu Valley is particularly vulnerable to a major earthquake. The seismic record of the country suggests that a major earthquake of high magnitude (up to MMI Scale X) occurs approximately every 75 years, with the last one in 1934. Although this only a statistical estimate, it demonstrates that major earthquakes are an unavoidable part of Nepal’s future.

If Kathmandu Valley experiences another earthquake of MMI Scale X, conservative estimates indicate a minimum of 40,000 deaths with 95,000 injuries, 600,000-900,000 homeless and serious damage to critical infrastructure that will reduce operational capacity by more than 50 per cent. As the population continues to grow in Kathmandu alongside a lack of proper land use planning and construction practices and minimal emergency response mechanisms, the effects of a major earthquake will only become more devastating.

Flagship Area 1: School and Hospital Safety

Coordinator: ADB, WHO, Ministry of Health and Population and Ministry of Education

This flagship will save lives building the earthquake resiliency of schools and hospitals through retrofitting, training and raising awareness. A study of school earthquake safety in 2003 revealed that of the 1,100 buildings in 643 public schools in Kathmandu Valley, over 60% were at risk of collapse during a major earthquake. A structural assessment of hospitals and health institutions undertaken in 2003 within Kathmandu Valley found that approximately 80% of assessed hospitals are in the unacceptable performance category for new construction while the remaining 20% of hospitals are at high risk of life-threatening collapse.

Flagship Components:

• Structural and non-structural vulnerability assessment of school and hospital building stock in Kathmandu Valley

• Physical retrofitting and seismic strengthening of school and hospital buildings

• Awareness raising on constructing resilient structures

• Promotion of risk sensitive land use planning, particularly in Kathmandu Valley

Flagship Area 2: Emergency Preparedness and Response

Coordinator: OCHA and Ministry of Home Affairs

This flagship seeks to enhance the Government of Nepal’s response capacities at the national, regional and district level. This involves developing the Government’s ability to respond in a coordinated manner with all in-country resources including the armed forces as well as integrating incoming international humanitarian and military assistance. The Flagship will build upon ongoing efforts to enhance the capacity of Medical First Responders, Collapsed Structure Search and Rescue and Fire and Emergency Services in order to build a sustainable response capacity. This Flagship will also work with the Humanitarian Clusters (http://www.un.org.np/coordinationmechanism/cluster) to support their preparedness.

Flagship Components:

• Institutional capacity building of First Responders

• Disaster response and information management planning

• Warehousing and stockpiling for pre-positioning relief items for emergency response

• Strengthening preparedness for the facilitation of international assistance

Flagship Area 3: Flood Management in the Koshi river basin

Coordinator: World Bank and Ministry of Irrigation

This flagship is designed to contribute to addressing the risk of floods in Nepal. Managing water induced disasters, primarily floods, is a priority for the government with both short- and long-term goals. The short-term goals focus on enhancing institutional capabilities towards flood management while the long-term goals focus on implementing effective flood mitigation measures. The Koshi river basin is the biggest river basin in Nepal and flooding in the Koshi severely impacts communities in Nepal as well as across the border in Bihar, India.

Flagship components:

• Flood Risk Assessment

• Structural measures

• Flood forecasting and early warning system

• Strengthening institutional capacity

Flagship Area 4: Community based disaster risk management

Coordinator: IFRC and Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development

This flagship seeks to capitalise on the community based disaster risk management (CBDRM) activities and experience which has already accumulated to create a more consistent, systematic and harmonized approach to CBDRM which will be conducted at VDC level by developing a set of minimum characteristics for disaster-resilient communities and adopting a minimum package of common elements to be included in all CBDRM projects. One thousand VDCs will be identified and consulted with under the flagship.

Flagship components:

• Enhancing local level risk assessment methodologies

• Improving the reliability and geographical coverage of community based early warning systems

• Scaling up of community based disaster preparedness and mitigation actions

• Developing community capacity for engaging in local level risk reduction action

• Undertaking vulnerability reduction measures

Map of Flagship 4 Projects:

A map of Flagship 4 Projects is live at http://nrrc-flagship4.kathmandulivinglabs.org/.

Flagship Area 5: Policy/institutional support for Disaster Risk Management (DRM)

Coordinator: UNDP and Ministry of Home Affairs

This flagship recognizes that institutional, legislative and policy frameworks are essential elements for DRM system building and embedding DRM into Nepal’s development efforts. More sustainable, long term, focused and programmatic action is required to continue, build and consolidate the work already started. This flagship will work to ensure new risk is minimised.

Flagship Components:

• Institutional and policy support to implement the National Strategy for Disaster Risk Management

• Strengthening the application of building codes and supporting risk sensitive land use planning

• Strengthening national institutions for disaster risk management capacity building

• Orienting financial mechanisms towards risk reduction and risk management

• Support the mainstreaming of DRM and climate change adaptation into development processes at all levels

External links

• http://www.un.org.np/coordinationmechanism/nrrc