Disasters and environmental degradation in Nepal: focus on urban areas

Abstract

Nepal is prone to various disasters like earthquake, landslide, debris flow, flood, and glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF). In the last 23 years natural disasters have caused tremendous losses of lives and property. The disasters have brought about the average loss of about 6% of the annual development expenditure of the government. Their frequency is also increasing due to a high rate of population growth and multiple human activities. Disasters disturb the normal life and social system, degrade the environment, and aggravate the poverty and eco-system in the affected areas. Both natural and anthropogenic disasters are deteriorating the natural environment mostly in the urban areas of Nepal. Since there is no effective forecasting and early warning system for such disasters there will be no time for the vulnerable people to save from possible disaster by taking themselves in safe places. Previously the Nepal government put its efforts mainly on post-disaster activities like rescue, relief, and rehabilitation. Only after the 1985 Dig Tso GLOF, 1988 earthquake in eastern Nepal, and 1993 flood and landslide disaster in central Nepal, people realised the importance of pre-disaster preparedness. For the preparedness and mitigation of hazards, geological, geomorphological, hydrogeological information and hazard maps are extremely important. Consequently, the Department of Mines and Geology is publishing the engineering and environmental geological maps of urban areas, which are quite helpful for infrastructural planning, disaster management, and environmental protection.