Impending Disasters in Nepal. Shift Paradigm for Enhancing Resilience

Abstract or Introduction

Global understanding of disaster has been striding into the paradigm shift from response to relief to disaster risk reduction as every year more than 200 million people live under the impact of various types of disaster events; precisely, disasters are those events which strike over the normalcy of life. Although Nepal has increasingly surpassed the rest of the world in disaster vulnerability, lackadaisical planning has marred the catastrophic response with reference to manpower, money and machines, leading in the greater claim in very events either natural or human induced. Exposure to such events has now shifted to glocal panorama; participating from global warming to haphazard settlement growth, over-claiming the natural resources, squabbling infrastructure built-ups among others. Traumatic experiences of past events have still beseeched the planners, often guided with the response and relief framework formulation; could switch the paradigm shift towards disaster risk reduction. To the surprise of many disaster managers, this contingency planning is densely forbidding; highlighting the strategy of post disaster response and shadowing the pre-disaster initiatives before the impending catastrophes jolt entire nation exceeding our capabilities. Mushroomed growth of population, rapid and haphazard urbanization, alarming environmental degradation, global warming, overexploitation of natural resources and poor strategy of coping have even triggered the vulnerability and susceptibility of disaster events in Nepal, worsening the infrastructures and livelihood.