tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/nepal-earthquake-2015-16394/articlesNepal earthquake 2015 – The Conversation2020-06-25T17:58:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1361982020-06-25T17:58:59Z2020-06-25T17:58:59ZCOVID-19 brings students back to Himalayan villages with public health messages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344114/original/file-20200625-33515-vw6e47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C11%2C811%2C520&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Medical student Gyalsten Gurung, 25, pictured in a yellow jacket, returned to Upper Dolpo to instruct villagers about COVID-19. Here, on March 27, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Gyalsten Gurung)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Nepal">Nepal’s second-largest city</a>, <a href="https://risingnepaldaily.com/business/covid-19-cripples-tourism-in-pokhara">Pokhara</a>, when <a href="https://www.ei-ie.org/en/detail/16779/nepal-education-unionists-mobilise-during-covid-19-lockdown">students’ classes were cancelled</a> due to COVID-19 in March, medical student Gyalsten Gurung, 25, left the city. He returned to Shimen, the remote village where he was born in the Himalaya’s Upper Dolpo region. </p>
<p>There, he taught villagers about <a href="https://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/who-calls-to-promote-good-hand-hygiene/">good hand hygiene</a>, social distancing and ways to prepare safe water for consumption and cleaning where there is no running water. He also created COVID-19 posters in the local language and engaged elders through whiteboard activities, diagrams and storytelling. </p>
<p>He and two other medical students, who have also led COVID-19 village education, are among 22 Himalayan youth I interviewed as part of my research into youth migration in the Himalayas. All 22 interview participants (13 male youth, nine female) migrated to Kathmandu <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2008/04/2008615165932572216.html">during the civil war</a> (1996-2006) to avoid recruitment as child soldiers or other concerns related to the war. In addition to these interviews, I have surveyed over 150 youth. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344115/original/file-20200625-33528-1ln4h2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344115/original/file-20200625-33528-1ln4h2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344115/original/file-20200625-33528-1ln4h2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344115/original/file-20200625-33528-1ln4h2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344115/original/file-20200625-33528-1ln4h2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344115/original/file-20200625-33528-1ln4h2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344115/original/file-20200625-33528-1ln4h2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344115/original/file-20200625-33528-1ln4h2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Medical student Gyalsten Gurung’s stethoscope in front of a Himalayas vista.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Gyalsten Gurung)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the past five years, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nepal-earthquake-of-2015">after the 2015 earthquake</a> and up to the time the COVID-19 crisis close schools
across Nepal and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/20/covid-19-disrupts-international-student-exchange-both-directions">restricted applications for study</a> or <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/03/09/qatar-places-temporary-ban-on-entry-of-people-from-14-countries-including-nepal">work abroad</a>, these youth have increasingly started to return to their villages from Kathmandu and other cities in Nepal. From cities such as <a href="https://www.welcomenepal.com/places-to-see/bhaktapur.html">Bhaktapur</a>, <a href="https://www.panoramicjourneys.com/See/Pokhara-Nepal">Pokhara</a> and <a href="https://www.topnepal.com/nepal/chitwan/page/history">Chitwan</a> they are making trips and visits to engage with their communities of birth on important social issues that affect people’s survival and quality of life.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, no data exists that captures the migration of Himalayan youth <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/opinion/2017/10/17/back-to-the-village-20171017072634">back to their villages</a>. But in my research I have seen anecdotal evidence that youth are returning and educating their rural communities on a larger scale.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-from-disasters-nepal-copes-with-coronavirus-pandemic-5-years-after-earthquake-134009">Learning from disasters: Nepal copes with coronavirus pandemic 5 years after earthquake</a>
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<h2>Remote realities</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332977/original/file-20200506-49589-1c8wrjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332977/original/file-20200506-49589-1c8wrjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332977/original/file-20200506-49589-1c8wrjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332977/original/file-20200506-49589-1c8wrjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332977/original/file-20200506-49589-1c8wrjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1173&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332977/original/file-20200506-49589-1c8wrjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1173&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332977/original/file-20200506-49589-1c8wrjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1173&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children in Upper Mustang, part of the Annapurna Conservation Area, where tourism was restricted until 1992.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Anil Gurung)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within the Himalayan mountains are some of the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/nepal/articles/nepal-most-remote-village-in-the-world/">most remote villages</a> in the world. These mountains <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/the-himalayas-himalayas-facts/6341/">cover about 75 per cent of Nepal</a>, which as a nation has been challenged by slow educational growth. Nepal has one of <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Crisis-in-Education-and-Future-Challenges-for-Nepal-Mathema/71a7030ef3c31db5141a2b3276c0a96c4a740725">the youngest</a> education systems internationally. </p>
<p>Yet, there have been more young people migrating from remote mountain villages to <a href="http://old.cbs.gov.np/image/data/Population/Monograph_vol_1_2(1-10,11-21)/Chapter%2015%20%20Internal%20Migration%20in%20Nepal.pdf">other locations within</a> and <a href="https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/mp_nepal_2019.pdf">outside</a> of Nepal, for <a href="https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/A_Human_Rights_Based_Approach_to_Education_for_All.pdf">better educational opportunities</a>. </p>
<p>Youth migrate from the Himalayas for several reasons. Some migrate to pursue <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2018.1402164">non-farming</a> work, for <a href="https://www.ifad.org/documents/38714170/41187395/15_de+Brauw_2019+RDR+BACKGROUND+PAPER.pdf/8a67f25f-749f-be91-f90f-beed3d524364">international studies</a> or vocational opportunities, and for religious studies in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-14-00021.1">Buddhist monasteries</a>. </p>
<p>But other factors also play a role: harsh winters keep some schools <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2018/11/24/upper-dolpa-schools-closed-for-six-months">closed for up to six months</a> a year, and the impacts of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2187-1">climate change</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/21/medical-mountaineers">inadequate health care</a> also affect where youth or their families choose or are able to live. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332911/original/file-20200505-83736-6bhgin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332911/original/file-20200505-83736-6bhgin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332911/original/file-20200505-83736-6bhgin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332911/original/file-20200505-83736-6bhgin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332911/original/file-20200505-83736-6bhgin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332911/original/file-20200505-83736-6bhgin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332911/original/file-20200505-83736-6bhgin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332911/original/file-20200505-83736-6bhgin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social work student Karma Tenzing Lama, 24, photographed this school in Mugu, close to Rara Lake, Nepal’s largest lake, in June 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Karma Tenzing Lama)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rural education</h2>
<p>Rural Nepalese villagers’ top concerns about education include the fact that students sometimes walk <a href="https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/rolpa-where-students-still-walk-over-2-hours-to-reach-school/">for hours</a> to the closest or sole school in the region. </p>
<p>Existing schools are often poorly constructed, <a href="https://medium.com/@UNICEFNepal/coming-together-to-revitalize-earthquake-hit-communities-in-nepal-one-school-at-a-time-3db0132a5e18#.thl4pcu7f">unhealthy and dangerous</a>. Also, many provide only basic <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2015/12/20/children-in-chitwan-deprived-of-education-past-primary-level">primary education</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/miscellaneous/2018/06/23/quality-in-education">quality of education</a> in Himalayan regions is even more challenged compared to other rural areas of Nepal. For example, the mountain regions have the highest proportion <a href="https://www.globalpartnership.org/sites/default/files/2019-05-nepal-education-sector-analysis.pdf">(24.3 per cent) of four-year-olds not attending school</a> and often face staff and resource shortages.</p>
<p>Also, due to mountainous terrain and insufficient government funding, the Himalayan regions have poor-quality or no internet, phone and computer services, and minimal training on using <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12118">existing technologies</a> for education. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332913/original/file-20200505-83769-1jcbdz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332913/original/file-20200505-83769-1jcbdz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332913/original/file-20200505-83769-1jcbdz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332913/original/file-20200505-83769-1jcbdz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332913/original/file-20200505-83769-1jcbdz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332913/original/file-20200505-83769-1jcbdz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332913/original/file-20200505-83769-1jcbdz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Community educator Dawa Phunthok, 21, distributes materials to children while teaching in Upper Dolpo, December 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Dawa Phunthok)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Students as teachers</h2>
<p>Building on my earlier research on relationships between <a href="https://www.routedmagazine.com/1family-2countries-3borders">youth migration</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2018.1479732">emotions</a> and long-term family separation caused during Nepal’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40311">civil war</a>, my current PhD research examines transitions of Himalayan young people into higher education and work in Nepal or abroad, and return visits to their villages. </p>
<p>I have found that returning students taught villagers about various topics through different creative methods that encouraged villagers’ active engagement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332885/original/file-20200505-83751-17bid8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332885/original/file-20200505-83751-17bid8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332885/original/file-20200505-83751-17bid8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332885/original/file-20200505-83751-17bid8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332885/original/file-20200505-83751-17bid8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332885/original/file-20200505-83751-17bid8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332885/original/file-20200505-83751-17bid8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Community educator Dawa Phunthok travelling through Lower Dolpa and Upper Dolpo, June 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Dawa Phunthok)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Addressing inequalities</h2>
<p>Among students who participated in my interviews, a group of Himalayan students directly helped (or provided educational knowledge) towards the establishment of an NGO in Kathmandu. The NGO assisted with <a href="https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/reports-and-data/legislation-policy/naappd/arts-based-community-development-mapping-the-terrain">arts-based community development</a> for students in rural Himalayan villages. It addresses concerns such
as access to rural health care, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/nepals-maithil-women-break-traditional-gender-roles-160626115132870.html">gender inequality</a>, <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/nepal-not-doing-enough-to-stop-child-marriages-rights-group-says-1.176978">child marriage and labour</a> and <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/03/can-nepal-use-a-natural-disaster-to-end-caste-discrimination/520950/">caste</a> discrimination. In various Nepali and Tibetan-based languages, in their villages of birth, the students wrote songs so that their communities could better understand their social messages. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342776/original/file-20200618-41230-1m71y4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342776/original/file-20200618-41230-1m71y4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342776/original/file-20200618-41230-1m71y4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342776/original/file-20200618-41230-1m71y4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342776/original/file-20200618-41230-1m71y4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342776/original/file-20200618-41230-1m71y4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342776/original/file-20200618-41230-1m71y4f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students who assisted with establishing or providing educational insights for a local NGO, clockwise: Karma Tenzing Lama, social work student from Upper Dolpo; Tsering Deki, fashion design student from Upper Humla; Tashi Gurung, hotel management student from Upper Mustang; Chizi Gurung, hotel management student from Upper Mustang; Akhil Shai, Grade 12 student from Lower Mugu; Yamuna Budhathoki, business administration student from Lower Dolpa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Adrian Khan)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Preserving Indigenous culture</h2>
<p>Science student Binod Gurung, 21, studying in Chitwan, the city famous for Nepal’s <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/284/">first protected</a> national park, with other students returned to <a href="https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/census/documents/Nepal/Nepal-Census-2011-Vol1.pdf">Manang</a>, the district with the smallest population growth and lowest population density in Nepal. These students sought to stress <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4579143/land-based-learning-curriculum-indigenous-culture/">land-based learning</a>. </p>
<p>The group focused on preserving Manang’s <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Manang-will-prosper-from-its-new-road,2749">Indigenous</a> Himalayan culture. Students taught community members effective hygiene practices and how to use cameras to track wildlife and scientific instruments to measure different components of the lake. They also led a land-based drama that served to support the the community in further linking ancestral histories to scientific learning.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333235/original/file-20200506-49589-ksjsif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333235/original/file-20200506-49589-ksjsif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333235/original/file-20200506-49589-ksjsif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333235/original/file-20200506-49589-ksjsif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333235/original/file-20200506-49589-ksjsif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333235/original/file-20200506-49589-ksjsif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333235/original/file-20200506-49589-ksjsif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333235/original/file-20200506-49589-ksjsif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Science student Binod Gurung, an Indigenous Manangey youth, 21, at Tilicho Lake, the world’s highest altitude lake, January 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Binod Gurung)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Moving forward</h2>
<p>These students are contributing to rural educational development throughout the Himalayas by offering their own urban educational experiences in ways that help meet and bridge rural concerns. However, these returning youth, alone, cannot change rural education systems.</p>
<p>Youth in my study expressed that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/25741292.2019.1580131">holding the government accountable</a> for rural educational development and also pushing for increased local <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpubh.2016.00177">NGO and INGO</a> funding collaboration is needed for greater positive change.</p>
<p>Also, they advocated for the idea that both rural and urban educational systems <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/young-nepalis-upgrading-quality-of-education,2039">should train</a> educators and health-care workers how to use different methods for teaching important topics in rural settings to different social groups. Doing so would expand inclusion for better systemic education for a larger number of children and would include more educators in better training to teach in rural environments. </p>
<p>Lastly, youth expressed the need for more <a href="https://rm.coe.int/new-and-innovative-forms-of-youth-participation-in-decision-making-pro/1680759e6a">active participation</a> of return migrants themselves. They want to contribute their knowledge gained while studying in cities outside of the Himalayas to help further positive educational changes in remote Himalayan regions of Nepal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian Ashraf Khan receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He has also received a: 1) J.Michael Tomczak/Ontario Graduate Scholarship 2) Dr. David Chu Scholarship in Asian Pacific Studies 3) University of Toronto Geography and Planning Research Fellowship. </span></em></p>During the COVID-19 crisis, some medical students at school in Pokhara, Nepal, went to rural Himalayan villages to teach about the virus. Others go home to challenge social inequities.Adrian Ashraf Khan, PhD Candidate, Geography and Social Planning, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1362552020-04-24T04:42:34Z2020-04-24T04:42:34ZFive years on from the earthquake in Bhaktapur, Nepal, heritage-led recovery is uniting community<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329369/original/file-20200421-104217-y1emyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3916%2C2538&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bhaktapur Durbar Square in January 2020</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vanicka Arora</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the Gorkha earthquake killed almost <a href="https://www.npc.gov.np/images/category/PDNA_Volume_A.pdf">9,000 people</a> in April 2015, Nepal has been on a slow and arduous route to recovery. Nepal’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20518196.2017.1299328">vibrant cultural heritage</a> of monuments, religious places, crafts, festivals and traditional practices has been key to this process.</p>
<p>Heritage reconstruction in Nepal has been prioritised in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/121/">Kathmandu Valley</a> and received vast amounts of international assistance. But this reconstruction has also become the source of <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-withdraws-restoration-jagannath-and-gopinath-temples-hanumandhoka-durbar-square-world-0">growing tensions</a> between global institutions, national politics and local aspirations.</p>
<p>Bhaktapur city is home to one of seven monument zones of the valley. It has been undertaking a novel form of locally led recovery, focusing on built heritage to restore its tourist potential and – more importantly – rebuild community life and the resilience of residents.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328792/original/file-20200417-152614-1nitve8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328792/original/file-20200417-152614-1nitve8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328792/original/file-20200417-152614-1nitve8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328792/original/file-20200417-152614-1nitve8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328792/original/file-20200417-152614-1nitve8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328792/original/file-20200417-152614-1nitve8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328792/original/file-20200417-152614-1nitve8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328792/original/file-20200417-152614-1nitve8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The chariot assembly in progress for Bisket Jatra in Taumadhi Square, April 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vanicka Arora</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Heritage in recovery</h2>
<p>Bhaktapur is 13km from Kathmandu with a population of 82,000. The city has a long history stretching back to the 12th century as a prominent seat of power for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malla_(Kathmandu_Valley)">Malla Dynasty</a>. </p>
<p>The central Durbar Square, an ensemble of palaces, temples and rest-houses, showcases centuries of history, architecture and craftsmanship. Declared a World Heritage Site in 1979, Bhaktapur is often referred to as a city of “living heritage”, with over <a href="https://www.tewa.org.np/publications/244Bhaktapur%20The%20Historical%20City.pdf">130 heritage sites</a> and an annual calender of festivals, processions and crafts. </p>
<p>Bhaktapur suffered extensively in the earthquake, with over 300 deaths and 2,000 wounded. Over 30,000 houses and 116 monuments were significantly damaged.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328793/original/file-20200417-152602-1sl9jm4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328793/original/file-20200417-152602-1sl9jm4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328793/original/file-20200417-152602-1sl9jm4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328793/original/file-20200417-152602-1sl9jm4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328793/original/file-20200417-152602-1sl9jm4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328793/original/file-20200417-152602-1sl9jm4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328793/original/file-20200417-152602-1sl9jm4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328793/original/file-20200417-152602-1sl9jm4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The reconstruction of Vatsala Durga Temple in Bhaktapur Durbar Square nearing completion in February 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vanicka Arora</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>For residents, heritage reconstruction is a prominent, tangible sign of post-earthquake recovery, offering a renewed sense of local pride. Sites being reconstructed are not simply monuments for tourists to visit, but essential places for public life: temples for worship and rest-houses for community gatherings.</p>
<p>The president of one of the local user committees, Ram Hari Kora, tells me why he volunteers for heritage reconstruction: “All these monuments are properties left by our ancestors. They have cultural significance as well.”</p>
<p>Continuing to celebrate festivals has become the city’s way of returning to normalcy. The annual August festival of <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/valley/2015/09/03/locals-remember-their-kin">Gai Jatra</a> commemorates the dead through a week-long series of rituals and processions through the city. </p>
<p>Images of deceased family members are part of the processions, accompanied by riotous and energetic dances, traditional costumes and masks. </p>
<p>In 2015, the festival offered locals the opportunity to share in collective grief.</p>
<h2>Global heritage, local action</h2>
<p>Five years on, close to 80% of the restoration and reconstruction work in Bhaktapur has been completed. Local consumer committees handle finances and planning of individual projects. Funds are supplemented with donations of cash and building materials from residents, and locals volunteer to work on reconstruction sites themselves. </p>
<p>Bhaktapur resident Deepesh Raj Sharma recalls how, in the aftermath of the earthquake, residents rallied together to catalogue and store important fragments of several temples that had fallen down to ensure their safety. </p>
<p>“Protecting our heritage and the wealth of our ancestors is part of our duty towards the community,” he says.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/kathmandu-locals-are-fighting-injustice-to-save-their-citys-heritage-years-after-deadly-earthquake-115938">stark contrast</a> to its neighbours Kathmandu and Patan, Bhaktapur maintains a high degree of autonomy in reconstruction. Less than 10% of heritage sites in Bhaktapur have been directly assigned to the Department of Archaeology of Nepal. The city famously declined over <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/clash-of-cultures-in-bhaktapur/">US$10 million (A$16 million) in foreign funding</a> from the German Development Bank in 2018 over disagreements about the way reconstruction projects would be commissioned and implemented. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kathmandu-locals-are-fighting-injustice-to-save-their-citys-heritage-years-after-deadly-earthquake-115938">Kathmandu locals are fighting 'injustice' to save their city's heritage, years after deadly earthquake</a>
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<p>Several local approaches conflict with international guidelines on heritage protection, which has led to critiques by <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/121/documents/">conservation experts</a>. The use of new materials and techniques and the lack of detailed documentation and research are ongoing concerns. </p>
<p>But most locals I interviewed are satisfied with the steady progress that is visible within the city. Many have a distinct sense of ownership of their city’s heritage recovery.</p>
<p>Literature student Samriddhi Prajapati tells me: “Ongoing reconstruction of heritage makes me proud, because this way we can preserve our culture and encourage tourism side by side.”</p>
<h2>Not all heritage, not all people</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, not all Bhaktapur’s heritage buildings have received the same care.</p>
<p>While public and community heritage has received sustained attention and funding, many private houses have disappeared into piles of rubble. Houses that survived have been <a href="https://soscbaha.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/reconstructing-nepal-bhaktapur.pdf">languishing</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328795/original/file-20200417-152591-48x1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328795/original/file-20200417-152591-48x1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328795/original/file-20200417-152591-48x1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328795/original/file-20200417-152591-48x1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328795/original/file-20200417-152591-48x1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328795/original/file-20200417-152591-48x1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328795/original/file-20200417-152591-48x1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Many houses over 150 years old are still standing in Bhaktapur, while others were destroyed by the earthquake. Newer construction systems and materials replace the old building stock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vanicka Arora</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Housing needs to follow strict bylaws to qualify for funding incentives, leading to conflicts slowing down reconstruction. Concerns for safety and efficiency also override heritage, so almost all new houses are built using modern construction materials. The city’s ageing housing stock is being abandoned or replaced. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nepal-earthquake-reconstruction-wont-succeed-until-the-vulnerability-of-survivors-is-addressed-87335">Nepal earthquake reconstruction won't succeed until the vulnerability of survivors is addressed</a>
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<p>Heritage is not a priority for all of Bhaktapur’s residents, particularly its poorest and most marginalised communities, which have more immediate concerns about housing, food and employment. For them, recovery is a distant dream and heritage is a luxury. </p>
<p>But Bhaktapur’s heritage recovery process leverages its past for its future, building <a href="https://www.undrr.org/publication/heritage-and-resilience-issues-and-opportunities-reducing-disaster-risks">disaster resilience</a> and fostering social and cultural ties while rebuilding local and national identity. </p>
<p>As tourist guide Sahana Chitrakar tells me: “People can see their reflection in heritage, they can see their parents and grandparents, so they want to keep it for the future”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanicka Arora does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bhaktapur suffered 300 deaths, 2,000 wounded and over 30,000 houses damaged in the 2015 earthquake. Heritage restoration has become crucial to community recovery.Vanicka Arora, PhD Candidate at Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1340092020-04-23T18:59:49Z2020-04-23T18:59:49ZLearning from disasters: Nepal copes with coronavirus pandemic 5 years after earthquake<p>Does one kind of disaster prepare us for another? Five years after devastating earthquakes struck, Nepali citizens and their government are pondering this question while under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<p>After the earthquakes in 2015, nearly 9,000 people died, while more than 800,000 lost their homes and 2.8 million were displaced. In many rural areas, the earthquakes compounded the effects of a decade-long civil war that ended in 2006 but left the country in a period of protracted political instability. </p>
<p>Now, Nepal’s nearly 30 million citizens have been mandated to stay at home since March 24, and the tourism trade and other international supply chains upon which the country depends are severely curtailed. Despite relatively few confirmed cases earlier, <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/04/21/government-prepares-to-seal-udayapur-district-following-confirmation-of-11-new-covid-19-cases-in-a-day">the virus is now spreading through many of the country’s districts</a>.</p>
<p>Nepal’s experience with these cascading upheavals can help us understand how multiple vulnerabilities may not only challenge communities, but also help them generate complex approaches to anticipating and mitigating systemic disruptions. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/03/what-really-doomed-americas-coronavirus-response/608596/">These are skills needed to tackle the pandemic everywhere</a>.</p>
<h2>Labour shortages and reconstruction finance</h2>
<p>Each disaster is different, but they can reveal systemic patterns in their aftermaths. In Nepal, the civil conflict, the earthquake and now the pandemic have all occurred during rapid economic and social transformation, including Nepal’s shift from an agrarian to a cash economy, and the expansion of labour migration. </p>
<p>When disaster hits, those who are already most precariously positioned within these large-scale processes of transformation may suffer most. In each of Nepal’s three crises, top-down response mechanisms have fallen short in engaging its most vulnerable citizens.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C129%2C1022%2C642&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A couple in Dolakha, Nepal, grind millet in front of their newly reconstructed home, wearing masks as per public health directive, in April 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kedar Thami)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Sustainable peace remains far from reality. This is partly because some of the most affected populations were not substantively included in the peace process after the civil war. <a href="https://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/nhrc-decision-too-little-too-late-conflict-victims/">(Nepal’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has never completed its task)</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, earthquake-affected people were not fully included in planning reconstruction policies, such as the choice of materials and housing designs. <a href="https://sway.soscbaha.org/blogs/rebuilding-homes-houses-jeevan-baniya/">Many are dissatisfied with the reconstruction approach and the houses they had to build</a>. </p>
<p>Civil war and political instability <a href="https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nsc_research/28">pushed more people into migration</a>, <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/sar/publication/climbing-higher-toward-a-middle-income-country">leading to remittances now making up 30 per cent of the country’s GDP</a>. </p>
<p>This migration likely reduced the earthquake death toll, and foreign remittances helped fund reconstruction. Now, remittances are in jeopardy as the COVID-19 crisis slows economies and international labour flows are halted.</p>
<h2>Lessons from Nepal’s reconstruction program</h2>
<p><a href="https://elmnr.arts.ubc.ca/">Our research</a> shows that <a href="https://soscbaha.org/publication/reconstructing-nepal-post-earthquake-experiences-from-bhaktapur-dhading-and-sindhupalchowk">private housing reconstruction grants and loans were key to the rebuilding process</a>. As governments around the world are now offering unprecedented subsidy programs to large portions of their populations, the experience of <a href="http://www.nra.gov.np/en">Nepal’s National Reconstruction Authority (NRA)</a> in disbursing private housing reconstruction grants could provide some useful lessons. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/two-years-after-the-earthquake-why-has-nepal-failed-to-recover-77552">Two years after the earthquake, why has Nepal failed to recover?</a>
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<p>First, rapidly setting up disbursement authorities and channels are key. But vested political interests can overshadow the immediate needs of disaster response. It took about six months for the NRA to be officially mandated and operational. The delay was due to conflicts among the political parties. </p>
<p>Second, payments must be significant and easy to receive. Payments that are too low simply go into daily survival expenses. While welcome, they did not enable homeowners to complete reconstruction. Most families had to supplement with remittances or other income. </p>
<p>Five years after the disaster, the formal reconstruction completion rate hovers at about 65 per cent. Many remain unable to complete reconstruction or <a href="https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IRM-Round-5-Early-Findings-Brief_3.24.20.pdf">continue to live in vulnerable structures</a>. </p>
<p>Stringent building codes enforced by engineers — in a place where most homeowners had previously built their own residence without needing a building permit — drastically slowed down the disbursement process, as many people could not meet the design requirements due to lack of capital, materials or skilled labour. Regulations were eventually relaxed to enable people to complete their houses and receive the full amount of the grant.</p>
<p>Women and members of historically marginalized groups faced disproportionate challenges in accessing such resources to build their homes. Although gender equality and social inclusion provisions were emphasized in reconstruction policy documents, implementation has been lacking on the ground. The NRA lacks any visible evidence of women in leadership roles.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Empty streets in Kathmandu during the lockdown, April 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Deepak Thapa)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Third, the informal financial sector was key for accessing loans; although the NRA portrays disbursement through banks as having enhanced transparency and enabling a large section of the rural population to access financial institutions, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2020.1722635">there were significant limitations in this process</a>. </p>
<p>Banks imposed such taxing conditions on borrowers that few accessed official government subsidized loans. <a href="https://soscbaha.org/publication/reconstructing-nepal-bhaktapur">Instead, many turned to informal borrowing from relatives, local private lenders and cooperatives</a>. While flexible and mostly guided through community-based social norms, some of these loans had abusive interest rates.</p>
<p>For those who have nearly completed rebuilding, the present lockdown may present an opportunity to finish domestic projects. With no opportunities for wage labour, some families are using the time at home to add finishing touches to their new residences. But for those who have not been able to complete construction, the lockdown may seem like a cruel joke. How can you stay at home when you do not have one?</p>
<h2>Vulnerability and solidarity</h2>
<p>The informal economic sector has been devastated with the COVID-19 lockdown, increasing risks to those already most in need. Working class people in marginal economic situations and migrants who are not protected by social security have been further marginalized by all three crisis situations. </p>
<p>The country is now experiencing <a href="https://en.setopati.com/social/152651">caravans of internal migrants returning to their villages</a> after losing jobs in Kathmandu and other cities. Likewise, the international migrants who contribute 30 per cent to the country’s GDP are in precarious situations in destination countries - jobless and unable to feed themselves, but also <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/04/16/we-don-t-want-to-die-in-this-desert-nepali-workers-in-the-uae-plead-to-be-brought-home">unable to return home</a>.</p>
<p>Yet the closing of borders and drastic reductions in the flow of people does not mean an end to solidarity. On the contrary <a href="https://nrna.respectinc.net/">the Nepali diaspora can and does help</a>, notably through financial contributions, as they did in the wake of the earthquakes. In the pandemic context as well, they have been a lifeline for many. </p>
<p>Five years on, Nepal’s earthquake-affected communities have not returned to their pre-disaster state. Rather, they have fashioned new lives through a combination of creativity, perseverance, careful use of available resources and hard-earned income, with some state and international intervention. Now, the lessons they have learned may have new meaning.</p>
<p><em>Deepak Thapa contributed to this piece. He is Director of Social Science Baha in Kathmandu, Nepal.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Shneiderman receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philippe Le Billon receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeevan Baniya does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nepal’s past dealing with multiple disasters, including the aftermath of its civil war and the massive earthquake of 2015 may have helped the country prepare for the current COVID-19 crisis.Sara Shneiderman, Associate Professor, Anthropology Department and School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, University of British ColumbiaJeevan Baniya, Teaching Faculty, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FoHSS), Tribhuvan UniversityPhilippe Le Billon, Professor, Geography Department and School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1341612020-03-25T17:34:37Z2020-03-25T17:34:37ZCan robots help us overcome the coronavirus health crisis and lockdown?<p>The widespread use of robots has long been debated, in part because many critics see them as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/behind-those-headlines-why-not-to-rely-on-claims-robots-threaten-half-our-jobs-125935">threat to jobs and livelihoods</a>. Despite such concerns, robots and artificial intelligence (AI) are already being used in sectors such a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016328717300617">healthcare, education and retail</a>.</p>
<p>In time of crisis and catastrophes, however, robots and AI have proved that they can provide crucial assistance. For example, during the April 2019 fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, drones were used to help firefighters <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/16/18410723/notre-dame-fire-dji-drones-tracking-stopped-thermal-cameras">better aim their fire hoses</a>. Similarly, during the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal, AI and robots provided crucial assistance in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4QinwOC534">mapping the region and targeting places in need</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h4QinwOC534?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Disaster-relief robotics in Nepal, Patrick Meier (TEDx Berlin).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Wuhan example</h2>
<p>With the enhanced capabilities of today’s robots, can we use them to help us navigate the coronavirus crisis, including the confinement measures that so many are facing today? </p>
<p>In fact, robots are already being used in Wuhan to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51824181">deliver medicine to patients diagnosed with Covid-19</a>, reducing human contact and thus the possibility of additional infections. Technological solutions go beyond hospitals, as many civilians are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2020/mar/25/coronavirus-live-news-india-lockdown-italy-cases-restrictions-uk-us-outbreak-australia-china-hubei-latest-updates">quarantined in their homes</a>. In response, the Chinese government has provided logistics robots to deliver medical supplies and food to homes in Wuhan.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PV4sVaJ5Y8Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Food delivery robots in Wuhan, March 2020.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, the virus can still be transmitted if an infected person touches a surface – including a robot – that is <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200317-covid-19-how-long-does-the-coronavirus-last-on-surfaces">subsequently touched by another person</a>. Chinese hospitals mitigate such risks through the deployment of robots that use powerful ultraviolet lights to disinfect rooms, including <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/medical-robots/autonomous-robots-are-helping-kill-coronavirus-in-hospitals">equipment such as robots</a>. In Thailand, robots are also being used to <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/coronavirus-covid19-thailand-hospitals-robots-12555830">protect overburdened medical staff</a>, measuring a patient’s temperature while doctors and nurses speak to them via the robot.</p>
<h2>Robots, first responders in time of crisis</h2>
<p>Ground and airborne robots and human-robot interfaces can also support first-responders such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rob.21887">firefighters, aid workers and disaster deployment specialists</a>. Rescue workers often face challenging conditions and such technologies can enable them to increase their efficacy, leading to faster response times and also reducing the risks they face. </p>
<p>For example, simulations run by researchers <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41018-018-0045-4">suggest</a> that autonomous flying robots could be valuable in post-disaster search and assessment. Such robots could use post-disaster satellite imagery and real locations of damaged and inundated buildings to spot survivors and thus increase the chance of rescue workers reaching them more quickly. Purdue University researchers have developed <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190509125135.htm">hummingbird-sized drones </a> that could fly where conventional aircraft can’t.</p>
<h2>People in need prefer a human face</h2>
<p>Despite the usefulness of robots, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-46667-5_7">some research has indicated</a> that their use can have negative effects on the mental and physical well-being of disaster victims. Disasters can create immense stress for victims, in particular those who are lost, trapped or injured. A sudden confrontation with a robot, without human support, may further exacerbate stress and anxiety in the victim.</p>
<p>Moreover, stakeholders may overestimate robot capabilities, particularly in rescue situations, and the appearance of such robots could create a false sense of hope for victims. Worse, technical mishaps in difficult terrains could even lead to further injuries. For example, if a guided or autonomous robot collided with a disaster victim.</p>
<p>While the advantages and disadvantages need to be carefully assessed, recent examples from Wuhan and Thailand indicate that when used in an conscientious manner, robots can be valuable partners in times of crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134161/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Héctor González-Jiménez ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>With the enhanced capabilities of today’s robots and drones, recent examples from China and Thailand and ongoing research show that they have the potential to help us navigate disasters.Héctor González-Jiménez, Associate Professor in Marketing, ESCP Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1159382019-04-25T10:58:21Z2019-04-25T10:58:21ZKathmandu locals are fighting ‘injustice’ to save their city’s heritage, years after deadly earthquake<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270892/original/file-20190425-121233-1wy3jc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=460%2C137%2C3692%2C2503&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">UNESCO world heritage site Patan Durbar Square, Kathmandu. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/patan-durbar-square-kathmandu-valley-nepal20-1378677692?src=hNEb0tz0573wMQ9-6cs7IQ-1-71">Shahed360/Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Four years ago, vast swaths of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, turned to rubble in a matter of minutes. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nepal-earthquake-of-2015">magnitude 7.8 earthquake</a>, which wrought destruction on the city, was followed by hundreds of aftershocks. Just 17 days later, another magnitude 7.3 temblor felled more buildings and structures, which had stood through the first quake. </p>
<p>The human toll was catastrophic: across Nepal, <a href="https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/2015-nepal-earthquake-facts">9,000 people died</a> and hundreds of thousands more were left destitute, facing extreme poverty. The damage to Nepalese culture was also significant: hundreds of historic buildings, shrines and statues across the capital were reduced to dust. </p>
<p>Four years and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/nepal/nepal-earthquake-humanitarian-response-april-september-2015">hundreds of millions of dollars</a> in donations later, Nepal is slowly recovering. Inevitably, though, a catastrophe of this scale has caused issues for the nation’s resource-starved government. Researchers <a href="https://theconversation.com/nepal-earthquake-reconstruction-wont-succeed-until-the-vulnerability-of-survivors-is-addressed-87335">have highlighted</a> that political squabbling and a lack of local or regional governance have slowed reconstruction. </p>
<h2>Rising from the rubble</h2>
<p>When a city is damaged beyond recognition, the need to rebuild presents an opportunity to reshape and redraw the physical landscape – to make it stronger and grander than it was before. Catastrophic situations can bring about unexpected transformations, not just in a city’s design and architecture, but also in society – creating new identities and opportunities. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270890/original/file-20190425-121241-dord38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270890/original/file-20190425-121241-dord38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270890/original/file-20190425-121241-dord38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270890/original/file-20190425-121241-dord38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270890/original/file-20190425-121241-dord38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270890/original/file-20190425-121241-dord38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270890/original/file-20190425-121241-dord38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Faith shapes the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/lo7E1D5w4RI">Michael Romanov/Unsplash.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kathmandu has long grappled with the conflict between tradition and modernisation. For most of its history, it has retained its <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2015.11.007">medieval urban culture</a>: Hindu and Buddhist religious practices have long influenced the city’s layout and design. But there have always been parallel concerns that the city could be on the cusp of losing its historic character. </p>
<p>Even before the earthquake struck, unbridled and unregulated growth had been undermining the city’s historic buildings, draining its natural resources and disrupting the skyline, with tall buildings blocking views. </p>
<p>The city’s five major rivers have been <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/reigning-the-river">reduced to drainage canals</a> due to development pressure and inconsiderate sewage discharge, while hinterland on the outskirts <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3298/4/4/72">was rapidly cleared</a> to build houses for those displaced by political conflict over the last two decades.</p>
<h2>A city on the loose</h2>
<p>As far back as 1934, much of the historic city <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32472310">was flattened</a> by another strong earthquake. That moment is now regarded as the advent of modernisation, which introduced new buildings, roads and technology to the city. The 2015 earthquake brought many urban issues back into focus, and for a moment, it seemed the city could have been a giant workshop to test solutions to problems — in housing, culture, transport and heritage. </p>
<p>But as before, Kathmandu continues to operate as a city on the loose. From my own observation of the city, it seems that new development continues at almost the same rate as the decade before the earthquake struck. The transport network <a href="https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/traffic-congestion-kathmandu/">remains asphyxiated</a> by too many vehicles. And both local and federal efforts to fix the city’s urban planning problems and accommodate its <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/kathmandu-population/">growing population</a> remain fixated on creating satellite towns, ignoring the potential of retrofitting historic neighbourhoods. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270894/original/file-20190425-121237-xv2w3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270894/original/file-20190425-121237-xv2w3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270894/original/file-20190425-121237-xv2w3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270894/original/file-20190425-121237-xv2w3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270894/original/file-20190425-121237-xv2w3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270894/original/file-20190425-121237-xv2w3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270894/original/file-20190425-121237-xv2w3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The city begins to sprawl.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kathmandu-nepal-april-18-2019-cityscape-1377242120?src=hNEb0tz0573wMQ9-6cs7IQ-2-39">Filip Jedraszak/Shutterstock.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After they were damaged in the 2015 earthquake, city authorities wanted to demolish and redevelop historic buildings such as Singha Durbar and Bagh Durbar (which date back to 1908 and 1805 respectively) – though they were finally prevented by <a href="http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2019-03-20/supreme-court-directs-government-to-find-ways-to-conserve-bagh-durbar.html">a supreme court mandate</a>. Ranipokhari (Queen’s Pond) at the centre of the city – a crucial cog of the old city’s innovative drainage system – has been drained and paved over to make space for shops and cafes. And a central open space called Khula Manch has been <a href="https://www.spotlightnepal.com/2018/01/01/regressive-planning-public-space-parking-space/">turned into a parking lot</a> resembling a dystopian scrap yard. </p>
<h2>Locals rise up</h2>
<p>Political conflict is rife and agreements hard to come by. For example, in the absence of any agreement between different public sector agencies (including the municipal government, the National Reconstruction Authority and the Department of Archaelogy) about how the city’s famous Dharahara Tower should be rebuilt, there are plans to build two towers and share the profits generated from construction contracts, to appease any dissent.</p>
<p>The reconstruction continues with little input from local communities, while international powers make their presence felt. Kathmandu’s Durbar Square has become a <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Location/Southeast-Asia/Myanmar-Cambodia-Laos/Nepalese-question-rebuilding-of-quake-damaged-temples">geopolitical playground</a>, with an influx of donor agencies and countries rushing to prove their solidarity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270885/original/file-20190425-121216-lsxxdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270885/original/file-20190425-121216-lsxxdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270885/original/file-20190425-121216-lsxxdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270885/original/file-20190425-121216-lsxxdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270885/original/file-20190425-121216-lsxxdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270885/original/file-20190425-121216-lsxxdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270885/original/file-20190425-121216-lsxxdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gaddi Baithak: under construction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Urmi Sengupta.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The renovation of <a href="https://miyamotointernational.com/gaddi-baithak-restoration-project-us-embassy/">Gaddi Baithak</a> (or “royal seat”) has been completed with US support, <a href="https://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2018-06-26/restored-gaddi-baithak-sparks-controversy.html">despite controversy</a> over its slightly altered facade. Likewise, Nau Tale Durbar (“nine-storey palace”), is currently being rebuilt with the help of Chinese investment, and has attracted local ire for lack of transparency. </p>
<p>Many citizens in Kathmandu are more impatient than ever to fix these problems. Yet the reconstruction is often an assault on their personal and collective identities, given that these sites carry significant religious, emotional and cultural value. A great sense of injustice has arisen over the way building contractors have ignored local techniques and values. </p>
<p>For example, the redevelopment of Kasthamandapa – the temple from which the city takes its name – has stalled due to disagreement over construction materials and methods. Kasthamandapa was built with wood from a single tree some 1,000 years ago. A new tree needs to be found and there needs to be a whole new system of extracting timber. It requires the best craftsmen in the country and significant skilled labour. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270884/original/file-20190425-121224-wmt2zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270884/original/file-20190425-121224-wmt2zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270884/original/file-20190425-121224-wmt2zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270884/original/file-20190425-121224-wmt2zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270884/original/file-20190425-121224-wmt2zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270884/original/file-20190425-121224-wmt2zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270884/original/file-20190425-121224-wmt2zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kasthamandapa – before and after.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Urmi Sengupta.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The lack of assessment of what has been lost has also been a sore point for heritage campaigners. The absence of detailed historical plans for many important structures means reconstruction efforts are based on limited photographic evidence. Campaigners claim that without local input into the rebuilding, the authenticity of the new structures will be undermined. </p>
<p>The government’s reconstruction plans are now being challenged by numerous grassroots organisations fighting to save the city’s heritage. Post-disaster reconstruction will continue in Kathmandu, even amid social and political upheaval. But while authorities appear insensitive to citizens’ concerns, a greater grassroots awareness of local heritage has clearly emerged – and that, at least, should be welcomed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115938/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Urmi Sengupta received funding from 1) British Academy and 2) Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Research Trust Fund</span></em></p>Nepal’s capital city was devastated by the 2015 earthquake, but rebuilding heritage sites has been fraught with difficulties.Urmi Sengupta, Lecturer in Spatial Planning, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/937942018-04-04T20:00:36Z2018-04-04T20:00:36ZChildren aren’t liabilities in disasters – they can help, if we let them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212730/original/file-20180330-189813-1vnl5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Picture painted by a primary school child in Sri Lanka after the tsunami in 2005</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/disaster-risk-reduction/">UNESCO World Heritage Centre</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our world is becoming increasingly vulnerable to fire, flood and other natural hazards. While our instinct as adults may be to shield children from these possibilities, this does them a real disservice. </p>
<p>Lessons from <a href="http://www.ids.ac.uk/publication/children-as-agents-for-disaster-risk-reduction-lessons-from-el-salvador-and-the-philippines">El Salvador and the Philippines</a> show that when children are given accurate, clear information in accessible and age-appropriate language, they are highly motivated to help reduce disaster risks, both at home and in their communities.</p>
<p>Indeed, there is growing evidence that children can play an active and positive role in making their communities more resilient to <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14733285.2013.848599">climate change</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/Ct_XtYaPOu4">hurricanes</a> and <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/wf/WF13153">bushfires</a>, and in improving <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212420915300212">disaster recovery</a>.</p>
<h2>Planning for disaster</h2>
<p>Children understand and experience the world <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0968759032000097825?journalCode=cdso20">differently to adults</a>, but they can be highly resourceful. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-the-root-causes-of-natural-disasters-80017">Recent research</a> shows that an adult’s social characteristics, such as age, gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, and disability, are central to understanding their coping capacity during disasters. </p>
<p>Yet during disaster planning, children – including teenagers – are rarely given descriptors other than “child” or “youth”. They are treated as blank pages, with no defining features other than their age.</p>
<p>This goes against the <a href="http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/4329">best practice</a> recommended by the United Nations’ Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. It recognises that children are disproportionately affected by disasters, and they should be given the opportunity to <a href="https://www.preventionweb.net/files/46959_cfsfdrrforwebrasterizedsm.pdf">contribute</a> to disaster risk reduction (DRR). </p>
<p>Omitting children’s voices reveals a blanket assumption that the young are all equally vulnerable. It silences children’s own sense of identity and undermines their capacity for resilience. </p>
<p>It also limits opportunities for children to contribute to the development of disaster response policy and practice. The enduring negative <a href="https://www.addc.org.au">stigma of disability</a> in many countries results in children with disabilities being even <a href="http://www.unisdr.org/2014/iddr/documents/2013DisabilitySurveryReport_030714.pdf">further marginalised</a>.</p>
<h2>Talking to children</h2>
<p>Our collective experience as disaster researchers and practitioners has taught us that children’s individual identities matter in disasters. </p>
<p>Following the devastation of <a href="http://www.wcdrr.org/wcdrr-data/uploads/371/FEATURED%20-%20Plan%20International%20Philippines%20-%20Youth%20Reporter.pdf">Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013</a> and the <a href="https://youtu.be/nQWyCCoR9I8">Nepal 2015 earthquake</a>, local children received training in storytelling, photography, radio and video-making to record issues affecting their lives. </p>
<p>Rather than having adults interpret and communicate their experiences of the disaster, the children were empowered to tell their own stories. In the process, they were able to actively participate in community recovery processes.</p>
<p>In examples such as the 2015 Nepal earthquake, children were able to identify good practice for <a href="https://plan-international.org/publications/communicating-disaster-affected-children">reducing disaster risk</a> for themselves.</p>
<p>Research in bushfire-prone areas of Australia highlights the issues and challenges for families with children in preparing a bushfire survival plan. The significant benefits of providing children with genuine opportunities to participate, and practical advice on how to include children in the planning process, are <a href="http://www.bushfirecrc.com/sites/default/files/managed/resource/involve_your_kids_-_bushfire_survival_planning.pdf">outlined in this booklet</a>.</p>
<p>While household emergency plans are vital, it is quite possible that disaster will strike while children are at school. The inter-agency <a href="http://gadrrres.net/uploads/files/resources/CSS-Framework-2017.pdf">School Safety Framework</a> is an example of child-centred policies that focus on safe learning facilities, school disaster management, DRR and resilience education. The framework advocates elevating the role of children in community risk reduction, and outlines strategies for student engagement and participation. </p>
<p>Such a child-centred approach guides the delivery of the <a href="https://www.redcross.org.au/get-help/emergencies/resources-about-disasters/resources-for-parents-and-teachers/pillowcase-project">Pillowcase Project</a>, a program designed for school children in Australia to promote disaster resilience education and coping capacity for a range of hazards.</p>
<p>Research into the disaster experiences of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1478210317694500">children with disabilities</a> specifically suggests a range of ways to simultaneously acknowledge diverse social characteristics and develop inclusive DRR resilience-building initiatives. These vital steps are applicable to all child-centred activities, not just children with disabilities, and include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The routine inclusion of children in DRR initiatives that run in their communities, including those run through schools using the School Safety Framework;</p></li>
<li><p>The inclusion of children in the development of participatory tools, methods and strategies that not only enable children to access and use DRR resources, but also facilitate ownership and excitement over the power they have in increasing their own resilience and managing their own recovery;</p></li>
<li><p>The involvement of children in DRR research and planning using participatory tools and approaches that capture the perspectives and unique capabilities of children;</p></li>
<li><p>Engaging parents, teachers, and local leaders to support children’s participation, including communicating the importance of children’s views and roles, and to include children in the decision making process, based on their interests and capacities; and</p></li>
<li><p>Exploring ways to increase opportunities for children to voice their own needs and opinions at multi-stakeholder forums.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Rather than labelling children as uniformly vulnerable, we should give them the space to identify their own capacities and agency.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Thank you to the <a href="https://globalchallenges.uow.edu.au/index.html">Global Challenges Program</a> at the University of Wollongong, which enabled the authors to spend a day together focusing on the theme of Children in Disasters as part of the 2017 <a href="https://globalchallenges.uow.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@gc/documents/doc/uow240457.pdf">Transforming Vulnerability Conference</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93794/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Christine Eriksen receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DE150100242, DP170100096). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Avianto Amri receives funding from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Briony Towers receives funding from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Calgaro received funding from the Global Resilience Partnership for related research and action on disability and disasters. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Richardson received funding through the Global Disaster Preparedness Center from The Walt Disney Company for the pilot of the Pillowcase Project in Australia. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Katharine Haynes receives funding from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott McKinnon drew on research funded by the Australian Research Council (DP130102658) in contributing to this article. </span></em></p>It’s understandable to want to shield children from the impacts of disasters. But research suggests that they should be given a voice in disaster planning and a role in reducing the risks.Christine Eriksen, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research, University of WollongongAvianto Amri, PhD Candidate, Macquarie UniversityBriony Towers, Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT UniversityEmma Calgaro, Sydney Research Fellow in Sustainability Science, University of SydneyJohn Richardson, Honorary Fellow, Beyond Bushfires Research Team, The University of MelbourneKatharine Haynes, Snr Research Fellow, Department of Geography and Planning, Macquarie UniversityScott McKinnon, Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/862522018-03-08T11:34:11Z2018-03-08T11:34:11ZWhy suicide rates among pregnant women in Nepal are rising<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209508/original/file-20180308-30989-ov7dje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=LdK41fdHX0aLfKefzC9xAQ-1-6">Shutterstock/By KristinaSophie</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Huge numbers of pregnant women and new mothers are taking their own lives in Nepal as they deal with extreme poverty, natural disasters, domestic violence and oppression. Research shows suicide represents 16% of all deaths in women of reproductive age. The rate is higher than previously recorded and there has been <a href="http://www.dpiap.org/resources/pdf/nepal_maternal_mortality_2011_04_22.pdf">a considerable increase</a> over the past few years. But a new project which trained midwives about mental health issues might hold the key to turning this around.</p>
<p>Suicide is primarily associated with unwanted pregnancy or the feeling of being trapped in poverty or situations of sexual and physical abuse. A study of 202 pregnant women (carried out between September and December 2014) found that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210909915300874">91% of them</a> experienced some kind of physical, emotional or sexual abuse – mostly at the hands of their husbands and/or mother-in-laws.</p>
<p>The sad fact is that almost 40% of suicides in the world occur in South-East Asia. And one in three pregnant woman and new mothers <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/131056/1/9789241564779_eng.pdf?ua">are taking their own lives</a> in low-income countries. In Nepal, 21% of the suicides among women aged 15-49 were in girls under 18 due to violence and being <a href="http://www.dpiap.org/resources/pdf/nepal_maternal_mortality_2011_04_22.pdf">powerless in their families and communities</a>.</p>
<p>Pregnancy is a known <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/mental-health-problems-pregnant.aspx">trigger for mental health problems</a>. But gender discrimination and domestic violence are making matters worse. In addition to these issues, <a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-children-back-to-school-is-the-next-priority-for-nepal-earthquake-recovery-42131">natural disasters</a> are also a huge contributing factor to the spiralling mental health problems of young mothers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209511/original/file-20180308-30975-1acexqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209511/original/file-20180308-30975-1acexqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209511/original/file-20180308-30975-1acexqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209511/original/file-20180308-30975-1acexqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209511/original/file-20180308-30975-1acexqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209511/original/file-20180308-30975-1acexqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209511/original/file-20180308-30975-1acexqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman on a collapsed building in Kathmandu after the earthquake in May, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bungamati-lalitpur-kathmandu-nepal-may-9-281674319?src=UoerSYhpkB1iKfarMu9CKw-2-38">Shutterstock/Somjin Klong-ugkara</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lack of control</h2>
<p>In Nepal, making decisions about seeking maternity care is not in the hands of the pregnant woman but usually lies with her <a href="https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2393-10-34">mother-in-law</a> or husband. When young women marry they move in with their husbands’ family and their lives are ruled by their in-laws. These women often have little say in seeking health care during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period.</p>
<p>In many poor families, husbands migrate for work leaving their young wives with family. Nepal has a <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---ilo-kathmandu/documents/publication/wcms_543497.pdf">real migrant workers economy</a> with close to 50% of Nepalis relying on financial help from relatives abroad. Mental health problems can worsen for women who have been taken away from their own families. In other cases, young women face domestic violence due to their husbands’ drinking leading to mental health issues and suicide. </p>
<p>There is also a lack of understanding of pregnancy and childbirth-related mental health issues and husbands and mothers-in-law often fail to support these vulnerable young women. They in turn are reluctant to seek help due to the stigma associated with mental illness. </p>
<h2>Cultural and social norms</h2>
<p>Cultural practices and social norms, like gender inequalities and early marriage, hinder women who have a lack of choice when it comes to their role as mothers. There is also a preference for sons rather than daughters, who are seen as an “economic burden” in many families. If a woman is expecting a daughter, especially for the second or third time, this can also trigger mental health issues. </p>
<p>Depression and anxiety are common and affect ten to 15 out of every 100 pregnant women in the country. Postnatal depression is often reported, but less attention is given to more common and less obvious mental health issues.</p>
<h2>Natural disasters and midwives</h2>
<p>Recurrent earthquakes and floods exacerbate issues of depression and helplessness as women are forced to live in temporary shelters and have the burden of increased poverty. </p>
<p>For many rural Nepali women, the most qualified birth attendant they can expect to look after them is the <a href="https://www.dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR336/FR336.pdf">Nepali Auxiliary Nurse Midwives</a> (ANMs). But <a href="https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JMMIHS/article/view/15793">a study</a> found that they received little or no formal training on perinatal mental health issues. Although there have been gradual improvements in health care for women during pregnancy, mental health support is leaving many women feeling that suicide is their only option. </p>
<p>As part of a <a href="https://www.thet.org/">Tropical Health and Education Trust</a> project, funded by <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-development">DFID</a>, around 80 ANMs were trained on perinatal mental health issues. The project used UK-based volunteers in Nepal over two years. </p>
<p>The training helped raise awareness of mental health well-being and improved <a href="http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/29401/1/Nepal%20THET%20ICM%202017.pdf">access to mental health care</a> for pregnant women and new mothers. This is a vital first step towards improving community-based services for pregnant women in rural Nepal. But to offer hope to more young women there needs to be a significant increase in this type of training and awareness raising.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bibha Simkhada worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof Edwin van Teijlingen who received funding from THET through Bournemouth University and Liverpool John Moores University to fund the mental health training in Nepal.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edwin van Teijlingen has received funding from THET through Bournemouth University to fund the maternal mental health training in Nepal.</span></em></p>Pregnant women and new mothers who feel totally powerless are taking their own lives in increasing numbers in Nepal. More mental health training for local midwives is needed.Bibha Simkhada, Postdoctoral Researcher in School of Nursing and Allied Health, Liverpool John Moores UniversityEdwin van Teijlingen, Professor of Reproductive Health Research, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/873352017-11-24T03:22:33Z2017-11-24T03:22:33ZNepal earthquake reconstruction won’t succeed until the vulnerability of survivors is addressed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194478/original/file-20171114-27595-18ntolw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More than 600,000 buildings were fully damaged in the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason von Meding</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In April 2015 the Gorkha earthquake brought Nepal’s vulnerability sharply into focus. Alongside <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2015/apr/29/extent-of-the-destruction-from-nepals-earthquake">massive damage</a> to the built environment, the <a href="http://www.npc.gov.np/images/category/PDNA_volume_BFinalVersion.pdf">terrible impact on the people of Nepal</a> sent shockwaves around the world. </p>
<p>Despite good intentions to rebuild Nepal <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/nepal/iom-red-r-train-engineers-nepal-safer-reconstruction">to be more resilient</a>, 30 months on little progress has been made. Of more than 400,000 homes that were earmarked for reconstruction, only <a href="https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/houses-construction-rebuilt-crosses-200000-nepal-reconstruction-authority/">12% have been rebuilt</a>. Little of the <a href="http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2015-06-25/44-bn-aid-pledged-during-donor-conference.html">US$4.4 billion in aid pledged</a> for reconstruction has been disbursed. </p>
<p>The Nepali government instituted a <a href="https://www.sheltercluster.org/nepal-earthquake-2015/documents/procedures-flow-grantassistance-reconstruction-houses-completely">reconstruction program</a> in October 2015 that identifies beneficiaries and entitles them to three instalments of compensation. The payments are dependent on progress and building code compliance. Those who <a href="https://www.amnesty.ie/nepal-building-inequality-failure-nepali-government-protect-marginalised-post-earthquake-reconstruction-efforts/">do not own land are locked out</a> of reconstruction support. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-behind-the-nepal-earthquake-40835">The science behind the Nepal earthquake</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Nepal has <a href="http://www.dudbc.gov.np/buildingcode">robust building codes</a>, developed over recent years. Serious efforts to implement the codes predate the Gorkha earthquake. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, despite such efforts, there are still more than five million existing buildings standing after the earthquake that are not to code. Many of these are “informal” and built by traditional masons. There is also a large stock of old, dilapidated buildings. These buildings will be a particular risk in Nepal <a href="https://theconversation.com/nepal-earthquake-may-have-unzipped-fault-line-boosting-risk-of-future-quake-45786">when future earthquakes strike</a>.</p>
<p>Widespread <a href="http://www.np.undp.org/content/nepal/en/home/library/crisis_prevention_and_recovery/seismic-retrofitting-guidelines-of-buildings-in-nepal-compilation.html">retrofitting</a> would protect lives and property in the future. Strictly speaking, all new buildings must meet the code – something difficult to monitor and enforce. Forcing people into compliance also has drawbacks: it can lead people to bypass it by unlawful means, and can be particularly onerous for the poor.</p>
<p>Nepal needs a strategy for “safe building” that is acutely aware of the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jid.1593/abstract">resource inequalities</a> and other social impediments that block progress on code compliance. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194511/original/file-20171114-27573-1000sgg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194511/original/file-20171114-27573-1000sgg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194511/original/file-20171114-27573-1000sgg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194511/original/file-20171114-27573-1000sgg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194511/original/file-20171114-27573-1000sgg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194511/original/file-20171114-27573-1000sgg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194511/original/file-20171114-27573-1000sgg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many people live in informal homes in Nepal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ifte Ahmed</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Housing typology and quality in Nepal</h2>
<p>Of the more than 600,000 buildings that were fully damaged by the earthquake, most predated building codes and were <a href="http://www.traditional-is-modern.net/NEPAL/RLCorrespondanceReports/ReconstructingRuralStoneHouses(Langenbach)v2.pdf">built from stone and mud</a>. The death toll of around 9,000 was lower than may have been expected, considering the number of buildings destroyed. By contrast, the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/haiti-earthquake-anniversary_us_5875108de4b02b5f858b3f9c">2010 Haiti earthquake</a> is estimated to have claimed more than 300,000 lives while fewer than 300,000 buildings were fully damaged. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/two-years-after-the-earthquake-why-has-nepal-failed-to-recover-77552">Two years after the earthquake, why has Nepal failed to recover?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="http://abari.earth/rebuldingnepalwithtraditionaltechnology/">Traditional building knowledge</a> is clearly a valuable asset in determining how to save lives in an earthquake – but technical advances have been made that must now be integrated during reconstruction. The five million buildings that survived the earthquake <a href="http://www.tsonepal.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/a-tutorial_improving_the_seismic_performance_of_stone_masonry_buildings.pdf">require urgent retrofitting</a>.</p>
<p>In Nepal, 80% of human settlement is often referred to as “informal”. These are households that are not in compliance with building norms and planning regulations. This can be a <a href="https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2016/04/26/they-are-not-informal-settlements-they-are-habitats-made-by-people/">measure of marginalisation</a> and can bring spatial segregation and discriminatory treatment. </p>
<p>In addition, <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2015/04/how-urban-planning-failed-kathmandu/391499/">Nepal is rapidly urbanising</a>. The temptation in urban areas is to build higher, but in a country like Nepal this could have fatal consequences in an earthquake. Local engineers fear mass casualties if heavy, reinforced concrete structures (as are being widely built) collapse in the future. </p>
<h2>Why has reconstruction stalled?</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194979/original/file-20171116-8011-jgu9oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194979/original/file-20171116-8011-jgu9oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194979/original/file-20171116-8011-jgu9oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194979/original/file-20171116-8011-jgu9oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194979/original/file-20171116-8011-jgu9oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194979/original/file-20171116-8011-jgu9oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194979/original/file-20171116-8011-jgu9oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194979/original/file-20171116-8011-jgu9oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rebuilding has been slowed by a range of technical, social and political challenges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason von Meding</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sheltercluster.org/nepal-earthquake-2015/documents/procedures-flow-grantassistance-reconstruction-houses-completely">government housing grant</a> is available in three instalments on the basis of progress; Rs50,000 (US$477) upon signing an agreement; Rs150,000 (US$1,437) after completion up to plinth level; and Rs100,000 (US$958) upon completion of the structure. </p>
<p>More than 400,000 households entered into an agreement, but so far only 12% have completed the program.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://nra.gov.np/">National Reconstruction Authority</a> (NRA) undertook a lengthy consultation period in the name of building back better. Development of a building code compliance process and a catalogue on rural housing took 18 months to produce and disseminate. </p>
<p>By the time guidance was finally available, many beneficiaries had spent the first instalment on other priorities – many of those affected struggle to provide for the basic needs of their families.</p>
<p>Due to the remoteness of many reconstruction properties in the mountainous terrain, <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/nepal/iom-red-r-train-engineers-nepal-safer-reconstruction">checking for compliance</a> is a major challenge. In addition to the delays in establishing a suitable mechanism, the NRA has been unable to provide enough technical experts in remote, rural areas to implement their own policy. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-tourists-do-to-help-not-hinder-nepals-quake-recovery-41514">What can tourists do to help, not hinder, Nepal's quake recovery?</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<h2>Safe, affordable and high quality construction is possible</h2>
<p>Safe building is inherently difficult in a developing country like Nepal. For many people, putting food on the table is <a href="https://www.adb.org/countries/nepal/poverty">a daily struggle</a>. Investing in earthquake-resistant housing measures is simply not within reach. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194978/original/file-20171116-11028-1f2i8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194978/original/file-20171116-11028-1f2i8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194978/original/file-20171116-11028-1f2i8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194978/original/file-20171116-11028-1f2i8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194978/original/file-20171116-11028-1f2i8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194978/original/file-20171116-11028-1f2i8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194978/original/file-20171116-11028-1f2i8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194978/original/file-20171116-11028-1f2i8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some in Nepal are forced to live in buildings that could fall down at any time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason von Meding</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In such situations, people are <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-fire-exposes-the-injustice-of-disasters-79666">forced to accept acute risk</a> in the course of just surviving. This includes living in buildings that might fall down at any time. In Nepal, people have continued with life since the 2015 earthquake and have reoccupied dangerous premises. </p>
<p>Beyond simply improving the effectiveness of building code enforcement, it’s important we don’t neglect social and economic aspects of the dilemma in Nepal. While affordability is critical, quality is achievable by adapting Indigenous building techniques. If safe building is valued, people would voluntarily comply with codes and regulations. </p>
<p>The potential for change will be wasted if we fail to understand and address the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/26/nepal-earthquake-poverty-infrastructure-aid">chronic vulnerability</a> of people recovering from this disaster. Not everyone has the same access to opportunities and resources – so better codes and regulations only go so far.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason von Meding receives funding from the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) for research in Nepal. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Humayun Kabir receives funding from the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) for project “Understanding the opportunities and challenges of compliance to safe building codes for disaster resilience in South Asia - the cases of Bangladesh and Nepal”on which this article is based.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iftekhar Ahmed receives funding from the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) for the project “Understanding the opportunities and challenges of compliance to safe building codes for disaster resilience in South Asia - the cases of Bangladesh and Nepal”on which this article is based. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hari Darshan Shrestha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reconstruction progress in Nepal has been painfully slow. Building code compliance and better urban planning are a must – but inequitable access to resources undermines recovery.Jason von Meding, Senior Lecturer in Disaster Risk Reduction, University of NewcastleHari Darshan Shrestha, Associate professor Disaster Management and structural EngineeringHumayun Kabir, Professor, DRR expert, University of DhakaIftekhar Ahmed, Senior Lecturer, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/775522017-05-12T05:48:13Z2017-05-12T05:48:13ZTwo years after the earthquake, why has Nepal failed to recover?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169075/original/file-20170512-32602-1s3ad2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Workers rebuild a temple damaged during the 2015 earthquake, in Bhaktapur.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Navesh Chitrakar</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two years after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nepal-shows-its-vulnerability-after-devastating-earthquake-40799">devastating earthquakes</a> that struck Nepal, the country is struggling to bounce back. Nearly 70% of the affected people still live in <a href="http://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Aid-and-Recovery-in-Post-Earthquake-Nepal-Quantitative-Survey-September-2016-1.pdf">temporary shelters</a>, and it is common to see damaged houses, temples without roofs, and earthquake debris lying around, even in the capital Kathmandu. </p>
<p>The recovery is <a href="http://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Aid-and-Recovery-in-Post-Earthquake-Nepal-Quantitative-Survey-September-2016-1.pdf">painfully slow</a>, and many families who lost their loved ones continue to live in traumatic conditions.</p>
<p>Over the past two years, working with <a href="http://www.carenepal.org/">CARE Nepal</a> and the <a href="http://www.sias-southasia.org/">Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies</a>, we have talked to local communities in the Gorkha, Kathmandu and Kavre districts, and helped to organise a national workshop involving senior government officials, researchers and civil society actors. </p>
<h2>Devastation</h2>
<p>The twin earthquakes that struck on April 26 and May 12, 2015 caused around <a href="http://www.npc.gov.np/images/category/PDNA_volume_BFinalVersion.pdf">9,000 deaths</a>, and around half a million families in the central region of the country lost their homes. As well as houses, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/27/nepal-earthquake-destroys-kathmandu-valleys-architecture-buildings-heritage">dozens of Kathmandu’s heritage buildings</a> were destroyed, including the iconic <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/nepals-dharahara-tower-destroyed-killing-dozens-20150426-1mth4q.html">Dharahara tower</a>.</p>
<p>In the quakes’ immediate aftermath, relief and rescue work began swiftly, with local volunteers working with the army and international aid workers. However, over the past two years the recovery effort has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/world/asia/nepals-earthquake-recovery-remains-in-disarray-a-year-later.html?_r=0">slowed to a crawl</a>.</p>
<p>Political bickering, a lack of accountability and poor management of funds have all hampered efforts to rebuild. After two years, Nepali media have <a href="http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2017-04-24/govt-continues-to-fail-marginialised-quake-survivors-amnesty-international.html">branded the situation a “failure”</a>. </p>
<p>What went wrong? Our fieldwork and interviews identified four underlying problems.</p>
<h2>1. Partisan squabbling</h2>
<p>Immediately after the disaster, the government and opposition parties agreed to create a new public body, the <a href="http://nra.gov.np/">National Reconstruction Authority</a> (NRA), to oversee rebuilding. </p>
<p>However, despite pressure from international donors and humanitarian agencies, protracted political wrangling meant it took almost nine months to appoint someone to lead the new body. The chief executive has changed three times in little over a year. </p>
<p>Donors pledged more than <a href="http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2015-06-25/44-bn-aid-pledged-during-donor-conference.html">US$4 billion to the NRA</a>, but little of the aid money has found its way into the work of rebuilding. As a result, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/25/asia/nepal-earthquake-takure/">fewer than 10% of the roughly 500,000</a> damaged homes have been rebuilt with support from the government and donors.</p>
<p>The earthquake hit at a time when Nepal was embroiled in debate over its new constitution, which became a matter of controversy. For about ten years, the disaster response agenda had been neglected by the contentious politics of state restructuring, following the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-12499391">decade-long violent Maoist revolt</a>. </p>
<p>Disaster response has thus been sidelined by protracted political instability, characterised by constitutional transition, ideological and ethnic tension, and <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2016/07/nepals-unending-political-instability/">frequent changes of government</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Absence of local government</h2>
<p>Although national parliament elections have been held in Nepal on more or less on a regular basis, there has been <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/74747/1/blogs.lse.ac.uk-Democracy%20without%20elections%2015%20years%20of%20local%20democratic%20deficit%20in%20Nepal.pdf">no local election or effective local government</a> for 16 years.</p>
<p>Local elections have finally been announced for <a href="http://www.election.gov.np/ecn/uploads/userfiles/revisedelectionprogram.pdf">May 14 and June 14, 2017</a>, but the damage caused by more than a decade of political vacuum is huge. The loss of political accountability to local people is one of the key factors of the failure of disaster recovery in Nepal.</p>
<p>In several locations, we found unaffected local elites included in the lists of victims receiving financial support. Without local democratic leadership, people cannot voice their concerns, mobilise community resources, or scrutinise projects.</p>
<p>Despite this, Nepalese people enjoy strong local social capital, which has helped them in times of distress and difficulty. Community leaders in Gorkha told us: “we work together at the community level to rebuild damaged houses one by one even when there is no support from the government or donors”. </p>
<p>Some local leaders have worked with their communities to build infrastructure, small roads, schools and hospitals. Nevertheless, these individual efforts are no substitute for strong and democratic local government.</p>
<h2>3. Ineffective international aid</h2>
<p>In the aftermath of the earthquakes, Nepal’s <a href="http://www.npc.gov.np/images/category/PDNA_volume_BFinalVersion.pdf">National Planning Commission</a> estimated that the country needed more than US$7 billion for recovery. The billions of dollars committed by international donors was not translated into a clear plan to direct the money, which meant it has had little impact in rebuilding. </p>
<p>The NRA, which should have led the major state response to the disaster, has been hampered by cumbersome administration. A proposal to allow the NRA to bypass the standard procedures failed to eventuate, and a senior official told us their work is slowed by inefficient and lethargic regulations.</p>
<p>The head of the NRA recently <a href="http://kantipur.ekantipur.com/news/2017-04-25/20170425075803.html">publicly criticised the slow pace of rebuilding</a>, blaming overly inflexible procedures and a lack of strong political will. </p>
<p>Donors have therefore preferred to give to international NGOs instead of state options; in Gorkha alone there were 300 different NGOs operating immediately after the earthquake. </p>
<p>The effectiveness of these organisations has been questioned by independent commentators and academic researchers, some even describing the post-disaster aid industry as “<a href="http://www.colorado.edu/tibethimalayainitiative/2017/03/19/dinesh-paudel-speak-politics-post-earthquake-reconstruction-and-early-forms-disaster">disaster capitalism</a>”. However, despite challenges, several <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-key-role-of-ngos-in-bringing-disaster-relief-in-nepal-40883">NGOs have delivered vital relief</a> in times of need. </p>
<p>Nepal still lacks effective and enforceable mechanisms to monitor the use of humanitarian support. Having the money is not enough; it must reach the projects that truly help people. </p>
<h2>4. Regional tensions</h2>
<p>Nepal exists in a delicate balance between India and China, and a few months after the earthquakes a blockade between India and Nepal <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2015/12/crisis-nepal-india-border-blockade-continues-151223082533785.html">disrupted supplies</a>. Nepal blamed India for the blockade, while India said the disruption of supplies was due to internal political problems in Nepal. </p>
<p>As a landlocked country, Nepal has historically relied on India for its basic supplies. India’s blockade led to almost total paralysis of not only the recovery work, but the entire economy. At the same time, in recent years China’s interest in Nepal has grown. </p>
<p>During the blockade, China provided <a href="http://www.voanews.com/a/nepal-receives-fuel-from-china-easing-dependency-on-india/3034378.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter">free oil</a>, but such one-off assistance did not address recovery needs. The competition between China and India for influence in Nepal has not resulted in any substantial benefit for those affected by the disaster. </p>
<p>Given the persistent <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/293/5534/1442/tab-figures-data">seismic risks in the Himalayas</a>, there is a need to create a coherent regional structure for disaster recovery. Yet internal tensions appear to have prevented the Nepal government from promoting serious international cooperation. </p>
<p>Since the entire Himalayas is prone to <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/293/5534/1442/tab-figures-data">multiple forms of disaster</a>, a region-wide research and recovery initiative, involving both China and India, is crucial.</p>
<p>Nepal is just one case of poor disaster recovery management. The questions we need to ask, two years on, are: how can we improve national and local government responses? How can international aid work with government efforts? And how can we foster regional cooperation?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77552/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hemant Ojha received support from the Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) and CARE Nepal while carrying out this research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eileen Baldry receives funding from the ARC</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Krishna K. Shrestha received funding from Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) and CARE Nepal while carrying out this research.</span></em></p>Two years after the second earthquake rocked Nepal in 2015, the recovery efforts have been stalled by political instability and money mismanagement.Hemant Ojha, Lecturer, UNSW SydneyEileen Baldry, Professor of Criminology, UNSW SydneyKrishna K. Shrestha, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/579152016-04-22T10:52:26Z2016-04-22T10:52:26ZRemembering Nepal: a year on from the devastating earthquakes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118908/original/image-20160415-11163-1upsy28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Villages across Nepal remain strewn with rubble, the quake victims still living in tents and flimsy sheds.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">think4photop/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent earthquakes in <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20005iis#general">Japan</a> and <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20005j32#general">Ecuador</a> happened within hours of each other, killing <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-36067380">several hundred people</a>. While both quakes were equally devastating for the countries and people involved, neither disaster has reached the scale experienced by Nepal last year.</p>
<p>On April 25 2015 Nepal experienced a magnitude <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002926#general">7.8 earthquake</a> that was followed 17 days later by a magnitude <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002ejl#general">7.3 earthquake</a>. More than 5m people were affected and <a href="http://www.undispatch.com/nepal-earthquake-facts-and-figures/">more than 8,500 killed</a>.</p>
<p>Between 1900 and 2015, there have been over <a href="over%202.5%20million%20fatalities%20due%20to%20earthquakes">2.5m fatalities</a> globally due to earthquakes, 30% of these have occurred since 2000. </p>
<p>The period 2000-2009 was the worst decade for earthquake fatalities on record, with more than half a million people killed. The current decade (2010-2019) is already on track to exceed that, with more than 350,000 people killed in earthquakes to date. </p>
<p>Of the five most deadly earthquakes in documented history, two have occurred since 2000; the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/2004-indian-ocean-earthquake-tsunami-facts-1480629">2004 Indian Ocean earthquake</a> that killed more than a quarter of a million people and the catastrophic <a href="http://www.dec.org.uk/articles/haiti-earthquake-facts-and-figures">2010 Haiti earthquake</a> – which has the <a href="earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/world_deaths.php">highest death toll</a> for an earthquake ever officially recorded (316,000). The 2000s also saw earthquakes in China, Pakistan, Iran and Japan take a combined total of more than 200,000 lives. </p>
<p>While the scale of these numbers is often shocking and highly emotive, it’s important that debates on the underlying science and appropriate mitigation are undertaken with care.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118940/original/image-20160415-11198-yx2ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118940/original/image-20160415-11198-yx2ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118940/original/image-20160415-11198-yx2ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118940/original/image-20160415-11198-yx2ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118940/original/image-20160415-11198-yx2ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118940/original/image-20160415-11198-yx2ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118940/original/image-20160415-11198-yx2ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ruined buildings in Kathmandu city after the earthquakes in Nepal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">My good images/shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Urban sprawl</h2>
<p>Global population growth and urbanisation, especially in Asia, is certainly one factor influencing the high death toll. Asia currently has the highest number of mega-cities in the world, most of which are growing fast, with some expected to grow by <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/infographics/2014-09-09/global-megacities-by-2030.html">more than 46%</a> by 2030. </p>
<p>The number of people living in earthquake zones is now greater than ever before. This includes those living on the <a href="http://earthsky.org/earth/what-is-the-ring-of-fire">Pacific Ring of Fire</a> – a long chain of volcanoes and other active structures surrounding the Pacific Ocean – and along the <a href="http://ihrrblog.org/2012/06/04/new-research-project-earthquakes-without-frontiers/">Alpine-Himalayan belt</a>. This means earthquakes that would previously have killed hundreds now kill thousands or tens of thousands as a result of increased exposure.</p>
<p>But increased exposure is by no means the only factor. The adage that earthquakes don’t kill people buildings do, highlights a key challenge in increasing resilience to earthquakes. </p>
<p>The scale of the problem is apparent when we consider that <a href="link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10518-006-9028-8">a 2007 study</a> estimated that 90% of buildings in Iran and Nepal – two countries known to have high earthquake risk – had limited earthquake safety. But this problem isn’t unique to Asia. The same study estimated 60-80% of buildings in Austria, which is notably <a href="http://www.conrad-observatory.at/cmsjoomla/en/seimology-overview/earthquakes-in-austria">earthquake prone</a>, were similarly vulnerable as a result of low earthquake awareness among professionals.</p>
<h2>Reducing the risk</h2>
<p>While the knowledge needed to construct earthquake safe buildings is available – even in some of the <a href="http://www.nset.org.np/nset2012/index.php/event/eventdetail/eventid-185">world’s poorest nations</a> – its implementation remains challenging. A combination of weak governance, limited capacity and resources leaves this task seemingly insurmountable. </p>
<p>This is further exacerbated because earthquake disasters in any one location are actually quite rare – before 2015, the previous major earthquake in Nepal was 81 years ago – and so memories of just how catastrophic earthquakes can be quickly fade.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118950/original/image-20160415-11167-bd9ynh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118950/original/image-20160415-11167-bd9ynh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118950/original/image-20160415-11167-bd9ynh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118950/original/image-20160415-11167-bd9ynh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118950/original/image-20160415-11167-bd9ynh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118950/original/image-20160415-11167-bd9ynh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118950/original/image-20160415-11167-bd9ynh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Population growth in earthquake zones is putting more lives at risk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">dotshock/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/geography/staff/geogstaffhidden/?id=14083">research</a> is taking a new approach by using “scenarios” based on observations from previous events to simulate the hazards that result from an earthquake. These are then implemented using civilian or military simulations that help to test the abilities of first-responders during a disaster.</p>
<p>Scenarios are designed to simulate the consequences of an earthquake without having to experience one firsthand. They help to demonstrate the potential scale of earthquake impacts but also quantify how proposed mitigation – such as enforcing <a href="http://www.fema.gov/building-codes">earthquake safe building codes</a> – can have major positive effects. </p>
<p>By simulating changes to the current building stock, we can estimate how many lives could be saved as a result of efforts to increase resilience to earthquakes, for example. We know that buildings made from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe">mud brick and earth</a> are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and replacing these could lead to substantial reductions in earthquake fatalities. </p>
<p>While our findings could aid decision makers, one criticism of this scenario approach is the focus upon a single event – which is by definition not the event that will happen next. However, we can explore multiple scenarios and assess where repeated losses recur – irrespective of the precise nature of each scenario tested. Major losses in different scenarios can then be identified and prioritised for mitigation. This approach allows us to consider how to address future earthquake losses, but it’s by no means a perfect solution. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119256/original/image-20160419-13895-34r4vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119256/original/image-20160419-13895-34r4vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119256/original/image-20160419-13895-34r4vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119256/original/image-20160419-13895-34r4vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119256/original/image-20160419-13895-34r4vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119256/original/image-20160419-13895-34r4vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119256/original/image-20160419-13895-34r4vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119256/original/image-20160419-13895-34r4vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Ring of Fire, home to more than 450 active and dormant volcanoes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.es-static.us/upl/2013/02/ring_of_fire_usgs_550.jpg">U.S. Geological Survey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In all earthquake prone nations seismic risks are just one of the many areas in need of investment. Consequently, it is often the nations with weak governance and the most limited resources that see the biggest loss to life from earthquakes. In these countries efforts to reduce such risks are superseded by the need to address livelihood demands such as clean water. </p>
<p>For countries like Nepal, where <a href="http://qz.com/392582/this-map-shows-where-the-strongest-earthquakes-are-expected-to-strike/">seismic risk</a> is considered to be particularly pervasive, this approach can help ensure earthquake risk is considered and prioritise where to deploy the limited resources that are available. </p>
<p>As well as this, we need to continue to explore new ways to make buildings more resilient to earthquakes, but this needs to be coupled with methods to make these efforts sustainable, cost effective, and prioritised by decision makers.</p>
<p>So while we can’t eliminate earthquake fatalities entirely, we can certainly work harder and smarter to reduce the losses and devastation that seem to go hand in hand when an earthquake hits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57915/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over 8,500 were killed in the 2015 Nepal earthquake, so how is the country coping?Tom Robinson, Junior Research Fellow in the Department of Geography, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/504032015-11-10T22:58:35Z2015-11-10T22:58:35ZCrisis communication: saving time and lives in disasters through smarter social media<p>As the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-17/remembering-the-blue-mountains-bushfires-one-year-on/5819100">worst bushfires</a> seen for generations in New South Wales raged across the Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands and the Central Coast two years ago, people urgently needed fast, reliable information – and many turned to their phones to get it. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/">NSW Rural Fire Service</a> was prepared with a smartphone app, <a href="http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-near-me">Fires Near Me</a>, which was downloaded almost 200,000 times. At the height of the fires, its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nswrfs/?fref=ts">Facebook page</a> was recording more than a million views an hour.</p>
<p>A social media campaign also helped the NSW Rural Fire Service Facebook community more than double from 120,000 to 280,000, while its Twitter reach jumped from 20,000 to 37,000 followers. Crucially, this helped to alert people to danger areas and places to avoid driving near. </p>
<p>If every emergency in Australia was handled in that way, Australians would be better able to cope with disasters we face, including fires, floods and storms.</p>
<p>But our <a href="http://socialmedia.qut.edu.au/crisiscommsreport.pdf">new policy report</a>, released today, shows that there’s still much more to do to consistently match the 2013 response to the NSW fires across the nation.</p>
<p>We found that while Australia is a leader in uses of social media for crisis communication within emergency management organisations, much activity is still relatively <em>ad hoc</em>, rather than being systematically embedded within, or effectively coordinated across, agencies. </p>
<p>Australia also lacks frameworks to enable agencies in one place to learn from the experiences in other parts of the country. That might not sound important – but in times of acute crisis, such disconnects between emergency agencies can cost lives. </p>
<p>Based on a three-year study on how improve social media for crisis communication, our <a href="http://socialmedia.qut.edu.au/crisiscommsreport.pdf">Support Frameworks for the Use of Social Media by Emergency Management Organisations</a> report makes four key recommendations for Australia, to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Develop a national framework for best practices for social media use in crises</li>
<li>Create a national network of Australian emergency management organisations’ social media practitioners</li>
<li>Improve coordination of federal, state and local government agencies</li>
<li>Develop a federal government social media task force. </li>
</ul>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"393569555219755008"}"></div></p>
<h2>Disaster-ready social media</h2>
<p>The NSW Rural Fire Service is just one of a growing number of emergency management organisations around the world using social media to provide emergency warnings, promote community meetings, and use photographs shared by the public on social media to identify and act on crisis hot-spots. </p>
<p>Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have played a crucial role in many other recent disasters, including the Christchurch earthquakes, <a href="http://www.cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf">the 2011 Queensland floods</a>, <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2012/11/06/hurricane-sandy-and-twitter/">Hurricane Sandy in the US</a>, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and the <a href="http://social-media-for-development.org/nepal-earthquake-how-social-media-has-been-used-in-the-aftermath/">2015 Nepalese earthquake</a>. </p>
<p>Individuals, community groups and emergency management organisations have all recognised the value of sharing information and advice about rapidly unfolding disasters. Content mined from social media platforms is now being <a href="http://www.digital-humanitarians.com/">incorporated into the overall event picture</a> by emergency management organisations.</p>
<p>But Australian authorities could do better, as our report shows. </p>
<p>Institutional support for the use of social media by emergency management organisations in Australia is still variable, and often depends on the personal enthusiasm of leaders within those organisations. That’s why we need to instead establish a national framework for the use of social media in crisis communication, so that everyone learns from those leading the way, such as the NSW Rural Fire Service and the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-21/qps-media-win-the-social-media-game-back-to-the-future/6872090">Queensland Police Service</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101343/original/image-20151110-29292-1j8mrv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101343/original/image-20151110-29292-1j8mrv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101343/original/image-20151110-29292-1j8mrv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101343/original/image-20151110-29292-1j8mrv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101343/original/image-20151110-29292-1j8mrv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101343/original/image-20151110-29292-1j8mrv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101343/original/image-20151110-29292-1j8mrv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101343/original/image-20151110-29292-1j8mrv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Twitter users can activate emergency alerts from the Queensland Police Service and others.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/QPSmedia/alerts">https://twitter.com/QPSmedia/alerts</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is also an urgent need for better knowledge sharing across the many local, state, and federal organisations involved with crisis communication. So we recommend the creation of a national network of social media units within emergency management organisations, which could also oversee the development of accredited professional training options.</p>
<p>The rich experience that exists within the network could then be pooled and documented in a national resource centre. We recommend the establishment of a central coordinating office to operate the network, placed at the <a href="https://www.coag.gov.au/">COAG</a> level, within the already established <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/EmergencyManagement/About-us-emergency-management/Pages/Committees-and-councils.aspx">Australia-New Zealand Emergency Management Committee</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101361/original/image-20151110-29337-1s375lz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101361/original/image-20151110-29337-1s375lz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101361/original/image-20151110-29337-1s375lz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101361/original/image-20151110-29337-1s375lz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101361/original/image-20151110-29337-1s375lz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101361/original/image-20151110-29337-1s375lz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101361/original/image-20151110-29337-1s375lz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101361/original/image-20151110-29337-1s375lz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Find out more about the best way to stay up to day on warnings and forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://media.bom.gov.au/social-media/">http://media.bom.gov.au/social-media/</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lessons learnt from the increasing use of social media as a key channel for crisis communication are valuable for many other forms of government communication. </p>
<p>Our report also recommends the establishment of a federal government Social Media Task Force, to explore, encourage, and develop more innovative approaches to using social media across all relevant government functions.</p>
<p>Promotion of other social media services, such as the Bureau of Meteorology’s <a href="http://media.bom.gov.au/social-media/">BOM alerts</a>, would boost the community’s capacity to respond to extreme weather warnings, helping save lives and better protecting homes, businesses and belongings. </p>
<h2>Working with the public on social media</h2>
<p>Worldwide, emergency organisations’ use of social media in crisis situations is still at a relatively early stage. In that time, important advances have been made in Australia. But there is considerable scope to do even better in future.</p>
<p>As the US Federal Emergency Management Agency’s director Craig Fugate has observed, successful emergency management requires working with the public as part of a team. Reflecting on the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, <a href="http://www.dhs.gov/news/2011/10/25/written-testimony-fema-house-homeland-security-subcommittee-emergency-preparedness">Fugate said</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>if you wait until you know how bad something is to begin a response, you have lost time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/october-blew-away-heat-records-for-any-month-of-any-year-bureau-of-meteorology-20151102-gkoo51.html">hottest October on record</a> in many parts of Australia, and with an El Niño event now occurring in the Pacific Rim, it is likely that we will once again see a summer of bushfires, storms, floods and cyclones.</p>
<p>Social media is not a panacea; other ways of <a href="http://www.ag.gov.au/Publications/Documents/AustraliasEmergencyWarningArrangements/Australias-Emergency-Warning-Arrangements.pdf">sharing emergency warnings</a> including radio broadcasts are still crucial. </p>
<p>But social media has become another essential way for authorities to share and discover potentially life-saving information in a disaster. If emergency organisations work together more effectively, and are better engaged with their local communities through social media before, during and after a crisis, it could prove the difference in times when every second counts.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Terry will be online for a Twitter Q&A between 4 and 5pm AEDT on Wednesday, November 11, 2015. Head over to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ConversationEDU">Twitter</a> and join in using #AskAnExpert.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Flew receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Axel Bruns receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>When disaster strikes, more people than ever are turning to social media to find out if they’re in danger. But Australian emergency services need to work together more to learn what works to save lives.Terry Flew, Professor of Media and Communications, Queensland University of TechnologyAxel Bruns, Professor, Creative Industries, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/461912015-08-20T20:25:28Z2015-08-20T20:25:28ZSpeaking with: Hayley Saul and Emma Waterton on the Nepal earthquake and the everyday Nepalese hero<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92045/original/image-20150817-5095-hxln8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It will be many years before life returns to normal in the Langtang valley, one of the regions worst-affected by the earthquakes in Nepal.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/downstream/8157634124/">Scott Mattoon/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hayley Saul and Emma Waterton were doing anthropological field work in the Langtang valley in Nepal when the devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit on April 25 this year, killing more than 9,000 people.</p>
<p>At the time of the quake, they were with several local guides from the village of Langtang, now dubbed “<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32585356">the worst affected</a>” area in Nepal. Saul and Waterton were recording local oral histories. They were interested in how these local stories were written into the Himalayan landscape.</p>
<p>It was their guides’ knowledge of the landscape, their humble acts of bravery and kindness that saved Saul and Waterton’s lives many times over two tough days, and enabled them to reach safety.</p>
<p>Saul and Waterton would witness many acts of courage and heroism after the earthquake, which was often not reported by the overseas media that tended to focus on the quake’s impact on tourists and climbers on Everest.</p>
<p>Dallas Rogers spoke to them about their research in Nepal, the earthquake, their rescue over two days, and the everyday Nepalese hero.</p>
<p><em>Since returning to Australia, Saul and Waterton have been fundraising to assist the displaced villagers of Langtang in collaboration with Community Action Nepal. You can read about their story and find out more about their relief efforts here: <a href="https://www.justgiving.com/Langtang-Survivors/">Langtang Survivors</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/speaking-with.../id934267338">Subscribe</a> to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on iTunes, or <a href="http://tunein.com/radio/Speaking-with---The-Conversation-Podcast-p671452/">follow</a> on Tunein Radio.</em></p>
<p>Music: <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Gallery_Six/">Gallery Six</a>, <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/OCP/">OCP</a>, <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Edoardo_Romani_Capelo/">Edoardo Romani Capelo</a> (Free Music Archive)</p>
<p>Additional news audio:
BBC News, ABC News, CBS News.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46191/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dallas Rogers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hayley Saul and Emma Waterton were in the Langtang valley in Nepal when the massive earthquake hit. Dallas Rogers spoke to Hayley and Emma about their subsequent rescue and the everyday Nepalese hero.Dallas Rogers, Urban Studies Lecturer, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/422362015-06-12T10:17:50Z2015-06-12T10:17:50ZGifts of cash may be best way to rebuild lives of disaster victims<p>Last week Toby Porter, CEO of the NGO HelpAge, went to Nepal to meet with people recovering from the earthquakes that have devastated the country. He asked them an interesting question: would you rather we buy you the stuff you need, or would you rather we just give you the money?</p>
<p>It’s a question worth asking – and one posed not often enough. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-8H1uz8Wq_I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Toby Porter in Nepal.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Humanitarian orthodoxy</h2>
<p>Historically, the orthodox approach to helping people in humanitarian emergencies has been to give them things – food, water, hygienic supplies and so on. There’s an argument for this approach, but also a very real risk: that we give people the wrong things. And the network of contractors and subcontractors often used to administer this “in-kind” aid is sufficiently complex and opaque that we can’t really tell how we’re performing. </p>
<p>Take the response to the last earthquake to rock a developing country, in Haiti in 2010. In the wake of that quake, governments and private donors around the world <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/02/28/172875646/what-happened-to-the-aid-meant-to-rebuild-haiti">disbursed</a> more than US$9 billion in relief and reconstruction funding. That’s a massive amount of money – about 133% of Haiti’s annual GDP, or more than $900 per resident at the time of the quakes. And yet we have next to no idea whether we bought the right things or what impact they had. </p>
<p>Media investigations have found egregious examples of misplaced spending and <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes">inefficiency</a>, including the memorable public health campaign run to teach hand-washing to Haitians who lacked soap and running water. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BNM4kEUEcp8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Vikram Gandhi of HBO’s Vice goes to Haiti.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But it’s hard to tell how representative these are, since, for most of the money, <a href="http://www.cgdev.org/blog/haiti-quake-four-years-later-we-still-dont-know-where-money-has-gone">we simply don’t know how it was used</a>, as shown by the Center for Global Development, an independent think tank. We can at best take it on faith that we created $900 of value for each citizen of Haiti.</p>
<p>One alternative would have been to simply give $900 to every Haitian. Sound farfetched? As it turns out, this actually requires less faith than many of the more traditional approaches. </p>
<h2>Direct giving works</h2>
<p>As researchers have begun conducting rigorous experimental tests of anti-poverty strategies (“randomized controlled trials”), seeking reliable answers to the question “what works?,” a consistent finding has been that simply giving money directly to individuals works quite well. </p>
<p>Multiple studies have found that when people in need receive cash and the freedom to spend it as they choose, the results are impressive. For example, a <a href="http://cega.berkeley.edu/assets/cega_events/53/WGAPE_Sp2013_Blattman.pdf">study</a> by Christopher Blattman, Nathan Fiala and Sebastian Martinez in post-conflict Uganda found that people who received cash grants invested in enterprises, earning an average 40% rate of return after four years. In post-tsunami Sri Lanka, Suresh de Mel, David McKenzie
and Christopher Woodruff <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTFR/Resources/McKenzieReturnstoCapital.pdf">found</a> that cash grant recipients saw rates of return in the 80%-plus range after five years.</p>
<p>In addition to improving the long-run living standards of individual recipients, giving aid as cash has the potential to massively streamline delivery. As we’ve <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/show-them-money">explained</a> with Blattman, delivering physical goods to people in need tends to be very expensive (when we know costs at all, which is too infrequent). </p>
<p>For example, a <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6236/1260799.full">recent Science paper</a> on the (positive) impacts of six programs that transferred assets to the poor found that on average, 68% of program budgets were spent on management and delivery, with only 32% spent on the assets the poor actually received. </p>
<p>The simpler cash-only program run by GiveDirectly (which we co-founded) <a href="https://www.givedirectly.org/efficiency.html">spends 10% on delivery and puts 90% into recipients’ hands</a>. In other words, we can deliver three times as much value when we deliver as cash. It’s possible that the added management activity involved in the traditional programs offsets this by tripling their value, but we would argue that the burden of proof lies on that side.</p>
<h2>Enabling individuals</h2>
<p>Of course, giving cash directly to victims is not the answer to all post-disaster problems. Infrastructure – roads, airports, schools – all needs to be rebuilt, and that requires coordinated activity. But when it comes to helping individuals rebuild their lives, it is hard to see the rationale for giving victims the things we think they might need, instead of enabling them to buy exactly what they want. There is certainly no evidence to suggest we’re better at it than they are.</p>
<p>Will the old ways change? There are glimmers in the response to Nepal. Some aid organizations like HelpAge are already sending cash payments directly to vulnerable individuals, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/may/22/cash-transfers-older-people-lifeline-nepal-earthquake">with (anecdotally) positive</a> results. Recipients report receiving support faster and being better able to obtain the specific things they need. </p>
<p>In Lebanon, the IRC recently released <a href="http://www.rescue.org/press-releases/irc-releases-evaluation-cash-transfers-work-refugees-emergencies-21557">results showing strong positive impacts</a> of cash transfers on Syrian refugees. </p>
<p>But overall, the share of humanitarian relief delivered as cash transfers is estimated at no more than 6%, according to the <a href="http://www.odi.org">Overseas Development Institute</a>, a UK think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. </p>
<p>If the aim of relief is to help those in need, we might do well to ask Toby Porter’s question more often.</p>
<p><em>Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus, co-founders of GiveDirectly and Segovia Technology, co-authored this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42236/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Niehaus is co-founder of the charity GiveDirectly, where he’s currently on sabbatical, and Segovia Technology Co. He’s also affiliated with the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA). </span></em></p>When disaster strikes, billions of dollars are spent on food and supplies, with little accounting of whether relief groups bought the right things or what impact they had.Paul Niehaus, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California, San DiegoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/415142015-06-03T01:22:24Z2015-06-03T01:22:24ZWhat can tourists do to help, not hinder, Nepal’s quake recovery?<p>Every year 800,000 international visitors travel to Nepal to experience its unique attractions. These include Sagarmatha National Park (Mt Everest), the Annapurna and Langtang trekking regions and the Kathmandu Valley, which is dotted with UNESCO World Heritage sites such as the Durbar Squares in Patan and Bhaktapur. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/nepal-earthquake-2015">April 25 earthquake</a> and aftershocks seriously affected all these places.</p>
<p>Tourism is critical to Nepal’s economy. The World Travel and Tourism Council reports that the industry contributed <a href="http://www.wttc.org/press-room/press-releases/2015/wttc-calls-for-international-community-to-assist-nepal-in-aftermath-of-devastating-earthquake/">8.9% to Nepal’s GDP</a> in 2014, supporting 1.1 million jobs. Before the earthquake, Nepal was the 26th-fastest-growing tourism economy out of 188 countries.</p>
<p>What impact will the earthquake have on tourism? Based on the Nepalese Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation’s <a href="http://www.tourism.gov.np/uploaded/TourrismStat2013_final%20integrated.pdf">tourism statistics</a>, about 23,000 visitors would have been in the country on April 25, 2015. It is not known yet exactly how many tourists were among <a href="http://arko.asia/news/nepal/nepal-earthquake-update/">those who lost their lives</a> in the earthquake.</p>
<p>Nepal is one of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nepal-shows-its-vulnerability-after-devastating-earthquake-40799">most hazard-prone countries</a> in the world. This is due to its location in a high-intensity earthquake zone and extreme topography. The risk profile is known with relative accuracy and so is the fact that rural communities are considerably more vulnerable than the urban population. </p>
<p>Based on research in other hazard-exposed destinations around the world, tourists were probably not fully aware of the risks involved in travelling to Nepal. Yet the tourism industry will also be critical to Nepal’s economic recovery. When thinking about the future of Nepal and its tourism industry, there are several dimensions to consider.</p>
<h2>Tourism plans must include disaster preparedness</h2>
<p>Tourist destinations are becoming increasingly aware of the devastating impacts that natural disasters can have on their industries. Organisations at all levels have begun to promote or develop tools to increase disaster preparedness and management of the sector. </p>
<p>Examples include the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s <a href="http://www.gstcouncil.org/gstc-criteria/criteria-for-destinations.html">destination standards</a>, the <a href="http://publications.apec.org/publication-detail.php?pub_id=461">best practice guide</a> for tourism risk management developed by APEC, and local action plans (for example, in <a href="https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/bitstream/10182/6514/3/Leap%2036-EvaluationTourismActionPlan-Northland%202014.pdf">New Zealand</a>).</p>
<p>To date, not many destinations have implemented these tools. Tourists are typically not accounted for as vulnerable groups in national disaster plans. Nepal’s 2008 <a href="http://www.nrcs.org/sites/default/files/pro-doc/NSDRM%20Nepal.pdf">National Strategy</a> for Disaster Risk Management does not mention tourism at all.</p>
<p>A similar omission has also been revealed for New Zealand’s civil defence and emergency management plans in <a href="http://www.med.govt.nz/sectors-industries/tourism/christchurch-tourism-recovery/pdf-1/Christchurch-earthquake-visitor-sector-report-Sep-2012.pdf">an assessment</a> of the impacts of the Christchurch earthquakes on the visitor economy. </p>
<p>The Christchurch evaluation identified areas where tourism-specific plans are critical. These include the evacuation of foreign visitors (involving embassies, airlines and a range of other stakeholders), dedicated communication channels for visitors inside and outside the affected area, and industry assistance to aid a speedy recovery of tourism infrastructure and businesses.</p>
<h2>Rescue resources and access</h2>
<p>The limited availability of helicopters seriously hampered rescue operations in Nepal. Many of the most devastated regions can only be accessed by helicopter, but Nepal has only about a dozen functioning helicopters. </p>
<p>To a large extent, the immediate rescue effort focused on climbers and sherpas in the Mt Everest region, which raised ethical concerns. Leading mountaineers such as Reinhold Messner commented on a morally questionable <a href="http://news.newsdirectory1.com/earthquake-in-nepal-messner-criticized-two-class-rescue-on-everest/">two-class rescue</a>. Fights over life-saving helicopter space <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/langtang-tal-in-nepal-konflikte-zwischen-einheimischen-und-touristen-a-1032899.html">were also observed</a> in the devastated Langtang Valley. </p>
<p>Clearly, a debate is necessary over whether it is in the interests of the country to save foreign tourists – for the sole reason that tourism is the backbone of the economy and perceptions of safety are critical to future tourist arrivals – or whether a life is a life.</p>
<p>Another critical touchpoint between disaster relief and tourism is the airport. Following a disaster, airports become a bottleneck for fleeing foreigners (and locals who can afford it) and incoming assistance. As part of a country’s critical infrastructure network, airports need to be highly prepared and drilled for disasters. </p>
<p>Several newspapers and social media reported chaotic scenes at Kathmandu’s airport. The airport was unable to handle incoming cargo planes. </p>
<p>More than five years ago, it had been decided to upgrade Gautam Buddha Airport as a secondary hub to Kathmandu that can handle larger international flights. The Asian Development Bank agreed on a loan in 2012 and the <a href="http://www.travelbiznews.com/news/item/2849-nepal-prime-minister-lays-foundation-stone-of-gautam-buddha-int-l-airport">foundation stone was laid</a> in January 2015. The process has been too slow to be of assistance in this present disaster.</p>
<h2>Tourism can provide critical assistance</h2>
<p>As the case of the Christchurch earthquakes has already demonstrated, tourism businesses can provide invaluable resources to the disaster response. </p>
<p>For example, a scenic flight operator in Nepal reported having <a href="http://fishtailair.com/blog/2015/05/fishtail-on-rescue-mission-after-the-devastating-earthquake/">brought 1000 victims back</a> to Kathmandu in its helicopters. Holidaymakers were seen helping dig locals out of the rubble. Trekkers reportedly shared food and other provisions with locals in remote villages and carried valuable equipment such as satellite phones and first aid kits.</p>
<p>However, it is important to proceed with caution in restoring the tourism industry. A <a href="http://time.com/3851425/nepal-earthquake-tourism-impact-holiday-trekking/#3851425/nepal-earthquake-tourism-impact-holiday-trekking/">statement</a> by Mountain Explore Treks & Expedition in mid-May to encourage travellers to go to Nepal – "We are pleased to inform you that Nepal is now safe to visit" – is irresponsible as long as the rescue and recovery operations <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32950361">are not complete</a> and large aftershocks are to be expected. Buildings are compromised, mountain <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32930252">slopes are unstable</a> and <a href="http://earthquaketrack.com/p/nepal/recent">large aftershocks</a> pose a serious risk.</p>
<p>A more measured response, adopted by several other tour companies, is to raise funds and provide support (for example, to donate tents) to earthquake survivors.</p>
<p>From a management and marketing perspective, Nepal will benefit from communicating clearly to prospective tourists which areas of Nepal are safe to travel (for example, the Royal Chitwan National Park) and how the rebuild of infrastructure in other areas (for example, the Mt Everest Valley) is progressing. In addition, it is important that the global tourism industry and inter-governmental bodies support a swift recovery process. </p>
<p>Most importantly, in the long term, it is essential that people travel to Nepal again in the future and contribute to its recovery by spending generously.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susanne Becken does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While some operators have prematurely suggested it’s safe for tourists to return, Nepal’s recovery from the earthquake has barely begun. In the longer term, though, tourism will be vital to this process.Susanne Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism and Director Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/421312015-05-21T16:56:48Z2015-05-21T16:56:48ZGetting children back to school is the next priority for Nepal earthquake recovery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82562/original/image-20150521-976-dhbvw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School children in Kathmandu before the earthquake.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anna Childs</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The scale of catastrophe caused by the recent earthquakes in Nepal is staggering, as are many of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nepal-quake-the-challenges-facing-disaster-r%20esponse-40869">challenges</a> of responding to the disaster. They have been well-reported, along with the potential for <a href="https://theconversation.com/quake-recovery-can-leverage-change-of-lasting-benefit-to-nepal-41100">opportunities</a> that will come as the relief effort moves from crisis to recovery. So far, however, very little has been said about what happens next for the <a href="http://www.moe.gov.np/SoftAdmin/content/Nepal_Education_Figure_2014.pdf">7.5m children</a> who were attending school in Nepal before the quake hit. </p>
<p>Reopening schools may instinctively feel low down on a priority list that begins with clean water, sanitation and shelter, but <a href="http://www.cedol.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/52-56-2007.pdf">research shows</a> that it is vital in providing a sense of normality, structure and routine after disasters, restoring hope and supporting psychological healing. It is also recognised that the longer children remain out of the classroom, the less likely they are ever to return. </p>
<p>Prior to the earthquake there were roughly 35,000 schools across Nepal. <a href="http://www.unicef.org/media/media_81802.html">According to UNICEF</a>, almost 24,000 classrooms were damaged or destroyed on the April 25 earthquake, with no update yet for subsequent deterioration resulting from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nepal-earthquake-such-huge-aftershocks-are-rare-41833">second big quake</a>. In the worst-affected districts, 90% of schools have been desolated. Many schools that do remain standing are now being used to provide emergency shelter. </p>
<h2>One million children with no school</h2>
<p>UNICEF suggests that up to a million children who were enrolled in school before the quake have no school to return to. Numbers so far are necessarily focused on buildings: with so many families displaced, the school I work with in Kathmandu alone has yet to account for how many children are confirmed lost. </p>
<p>Crucially though, even temporary schools in the simplest of shelters can offer opportunities to educate children in the new life skills they will need to deal with the rapidly changing world around them. They can also provide protection for some of the marginalised groups such as ethnic minorities, girls and children with disabilities who are most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse in times of social chaos. This is a significant risk in Nepal, where the recent launch of Childreach’s <a href="http://www.taughtnottrafficked.com/">Taught Not Trafficked</a> campaign has highlighted that around 20,000 children are trafficked out of the country each year.</p>
<p>Tomoo Hozumi, UNICEF’s representative in Nepal, <a href="http://www.unicef.org/media/media_81802.html">emphasised the urgency</a> for action:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is a desperate need to set up alternative learning spaces, assess and repair buildings, and mount a public awareness campaign encouraging families to send their children back to school and preschool. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Good progress on MDGs</h2>
<p>The decade-long civil war, ending in 2006, had <a href="http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/05/30/000158349_20130530105918/Rendered/PDF/WPS6468.pdf">complex implications</a> for education outcomes. Maoist insurgents were advocates for girls attending school, so female attainment generally went up, but conflict injuries, school demolitions, child soldier recruitment and abductions all had a counter impact. </p>
<p>In subsequent years as a post-conflict nation, Nepal has been recognised for making <a href="http://www.np.undp.org/content/dam/nepal/docs/reports/millennium%20development%20goals/UNDP_NP_MDG_Report_2013.pdf">excellent progress</a> in primary education against its <a href="http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/education.shtml">Millennium Development Goal</a> (MDG) target, with a tracked leap from 64% net enrolment in 1990 to 95.3% in 2013, the most recent figure.</p>
<p>Nepal has actively engaged with the consultation for setting the post-2015 global education objectives, and minister for education Chitralekha Yadav attended the UNESCO <a href="https://en.unesco.org/world-education-forum-2015/">World Education Forum</a> in Korea. Committing to an education agenda that is focused on <a href="https://theconversation.com/moving-global-goals-for-education-from-quantity-to-quality-after-2015-41732">quality as well as quantity</a> remains a vital next step for her nation. Despite good progress against the MDG there is significant variance across social and ethnic groups, quality and equity in the classroom are questionable, high dropout rates have been flagged as a critical cause for concern and secondary enrolment stands at <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.SEC.NENR/countries">just 60%</a>. </p>
<p>The last <a href="http://www.np.undp.org/content/dam/nepal/docs/reports/millennium%20development%20goals/UNDP_NP_MDG_Report_2013.pdf">MDG progress report</a> for Nepal found that the “quality of educational infrastructure and learning environments is highly correlated with the political and economic capacities and … with access to roads and physical distance from district headquarters.” All of which implies that the advantages brought about by the MDG push in the last 15 years are fragile and, in current circumstances, extremely vulnerable. </p>
<p>It is vital for Nepal’s future that the strength and urgency of the international drive to get children back into classrooms of any description must also follow through to continue supporting positive, sustainable change in the quality and equity of education delivery and outcomes across the nation. </p>
<p>If aid agencies and development partners focus funds and resources now on numbers alone, then the progress gained against the education MDG will be lost, potentially setting the education system back by 15 years. That would indeed be a whole new disaster for the children of Nepal.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/nepal-earthquake-2015">Click here</a> to read coverage of the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake on The Conversation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42131/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Childs is on the board of the Mahan Siddhartha High School in Kathmandu.</span></em></p>Almost 24,000 classrooms were damaged or destroyed in Nepal’s April earthquake.Anna Childs, Deputy Director (Academic) for International Development, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/418332015-05-15T05:09:20Z2015-05-15T05:09:20ZNepal earthquake: such huge aftershocks are rare<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/many-feared-dead-as-second-quake-hits-devastated-nepal-41712">7.3 magnitude earthquake</a> that hit Nepal on May 12, just weeks after the devastating <a href="http://ds.iris.edu/ds/nodes/dmc/specialevents/2015/04/25/nepal/">7.8 magnitude event</a>, should be classed as an aftershock rather than a second earthquake. Although there are relatively few examples of such big aftershocks in history, the tragic events in Nepal demonstrate that we must always be prepared for them. </p>
<p>The first earthquake that violently shook Kathmandu on April 25 and resulted in <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/10/asia/nepal-earthquake-death-toll/">more than 8,000 deaths</a> was not predicted, but it <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/major-earthquake-hits-nepal-1.17413">hardly came as a surprise</a> to seismologists. Nepal is forged by continental collision between the converging India and Eurasia tectonic plates. Earthquakes here are a well-known by-product of the thickening of the Earth’s crust that occurs in response to enormous compressive stress at the margins of the two tectonic plates as they are squeezed together.</p>
<p>Like recent large and extremely deadly earthquakes – the <a href="http://www.npa.go.jp/archive/keibi/biki/higaijokyo_e.pdf">Tohoku earthquake</a> in 2011, the <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/12/world/haiti-earthquake-fast-facts/">Haiti earthquake in 2010</a> and the <a href="http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/outreach/highlights/sumatra/what.html">Sumatra earthquake in 2004</a> – the immediate focus was on rescue and humanitarian efforts rather than planning for another devastating earthquake that may or may not happen.</p>
<h2>Appalling aftershock</h2>
<p>Yet that is exactly what happened; <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/12/dozens-killed-as-devastated-nepal-suffers-another-strong-earthquake">a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck</a> the border region between Nepal and China on May 12, just 150 km east of the first event. Already, the death toll has <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/nepal-earthquake-death-toll-from-magnitude-73-quake-rises-to-96-with-thousands-more-injured-10248844.html">risen to nearly 100</a>, and is expected to climb further in the coming days. </p>
<p>Most earthquakes result from rapid relative motion along a fault in the Earth’s crust. In general, the larger the earthquake, the larger the rupture area of the fault. For example, the giant 2004 Sumatra earthquake (magnitude 9.2) ruptured over a <a href="http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/outreach/highlights/sumatra/what.html">distance of nearly 1500 km</a>. In the days and weeks which follow such sizeable earthquakes, a large number of smaller earthquakes, <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/8593/aftershock">known as aftershocks</a>, occur in the vicinity of the rupture area, as the crust adjusts itself to accommodate the sudden change in structure. </p>
<p>The rate at which aftershocks occur decays over time following the main event, but they can still be recorded months or even years afterwards. In the case of the April 25 event in Nepal, more than 100 aftershocks have already been detected spanning a zone that extends roughly 150 km east of the main epicentre, which is consistent with estimates of the rupture length and direction of the main shock. </p>
<p>May 12’s event occurred towards the eastern end of this earthquake sequence – and the fact that it is smaller than the first event means that it clearly fits the definition of an aftershock. Ostensibly, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake may seem similar in size than a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, but the logarithmic scale used by magnitude estimates actually means that the energy release is many times smaller, which is reflected in the reduced rupture area of the fault (by a factor of 4-5 in this case). However, size is not the only thing that matters when it comes to the destructive power of earthquakes; the geology of the region, the location of population centres and the robustness of buildings and infrastructure also play a vital role.</p>
<h2>Lessons from history</h2>
<p>So how common is it for aftershocks to cause major destruction and casualties on a large scale? It is actually relatively uncommon, although there are notable cases, including the Christchurch earthquake in February 2011. On this occasion, a magnitude <a href="http://www.seismosoc.org/publications/SRL/SRL_82/srl_82-3_op/reyners_op.html">6.3 earthquake</a> shook the city of Christchurch in New Zealand’s south island, causing widespread damage and over 180 deaths. </p>
<p>This event followed the magnitude <a href="http://info.geonet.org.nz/display/quake/M+7.1,+Darfield+%28Canterbury%29,+4+September+2010">7.1 Darfield earthquake</a> of September 2010, which did not directly result in any loss of life. The lack of casualties was due to the quake being centred some 40 km west of Christchurch, which is a less populated area. It was also due to the earthquake striking in the early hours when most people were asleep. Falling masonary from older buildings would have likely resulted in many deaths had the earthquake struck during the day. While many regard this earthquake as the main shock and the 2011 earthquake as an aftershock, some seismologists argue that since they appear to have occurred on separate fault systems, they could both be regarded as main shocks. Either way, the message from New Zealand and Nepal is similar – destructive earthquakes aren’t always islolated in time and space – and smaller earthquakes can kill too.</p>
<p>But given that it is well known that big earthquakes tend to have more intense aftershocks, is there any way that we can mitigate against their effects so that we can avoid a repeat of the fatalities seen in Nepal? Apart from the advice that can be found in many <a href="http://www.cusec.org/earthquake-safety/what-to-do-in-an-earthquake/72.html">earthquake action plans</a> – avoid buildings with damage that could lead to fire or collapse in an aftershock and use the “drop, cover and hold” method when an aftershock strikes – there is little more that can be done. </p>
<p>Although we know that aftershocks will happen, it is impossible to pinpoint their exact location, magnitude and timing. Our best defence is to ensure that the effected population is educated about earthquake and aftershock hazard, and apply building codes that are properly informed by seismic hazard maps of the region.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41833/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Rawlinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The magnitude 7.3 earthquake that hit Nepal this week should be classed as an aftershock rather than a second earthquake.Nick Rawlinson, Chair in Geophysics, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/411002015-05-14T01:59:45Z2015-05-14T01:59:45ZQuake recovery can leverage change of lasting benefit to Nepal<p>David Gellner is surely correct <a href="https://theconversation.com/could-nepals-messy-politics-hamper-relief-efforts-40903">in observing</a> that local politics in Nepal will hinder relief and recovery efforts following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/nepal-earthquake-2015">April 25 earthquake</a> and its <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32701385">aftershocks</a>. But look at it the other way around. Could the disaster help to resolve political problems in Nepal? This depends on how we go about it.</p>
<p>Real-life events are tremendously effective levers of change, as illustrated by Howard Gardner in his world-altering book <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Changing_Minds.html?id=JcHo9M6zD4AC">Changing Minds</a>. The Second World War changed us all, because great statesmen, inventive scientists and millions of people passionate about freedom responded to its challenges.</p>
<p>The situation in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/29/2004-indian-ocean-tsunami-how-aceh-recovered-and-sri-lanka-declined">Aceh after the tsunami</a> in late 2004 was no more conducive for relief and recovery than Nepal is today. There was an anti-government armed rebellion, the governor was caught in a corruption case, the economy was eroding, civil rights were largely ignored and the people were oppressed. Yet the tsunami brought peace, a new basis for democracy and at least some basis for economic recovery.</p>
<p>Sri Lankans saw how Aceh managed to lever change, and much effort was put into trying to learn from it. Yet it took years and great suffering before conflicting parties decided to listen to the voice of nature and bring about the change it called for. </p>
<p>In Haiti, everyone was so focused on relief and recovery after the <a href="http://time.com/3662225/haiti-earthquake-five-year-after/">2010 earthquake</a> that the voice of nature to enact change went largely ignored. Will Nepal be able to listen to what the earthquake is telling them?</p>
<p>Howard Gardner provides us with <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Changing_Minds.html?id=JcHo9M6zD4AC">six other levers of change</a>, which I will return to later. They are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Reasoning which provides arguments why reform should take a particular direction.</li>
<li>Research to assure that whatever we propose is sensible, measurable, applicable and achievable.</li>
<li>Resonance which calls all who share the same values principles and objectives to speak up on behalf of good governance and good management.</li>
<li>Re-description whereby we continually seek new words, media and places to present our case for change, so that all can understand and be persuaded.</li>
<li>Restraints whereby listening to opponents enable us to find new reasons, new research, and more re-descriptions.</li>
<li>Resources and rewards to enable and motivate people to change.</li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80241/original/image-20150504-2091-pi2d6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80241/original/image-20150504-2091-pi2d6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80241/original/image-20150504-2091-pi2d6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80241/original/image-20150504-2091-pi2d6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80241/original/image-20150504-2091-pi2d6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80241/original/image-20150504-2091-pi2d6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80241/original/image-20150504-2091-pi2d6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nepal can learn from the recovery experiences of Aceh after the 2004 tsunami.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://one.aap.com.au/#/asset/20141218001077864984">Hotli Simanjuntak/AAP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Back in Aceh, not everything worked out. Within a couple of years, the people wanted to forget the tsunami in the false belief that they could move on without succumbing to its impelling power to change. </p>
<p>Leaders were preoccupied with leveraging their own political power more than leveraging everything for the common good. While we are amazed at the changes that did occur in Aceh, at the same time it is disappointing that so many opportunities were missed.</p>
<h2>What can Nepal learn?</h2>
<p>What lessons can be learnt from Aceh, and elsewhere, for the people of Nepal? Can this disaster be used to bring fundamental change and help people not to lose sight of the potential for change along the way?</p>
<p>Firstly, we must recognise that recovery is a shared entity. Anyone looking at scenes from Nepal already has an image of it in their minds. They will be tempted to reject this holistic concept for lists of things to do. But it is the shared entity of recovery that holds those who come to help together with the people of Nepal.</p>
<p>According to UN principle, the government of Nepal is responsible for relief and recovery, but it is the Nepalese people who hold sovereignty. It is no easy matter to turn a shared entity into formal arrangements, and this must be an ongoing concern for all who participate and provide help.</p>
<h2>A political problem, a political response</h2>
<p>Thus our first recognition is that disaster recovery is a political affair. As much as we want to get on with managing the disaster, we firstly must govern the way in which parties position themselves, and how the rights of people are assessed and protected throughout the long, dynamic process.</p>
<p>My first hope for Nepal is that a coalition of nationals and internationals will help develop an effective political framework to lead the recovery efforts, streamline the communication of needs and relief efforts, and work towards building the new society. </p>
<p>We should not shrink from working on an equivalent to the <a href="http://www.hdcentre.org/uploads/tx_news/56JusticeAcehfinalrevJUNE08.pdf">Helsinki peace process</a> that stabilised conflict in Aceh and a parallel to <a href="http://www.recoveryplatform.org/resources/organizations/94/agency_of_the_rehabilitation_and_reconstruction_for_the_region_and_community_of_aceh_and_nias_brr">BRR</a>, which led those working on reconstruction. It is important to find leaders in Nepal like Martti Ahtisaari, Yusuf Kalla, Kuntoro and Irwandi, who <a href="http://www.c-r.org/accord-article/delivering-peace-aceh-interview-president-martti-ahtisaari">helped mediate</a> the recovery and peace process in Aceh. </p>
<p>We can also learn from Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Japan where building the political framework for recovery was hard and slow, but ultimately successful.</p>
<h2>Support for business and professionals</h2>
<p>Secondly, I recognise that recovery is dependent on both livelihoods and business. When the local business community is destroyed, the international community needs to support and rebuild it, so as to foster a strong and resilient economy. The business community will be there long after the humanitarians have all gone home. </p>
<p>The two sectors most needed in Nepal now are banking and construction. I hope that banks will speed up financial flows, reduce cash dependency and help with the shared accountability. I hope that there is a <a href="http://www.weforum.org/projects/disaster-resource-partnership-drp">Disaster Resources Partnership</a> of international and local contractors to ensure the highest ethical standards and commitment to recovery, where India and Indonesia have the appropriate models.</p>
<p>Thirdly, I recognise that professionalism during disaster recovery is not the same as professionalism in normal times. Humanitarians are now mostly professional, and there are now professional groups for disaster logistics and crisis informatics. </p>
<p>Paul Steinfort of Melbourne has <a href="http://www.blog.nicolnotes.com/aussies-aceh/">developed concepts</a> to improve disaster recovery project management. <a href="http://www.blog.nicolnotes.com/aussies-aceh/">Others</a> are working on disaster quantity surveying (cost engineering), town planning, and general medical practice in times of disaster.</p>
<p>Despite this progress, some professions are yet to work out how they need to alter their practice when working in disasters. Accountants, financial managers and politicians are such professions. My hope is that professionals who go to help Nepal will understand how their <a href="http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/89177601/adapting-professional-practices-post-disaster-reconstruction">professionalism needs to be redefined</a> to respond to disasters.</p>
<p>Lastly, I recognise that any <a href="http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/156372/governance-brief-22.pdf">public accountability systems</a> that were working before the disaster have been damaged by it. The systems of accountability now need to be rebuilt. And my hope here is that Nepal will start building its accountability systems now and continue until all are held accountable for their role in recovery, when it is fully achieved.</p>
<p>It is essential that the leaders in Nepal take the time to recognise and understand these crucial aspects of disaster recovery. They need to work on developing their version of Howard’s levers of change – reasoning, research, resonance, re-description, restraints and resources and rewards. This will enable the people of Nepal to turn their disaster into the lever of change that nature has presented to them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Owen Podger is currently an adviser for the World Bank at the Indonesian Investment Board (BKPM). His views are his own and not related to his work with the World Bank or BKPM.
</span></em></p>Politics in Nepal will hinder relief and recovery efforts following the earthquake and its aftershocks. But look at it the other way around. Could the disaster help to resolve political problems?Owen Podger, Professional Associate, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/417122015-05-12T16:47:08Z2015-05-12T16:47:08ZMany feared dead as second quake hits devastated Nepal<p>The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/12/dozens-killed-as-devastated-nepal-suffers-another-strong-earthquake">second earthquake to hit Nepal in less than a month</a> caught local disaster relief agencies unaware and, despite being six times weaker than the massive quake on April 25, it is still thought to have caused hundreds of casualties. </p>
<p>The magnitude 7.3 that struck around 80km (50 miles) east of Kathmandu resulted from the same tectonic forces as the larger earthquake just over a fortnight before, caused by the Indian plate thrusting beneath the Eurasian tectonic plate along the front of the Himalayas.</p>
<p>While the earthquake could not have been predicted, geophysicists had noted that the fault that slipped on April 25 <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/major-earthquake-hits-nepal-1.17413">was weaker than might have been expected</a>. It was not the “great Himalayan earthquake” that had been anticipated by some. </p>
<p>The latest large quake has been linked to stress after the first, which passed eastward along the fault system, running in front of the Tibetan plateau. In a domino effect, stress transferred along to a separate section of the rupture that has now been triggered as an earthquake.</p>
<h2>Weaker but still fatal</h2>
<p>Although weaker than the previous quake, it was, nevertheless, of a similar magnitude to the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/americas/2010/haiti_earthquake/default.stm">Haiti earthquake of 2010</a>, which killed more than 100,000 people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81451/original/image-20150512-25029-1y4gbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81451/original/image-20150512-25029-1y4gbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81451/original/image-20150512-25029-1y4gbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81451/original/image-20150512-25029-1y4gbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81451/original/image-20150512-25029-1y4gbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81451/original/image-20150512-25029-1y4gbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81451/original/image-20150512-25029-1y4gbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81451/original/image-20150512-25029-1y4gbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Estimated population affected where the earthquake struck.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002ejl#impact_pager">USGS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many buildings of un-reinforced brick and mud, were already weakened by the recent shakes. The earlier quake also generated secondary hazards such as landslides and <a href="http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/geologists-arrive-study-liquefaction-3772887">liquefaction</a>, the weakening and softening of soil following an earthquake, that might well have increased the damage in this second quake. </p>
<p>The United States Geological Survey has issued an <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002ejl#impact_pager">impact assessment</a>, rating the event as “severe” in the worst-affected area. It states that the quake will have caused significant casualties, with estimated fatalities sadly likely to reach a total of hundreds or more.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81447/original/image-20150512-25044-pbe09l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81447/original/image-20150512-25044-pbe09l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81447/original/image-20150512-25044-pbe09l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81447/original/image-20150512-25044-pbe09l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81447/original/image-20150512-25044-pbe09l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81447/original/image-20150512-25044-pbe09l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81447/original/image-20150512-25044-pbe09l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81447/original/image-20150512-25044-pbe09l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orange alert level for shaking-related fatalities. Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002ejl#impact_pager">USGS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Moving east</h2>
<p>Andy Hooper, professor of geophysics and geodesy (the science that enables global positioning) at Leeds University said that the earthquake started at the eastern edge of where the fault slip reached during the 7.8 magnitude event of two and a half weeks ago. “The fault appears to have ruptured mainly eastwards and can be considered as a further unzipping of the locked fault” he said. “We do not have measurements yet, but because the fault slip in this earthquake occurred farther east, it may well have caused a significant drop in the height of Mount Everest.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81453/original/image-20150512-25041-1gh6ehc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81453/original/image-20150512-25041-1gh6ehc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81453/original/image-20150512-25041-1gh6ehc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81453/original/image-20150512-25041-1gh6ehc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81453/original/image-20150512-25041-1gh6ehc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81453/original/image-20150512-25041-1gh6ehc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81453/original/image-20150512-25041-1gh6ehc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yellow alert level for economic losses. Some damage is possible. Estimated economic losses are 0-1% GDP of Nepal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">USGS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yani Najman, Himalayan geologist at the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University, said there was little or nothing that could be done to stop earthquakes occurring in this region. “However, loss of life in future events can be reduced with stronger buildings, less likely to collapse,” he said. Najman added that when Nepal embarks on a major phase of rebuilding, it should also be a time for education in the country, “promoting simple measures to ensure that housing is as well-built as it can be, taking into account also the limited resources available to people.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41712/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Redfern receives funding from NERC</span></em></p>What led to the second major earthquake to hit Nepal in less than a month?Simon Redfern, Professor in Earth Sciences, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/411652015-05-05T20:16:05Z2015-05-05T20:16:05ZEarthquake orphans: what Nepal can learn from Haiti<p>Following the earthquake in 2010, Westerners flocked to Haiti to “rescue” orphaned and lost children. The “rescue” included the evacuation of children by plane for inter-country adoption and an increase in the number of children placed in orphanages in the following months. The problem that has since emerged is that many of the “orphans” placed in orphanages and sent for adoption were not orphaned at all.</p>
<h2>Many ‘orphans’ had one or both parents</h2>
<p>As part of the earthquake response, the Haitian government <a href="http://www.rescue.org/news/international-rescue-committee-says-foreign-adoptions-haitian-children-are-still-premature-aid-">expedited inter-country adoptions</a> that were already underway.</p>
<p>They temporarily suspended any new adoptions in order to protect children. Scandal in Haiti soon erupted when <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/04/haiti.arrests/">10 missionaries were charged with child abduction</a> after trying to take 33 children out of the country without permission (as they were not orphans).</p>
<p>Another 53 children were airlifted by a US governor for adoption, only to find that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/world/americas/24orphans.html?_r=0">12 of them weren’t in fact orphans</a>. The Haitian situation <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/05/10/the-last-babylift">revealed inter-country adoption</a> should hold a very limited place in the immediate disaster response.</p>
<p>Instead of housing lost children temporarily while families were located, orphanages became a permanent solution in Haiti. The problem has only worsened since 2010. Statistics indicate that up to 80% of 30,000 children currently in orphanages in Haiti are not orphans and could live at home with one or both parents. </p>
<p>It is a statistic that is shared by Nepal, which has just suffered an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude. Nepal already struggles with the issue of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/may/27/nepal-bogus-orphan-trade-voluntourism">unscrupulous orphanage operators</a>. Nepal’s children may become victim to the “rescue” mentality of people meaning well but potentially causing harm in the long run.</p>
<p>So, what can Nepal learn from Haiti and other natural disasters to protect its children in these post-earthquake days?</p>
<p>When disaster strikes, already vulnerable children are put even more at risk. Natural disasters can lead to children being separated from their families. There is a tendency to deal with this situation by <a href="http://wearelumos.org/stories/families-emergency-situations">placing children in orphanages</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.wearelumos.org/stories/keeping-families-together-emergency-situations">The research</a> shows that this action can result in the production of “paper orphans” (children who are orphans through virtue of falsified paper documents only) and can <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-business-of-orphanages-where-do-orphans-come-from-38485">fuel the business model of orphanages</a>.</p>
<h2>The Aceh tsunami</h2>
<p>Prior to the Haitian earthquake, the international community responded to the tsunami in Aceh in 2004. Unfortunately, it seems that the lessons from Aceh were not learnt in Haiti. In post-tsunami Aceh, there was also a huge increase in the number of children placed in orphanages. </p>
<p><a href="http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/A33B5EE2179FE21FC1257230004FC11A-sc-idn-27nov.pdf">Research showed</a> that the explosion in aid following the tsunami was a critical factor in the increase in residential care facilities, or orphanages, being established. </p>
<p>The aid poured into orphanages from privately funded non-government organisations as well as domestic and international governments. In that context, 85% of children living in orphanages following the tsunami had at least one parent alive. </p>
<p>It was further determined that in 97.5% of cases the parents had placed their child in the orphanage for education purposes. This indicates other programs focusing on educational support, instead of orphanages, may have produced better outcomes for children. </p>
<h2>Nepal learning from other natural disasters</h2>
<p>Heeding these lessons, child protection organisations working in Nepal are focusing on ensuring that separated children are quickly <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2015/05/04/4228900.htm">reunited with their families</a> and not placed in orphanages unnecessarily. </p>
<p>Agencies have created “<a href="http://www.wvi.org/nepal-earthquake/gallery/world-vision-opens-safe-places-children-recover-nepal-earthquake">Child Friendly Spaces</a>” to help children work through the trauma associated with the earthquake, and also to monitor children that require assistance.</p>
<p>Some child protection organisations have addressed the inter-country adoption issue directly. Children’s charity SOS Children’s Villages <a href="http://www.soschildrensvillages.ca/international-adoptions-and-the-nepal-earthquake-837">posted a notice on their website</a> immediately after the earthquake explaining why inter-country adoption was not an appropriate option at this stage. </p>
<p>Fortunately, Nepal tightened its inter-country adoption laws in the past few years. There has been no immediate suggestion of relaxing them in order to expedite adoptions, as happened in Haiti.</p>
<p>There has also been a major focus on encouraging people to donate money rather than <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/27/earthquake-nepal-dont-rush-help-volunteers-aid">rushing to Nepal</a> to volunteer in the aid effort. In the child protection space, the clear message is that orphanage voluntourism, where people volunteer in orphanages in developing countries, <a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10985867_972753006102795_4789826867917173453_n.png?oh=cbd143d309a6c08b1bbcc17c8763f90c&oe=55CA6B6E&__gda__=1439099396_4b907c41b48c93e37afd25f6eee0d74f">is not desirable or required</a>. </p>
<p>It appears <a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-inconvenient-truths-about-voluntourism.html">the message</a> is beginning to resonate. People are starting to understand that <a href="http://www.nextgenerationnepal.org/File/The-Paradox-of-Orphanage-Volunteering.pdf">good intentions can lead to harmful outcomes</a> for vulnerable children. This is only amplified in the current situation.</p>
<p>Overall, it appears the response to the vulnerable children of the Nepal earthquake is implementing the lessons learnt from Haiti. Prior to the earthquake, Nepal committed to <a href="http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2014/02/27/top-story/raids-on-orphanages/259790.html">monitoring and closing</a> unregistered and non-compliant orphanages. The hope is that as aid floods into the small developing nation, this commitment will be remembered, upheld and implemented. </p>
<p>Nepal and its children have a long road to recovery ahead. Let’s hope they, and the international community, are wise enough to implement the lessons from the past in order to protect the future of their children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate van Doore is affiliated with Forget Me Not.</span></em></p>Following the earthquake in 2010, people flocked to Haiti to “rescue” orphaned and lost children. The problem that has since emerged is that many of the “orphans” placed in orphanages and sent for adoption, were not orphaned at all.Kate van Doore, Lecturer in Law, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/411242015-05-05T10:18:35Z2015-05-05T10:18:35ZEncasing old buildings in cheap plastic mesh could have saved lives in Nepal<p>When a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan in March 2011, I was on the 9th floor of a 20-storey Tokyo hotel. The quake was one of the five most powerful since modern record keeping began in 1900, and it lasted for around three minutes – an unusually long time. </p>
<p>Countless lives were saved by Japanese engineering. The tsunami that followed – and the resulting Fukushima meltdown – was a terrible tragedy, but the earthquake itself could also have caused far greater loss of life. It actually did very little damage relative to its magnitude.</p>
<p>The fact that buildings like the one I was in, and thousands of others, remained intact shows just how important good earthquake engineering is.</p>
<p>In Nepal, which was recently struck by a <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/nepal-earthquake-2015">7.8 magnitude earthquake</a>, the problem is quite different. A combination of poverty, a lack of specialised knowledge and poor regulation mean most houses were never built to such standards in the first place. Therefore it is these houses that retrofitting efforts – and <a href="http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/790111/1/Buildings_Structures_2012.pdf">my research</a> in the country – must focus on.</p>
<p>As recent events have reminded us, it is collapsing structures that kill people during earthquakes and rarely the shaking itself. Engineers, through intensive and persistent analysis of past earthquakes have mastered the art of building houses to resist shaking and to avoid collapse. </p>
<p>However, such earthquake-resistant buildings are expensive and need specialised knowledge and skills – it’s not something any old builder/architect combo can knock out overnight. There are specialised MSc courses and even doctorates in the subject – and engineers need continuous professional development to keep pace with the latest research. Japan has these skills and resources in abundance; a poorer nation such as Nepal, not so much.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80105/original/image-20150501-23845-110me1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80105/original/image-20150501-23845-110me1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80105/original/image-20150501-23845-110me1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80105/original/image-20150501-23845-110me1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80105/original/image-20150501-23845-110me1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80105/original/image-20150501-23845-110me1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80105/original/image-20150501-23845-110me1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tokyo’s skyscrapers are built to sway.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/antoniotajuelo/13689538283">Antonio Tajuelo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Houses in Nepal are built with traditional knowledge and often without any engineer’s visit – the technical term is <a href="https://www.nae.edu/Publications/Bridge/EngineeringfortheThreatofNaturalDisasters/EngineeringResearchforNon-EngineeredBuildings.aspx">non-engineered buildings</a> – and it is difficult to make them withstand earthquakes of large magnitude. </p>
<p>In such scenarios, it is often prudent to rein in expectations and aim for the “least bad” outcome by increasing the time it takes for the house to collapse. If, instead of two seconds, the building collapses in 12 seconds it may give the occupants enough time to escape.</p>
<p>The collapse of non-engineered masonry buildings is one of the greatest causes of casualties in major earthquakes around the world. Yet by definition these non-engineered structures remain largely outside of the scope of modern engineering research, focused as it is on new technologies and new buildings – fancy new quake-proof skyscrapers command significantly more funding than the unglamourous task of seismic retrofitting. This means that the majority of those at risk often remain so. </p>
<p>Even where research is focused on non-engineered housing, there are still significant social and economic challenges before implementation. It’s all very well asking people in Tokyo to pay a premium for seismic proofing, but Nepal’s gross national income per capita is <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/country/nepal#cp_fin">US$730</a> – just two dollars a day.</p>
<p>My research is aimed at <a href="http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/790111/1/Buildings_Structures_2012.pdf">developing retrofitting techniques</a> which will prevent or prolong the collapse of adobe (mud brick) houses in strong earthquakes. We used common plastic packaging straps to form a mesh, which is then used to encase structural walls. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80117/original/image-20150501-23893-etpr9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80117/original/image-20150501-23893-etpr9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80117/original/image-20150501-23893-etpr9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80117/original/image-20150501-23893-etpr9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80117/original/image-20150501-23893-etpr9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80117/original/image-20150501-23893-etpr9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80117/original/image-20150501-23893-etpr9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80117/original/image-20150501-23893-etpr9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mesh-enclosed house in Pakistan, before a covering mortar layer is applied.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/790111/1/Buildings_Structures_2012.pdf">Macabuag et al</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tests showed that the proposed technique effectively prevents brittle masonry collapse and the loss of debris. We then trained rural masons in Nepal, gave a public “shake-table” demonstration and retrofitted a real house. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80118/original/image-20150501-23871-16d4wh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80118/original/image-20150501-23871-16d4wh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80118/original/image-20150501-23871-16d4wh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80118/original/image-20150501-23871-16d4wh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80118/original/image-20150501-23871-16d4wh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80118/original/image-20150501-23871-16d4wh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80118/original/image-20150501-23871-16d4wh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80118/original/image-20150501-23871-16d4wh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A clear ‘shake-table’ victory for the retrofit model house.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/790111/1/Buildings_Structures_2012.pdf">Macabuag et al</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This implementation project proved effective at reaching rural communities but highlighted the fact that government subsidies are still required to give low-income people the incentive to safeguard their homes against the next big earthquake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41124/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Subhamoy Bhattacharya receives funding from I.StructE, UKIERI, EPSRC</span></em></p>Encasing old buildings in cheap plastic packaging mesh can keep them upright for long enough for those inside to escape.Subhamoy Bhattacharya, Chair in Geomechanics, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/409702015-05-05T06:20:31Z2015-05-05T06:20:31ZHow the media struggled in Nepal’s earthquake rescue<p>The media in Nepal has been instrumental in keeping people connected and updated about the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/nepal-earthquake-2015">magnitude 7.8 earthquake</a> that hit the country on Saturday April 25.</p>
<p>However, initially the quake did not create a major reaction, as small scale tremors are not uncommon in the country. The Nepalese people were also unclear about the extent of the disaster as local media struggled to react to the earthquake.</p>
<p>The reality of the scale of the disaster began to sink in when heartbreaking pictures of the damage started emerging. Live footage and pictures from the international media gave some insight into the extent of the devastation in the earthquake ravaged nation.</p>
<p>The time taken by the Nepalese media to respond is not surprising. Our research has found that Nepalese media outlets categorise disasters as current affairs, without a specific accountability for disaster reporting.</p>
<p>On this occasion, the lack of reporting by Nepalese media early on was added to by the damage the earthquake had caused to media infrastructure itself.</p>
<h2>Media coverage</h2>
<p>The role of the media in any disasters is significant. But there has not previously been research into the media’s treatment of disasters in Nepal, or the frameworks or models that might guide the media’s approach.</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/76341/">research</a>, published last year, collected 477 news stories on natural disasters in Nepal over a 12 month period from four sections of Nepalese media: print, on-line, radio and television.</p>
<p>We identified that the principal focus of media attention was on the response phase of disasters and on the human interest aspect. There was limited reporting that encouraged the development of any disaster resilient infrastructure in Nepal.</p>
<p>This is surprising not only given that Nepal is known to be prone to earthquakes, but also given the scale of the media in the country.</p>
<p>Nepal has a population of about 29-million, yet there are approximately 10,000 people involved in different media organisations throughout the country.</p>
<p>The principal source of news for most people in Nepal is community radio. There are approximately 350 radio stations, and most are independent and community owned. <a href="http://radionepal.gov.np/">Radio Nepal</a> is the government controlled national transmission run from Kathmandu and regional transmission centres. </p>
<p>Nepal also has 568 registered daily newspapers among a total of 6,500 newspapers and magazines. Only about a dozen such publications have a wide circulation, such as the government owned Gorkhapatra Daily and the privately run Kantipur Daily and Nagarik Daily.</p>
<p>There are 81 licences issued to run TV stations in Nepal but only about a dozen of TV channels operate regularly.</p>
<h2>Media struggles</h2>
<p>The immediate aftermath of disaster resulted in confusion within the leading media outlets with a lack of coordination by the government of the rescue efforts.</p>
<p>While the government owned Nepal Television (<a href="http://www.ntv.org.np/">NTV</a>) continued transmission, the privately owned <a href="http://kantipurtv.com/">Kantipur TV</a> experienced disruption because of the earthquake.</p>
<p>It only continued transmission by setting up a temporary news desk set in the open in Kathmandu. The station has this week setup transmission from a cafeteria until the safety of the station building can been established.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80274/original/image-20150504-2052-zliu1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80274/original/image-20150504-2052-zliu1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80274/original/image-20150504-2052-zliu1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80274/original/image-20150504-2052-zliu1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80274/original/image-20150504-2052-zliu1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80274/original/image-20150504-2052-zliu1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80274/original/image-20150504-2052-zliu1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80274/original/image-20150504-2052-zliu1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">News reports from Kantipur Television from a makeshift newsroom out in the open.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Surendra Pandey/Kantipur Television</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Radio Nepal continued transmission despite the disruptions but most of the community and privately-owned radio stations were hard hit and are still struggling to resume services.</p>
<p>Nepal is a pioneer in community radio in South Asia. However, few community radio stations were advised to develop any necessary measures to withstand an earthquake.</p>
<p>Most newspapers continued their publication despite damage to their buildings, but distribution was halted so their reporting was not getting out to many people.</p>
<p>This prompted a surge in on-line viewing of newspapers including <a href="http://www.onlinekhabar.com/">Onlinekhabar.com</a> (only online), <a href="http://www.ekantipur.com/">ekantipur.com</a> (online version of Kantipur Daily newspaper), <a href="http://nagariknews.com/">nagariknews.com</a> (online version of Nagarik Daily newspaper), <a href="http://annapurnapost.com/">annapurnapost.com</a> (online version of Annapurna Post daily newspaper) and <a href="http://setopati.com/">setopati.com</a> (a popular digital paper).</p>
<p>Despite the widespread damage it was still possible to maintain access to the internet much of the time.</p>
<h2>Social media</h2>
<p>Social media has also been a powerful tool in ensuring communication, as foreigners and reporters already in Nepal were able to inform the world via Facebook and Twitter.</p>
<p>For example, Nepal’s Prime Minister, Shusil Koirala, first knew about the earthquake from <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Modi-Nepal-PM-learnt-of-quake-from-my-tweet/articleshow/47102377.cms">a Tweet</a> from the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"591857512065814528"}"></div></p>
<p>The proliferation of mobile phones in Nepal also made communications easier. Even in remote villages, people working their farms have their mobiles with them.</p>
<p>After the disaster, though, people could only rely on the mobile phones for a few hours due to disruption of electricity supplies.</p>
<h2>International media coverage</h2>
<p>The massive coverage of the Nepal earthquake by the international media has been instrumental in generating help and resources. People world-wide have been exposed to the crisis.</p>
<p>However, the extent of international interest has its downside, as it creates expectations that may be unrealisable.</p>
<p>For example, some media reports suggested Nepal had <a href="http://www.ekantipur.com/2015/04/28/top-story/govt-rejects-new-zealand-aid/404607.html">refused assistance</a> from countries such as New Zealand and Taiwan. This resulted in media and social media backlash particularly among Nepalese living abroad who were worried about their families and friends in Nepal.</p>
<p>However, the assistance had <a href="http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/nepal-bound-nz-search-and-rescue-team-stood-down-6302698">not been refused</a>, rather Nepal was giving priority to aid from neighbouring countries.</p>
<p>Nepal’s government was <a href="http://www.startribune.com/world/301498711.html">struggling to co-ordinate</a> the rescue and relief operation and the airport capacity was the limiting factor.</p>
<p>The international media has also been exploring the damage outside of the capital as well. Agencies such as Australia’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/">ABC</a>, India’s <a href="http://www.zeetv.com/">Zee TV</a> and some other international TV channels have been reporting from the villages surrounding the Gorkha district, which was severely hit by the earthquake.</p>
<p>Some people affected in these areas had not been in touch with the outside world and one ABC reporter, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/samantha-hawley/166938">Samantha Hawley</a>, was among the first outsider they encountered after the disaster.</p>
<p>This has highlighted the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-30/nepal-earthquake-no-food-no-clothes-no-shelter-ghorka-district/6433674">remoteness of the affected areas</a> in Nepal and the difficulties faced by rescue personnel struggling to reach them.</p>
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<p>The international media is proving to be very effective in bringing the plights of Nepalese affected by the earthquake and has generated immense interest in the disaster.</p>
<p>The extensive coverage by the international media will be a key factor in the ongoing rescue and relief, and the assistance required to help Nepal along the long road to recovery.</p>
<p>But can this continue when the spotlight has moved on, and when the focus moves to reconstruction and infrastructure development?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40970/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nepal has thousands of journalists working in hundreds of media outlets and publications. But getting the story out about the deadly earthquake was no easy task.Gerard Fitzgerald, Professor, School of Public Health, Queensland University of TechnologyApil Gurung, PhD candidate, Queensland University of TechnologyDr Bharat Raj Poudel, PhD candidate on Media Framing of Emergency & Natural Disaster, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/410632015-05-04T11:55:06Z2015-05-04T11:55:06ZClassquake: What the global media missed in Nepal earthquake coverage<p>As the world comes to terms with Nepal’s earthquake and media outlets start shifting their gaze elsewhere, it is worth analyzing how the global English media covered the disaster – and what they missed. This was a “classquake” as much as a natural disaster, a point missed amid the dramatic descriptions and heart-rending videos.</p>
<p>Initially, attention was focused on Nepal’s recognizable symbols, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/monumental-losses-from-earthquake-stun-nepal-1430212805">Kathmandu’s world heritage sites</a>, and victims at the <a>Mt. Everest base camp</a> leaving several commentators on Twitter to criticize the media for its “orientalist gaze” and “disaster porn” while under-reporting where the devastation was more extensive: <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/nepals-relief-effort-must-reach-the-rural-poor/article24135973/">rural Nepal</a>. </p>
<p>The media’s attention to Kathmandu valley and Everest was as much a product of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism_(book),%20that%20is,%20the%20West's%20patronizing%20or%20romanticized%20perceptions%20of%20%22the%20East,%22%20as%20it%20was%20a%20reflection%20of%20disconnect%20between%20the%20capital%20and%20the%20(non-mountaineering">orientalism</a> hinterland. </p>
<h2>Second-day coverage shifted</h2>
<p>As attention turned from immediate description to questions of causation, reporters were quick to point out, correctly, that the earthquake was <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/experts-had-warned-for-decades-that-nepal-was-vulnerable-to-a-killer-quake/2015/04/25/0275959e-eb78-11e4-9a6a-c1ab95a0600b_story.html?hpid=z2">not unexpected</a>, but <a href="https://theconversation.com/disaster-and-recovery-the-unexpected-shall-come-to-be-expected-40995">rather</a> was a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/mounteverest/11564009/Nepal-earthquake-experts-knew-disaster-was-coming.html">“nightmare waiting to happen.”</a></p>
<p>Since it is <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/nepal-earthquake-preparations-753585">“buildings that kill people not earthquakes,”</a> the question became: why was Nepal unprepared? </p>
<p>Unlike in the case of Haiti, no one evoked <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ4dA6kZsEs">supernatural curses</a> or blamed <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html?_r=0">“progress-resistant cultural influences”</a> to answer this question, although Sumnina Udas of CNN claimed that simply <a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/04/26/orig-pkg-sumnima-kathmandu-nepal-earthquake.cnn/video/playlists/nepal-earthquake/">“no one believed it would happen.”</a></p>
<p>For most media commentators, however, it was not disbelief in expert predictions that stalled preparation, but rather <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/nepals-shangri-la-image-poverty-misery-30690845">poverty</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/30/politics-poverty-nepal_n_7170642.html">politics</a>.</p>
<h2>The political issues obscured economic disparity</h2>
<p>In many of the articles, any analysis of poverty was overshadowed by a focus on Nepal’s <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/27/nepals-other-disaster-its-politics/">other disaster</a>, namely the state’s last 24 years of unstable governments, a Maoist insurgency, royal massacre, and unproductive constitution writing process. </p>
<p>Surya Subedi, a professor of international law writing for CNN, described a “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/28/opinions/subedi-nepal-earthquake/index.html">country ruined by political mismanagement</a>.” Political instability produces a weak state unable to plan and manage its cities, and enforce its building codes, which in turn leaves people to fend for themselves in times of disaster, as reporter <a href="http://time.com/3837805/nepal-earthquake-government-resources/">Rishi Iyengar</a> argues in Time magazine. </p>
<p>While there is no doubt that poverty and political instability are central factors in this disaster, the media’s emphasis on these factors obscures what this earthquake teaches us about structural inequality.</p>
<p>As the geographer <a href="http://understandingkatrina.ssrc.org/Smith/">Neil Smith</a> reminded us after Hurricane Katrina, disasters “deepen and erode the ruts of social difference they encounter.” In the case of Kathmandu, taking account of which buildings and neighborhoods were left standing and which were not exposes the already established ruts of social disparity. Moreover, one can easily expect the earthquake’s aftermath to exacerbate inequality. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/27/nepal-earthquake-victims-poor-homeless">Jason Burke’s piece</a> in the Guardian, for one, did highlight the shared poverty of victims of the quake. A stark contrast exists between the inhabitants of collapsed houses and those in residences still standing. Whether in Kathmandu valley or the villages of the hills and mountains, the older houses consisting of mud mortar, bricks, and timber posts crumbled whereas the newer buildings made of reinforced concrete, cement plaster, and steel pillars, by in large, withstood the jolts. Living in those fragile mud houses are the rural poor, and the indigenous <a href="http://www.academia.edu/648144/The_Newars_the_Indigenous_Population_of_the_Kathmandu_Valley_in_the_Modern_State_of_Nepal">Newar</a> and recent rural-to-urban migrants who cannot afford to rent or buy new houses outside of the congested urban cores or peripheral agro-towns of Kathmandu valley. In other words, it was a <a href="https://twitter.com/KanakManiDixit/status/593434905742168064">classquake</a>.</p>
<h2>The history of endemic poverty in Nepal</h2>
<p>To understand the division between rich and poor houses in Nepal requires more than passing references to endemic poverty and cursory summaries of the country’s recent political history. In my <a href="http://anhs-himalaya.org/announcement/four-ana-one-modern-home-nelson/">research on housing in Kathmandu</a> I have found Nepal’s economic history to reveal much about contemporary disparities. Mahesh Chandra Regmi’s book <a href="http://www.mandalabookpoint.com/main_details.php?sid=109&cat=Nepal">Thatched Huts and Stucco Palaces</a> identified the roots of Nepal’s inequality in the land policies of the Rana state (1846-1951). The palace-residing Kathmandu aristocrats gifted land to politically loyal nobles, who in turn, became landlords to the tenant cultivators living in huts. </p>
<p>The land reforms and urban planning of post-Rana Nepal (1951-1990) were unable to compete with soaring property prices produced through an unregulated market and massive migration into the capital and <a href="http://www.bagchee.com/books/BB3815/the-political-economy-of-land-landlessness-and-migration-in-nepal/">Tarai lowlands</a>. While the hill districts remained <a href="http://lib.icimod.org/record/3023">under-developed</a>, the selective benefits of the privatized garment, tourism, development and education industries remained limited to the capital city. </p>
<p>Consequently, a Kathmandu <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7365.html">middle class</a> emerged desiring the “modern” houses of reinforced concrete outside of the urban core. </p>
<p>The ensuing decades of frequent political shifts and Maoist insurgency only contributed to the market’s dominance over social needs. Despite the government’s promises of development to mitigate the growing popularity of the Maoists, neo-liberal policies and violence led to capital flight by <a href="http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/contributions/pdf/CNAS_31_02_04.pdf">foreign garment companies</a>, not to mention the country’s growing <a href="http://fpif.org/want-to-help-nepal-recover-from-the-quake-cancel-its-debt/">foreign debt</a>. </p>
<h2>The wealthy protect themselves in new homes</h2>
<p>Financed by a burgeoning private banking and real-estate industry, urban middle and upper classes have flocked to high-rise apartments, luxurious housing colonies and compounds in the suburbs. In turn, the middle classes able to build multi-story concrete houses (usually starting at $60,000 USD in construction costs) have become the new landlords as they inhabit the top floors of their homes while earning income renting out the bottom floors.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Nepal’s laboring classes have increasingly left Nepal for employment opportunities predominantly in <a href="https://www.academia.edu/1406075/Whos_in_a_labour_camp_A_socio-economic_analysis_of_Nepalese_migrants_in_Qatar">Gulf countries</a>, <a href="http://ceslam.org/index.php?pageName=publication&pid=15">India</a>, Malaysia, and <a href="http://aq.gwu.edu/anthropological-quarterly-spring-2014-articles.html">East Asia</a>. As a result, rural areas are often left with <a href="http://www.ceslam.org/index.php?pageName=newsDetail&nid=6209">declining agricultural production</a> and few young men. </p>
<p>Nepal’s <a href="http://mundamak.gov.np/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/NBC110_Plain-and-Renforced-Concrete.pdf">national building code</a> is a perfect example of the growing disparity between Nepal’s rich and poor classes. Drafted in 1994, the code was not enacted for nine years, until 2003. As of Saturday’s quake, only three (Kathmandu, Patan, Dharan) of Nepal’s 58 municipalities had adopted the code as mandatory in the house-building permit process. </p>
<p>I do not doubt that corruption and party infighting played a major role in the delay and partial implementation of the code, but we should also consider how growing real estate and construction industries benefit from an ineffective code. A lack of regulation allows companies to market earthquake safety as a <a href="http://www.mercury.com.np/features.htm">selling point</a> rather than a requirement. Worse yet are the developers who <a href="http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2015/04/30/top-stories/after-7.9-quake-future-of-highrises-hangs-in-balance/275845.html">promise code compliance</a> to homeowners, but then <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/world/asia/nepals-helter-skelter-urbanization-and-lax-enforcement-contribute-to-quakes-toll.html?_r=0">bribe</a> inspectors in order to take cost-saving short cuts. </p>
<p>Those who could afford the suburban compounds, high-rises and housing colonies could also afford electricity generators, private water supply, and most importantly, builders trained in earthquake-preventative construction. In last week’s earthquake, even those in <a href="https://www.academia.edu/3101768/Reflection_of_the_seismic_vulnerability_associated_to_common_RC_buildings_in_Nepal">less secure</a> reinforced concrete structures were far better off than those in mud masonry buildings. The concrete houses that fell tended to be in the denser and poorer neighborhoods, such as the <a href="http://www.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/05/01/deceived-and-dead/">hotels of Gongabu</a> catering to migrant laborers waiting to go abroad. </p>
<p>As Nepal rebuilds, it will be necessary to ensure that preventative building practices are followed not only in the elite residences of Kathmandu, but throughout the country. Thinking beyond Nepal to the next “disaster,” it will also be critical for global media to draw attention to the structural inequalities at the core of disasters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41063/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Nelson has received funding from the US Department of Education Fulbright-Hays grant. </span></em></p>Global coverage of the Nepal earthquake focused issues of preparedness and political instability but missed the systemic, historical inequities that made the disaster so devastating.Andrew Nelson, Lecturer of Anthropology, University of North TexasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/409952015-05-02T01:11:03Z2015-05-02T01:11:03ZDisaster and recovery: The unexpected shall come to be expected<p>The full extent of the earthquake disaster in Nepal is still being calculated. With so many remote villages, it would be no surprise to see the death toll rise to 10,000 people. Nearly 8 million people are likely to be directly affected, and a long-term, complex humanitarian crisis looms large. The potential for civil unrest and violence is very real.</p>
<p>The media has been focusing on the heart-wrenching human interest, hero-tragedy stories for several days, but what must be emphasized is that this disaster was anticipated. </p>
<p>More importantly, we now have the tools and building technologies to mitigate the impact of even major earthquakes. </p>
<p>What is needed is what the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has been <a href="http://www.unisdr.org/">advocating</a>: an international commitment to disaster risk reduction.</p>
<p>Nepal is in one of the most disaster-prone <a href="http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/static/gshap/">regions</a> of the world and earthquakes much more powerful than a 7.8 magnitude event will eventually occur. This due to the same forces that have produced the Himalayas, which have been created by the pressure of the India subcontinent slowly wedging itself under Tibet and Nepal. These geological stresses will continue to generate frequent earthquakes in the region. The region is also prone to floods, landslides, and droughts.</p>
<h2>A disaster predicted</h2>
<p><a href="http://news.fiu.edu/2015/04/nepal-was-ripe-for-disaster-fiu-experts-say/87645">Experts</a> have assessed the hazards and vulnerabilities and knew with a high degree of confidence what would happen if a large magnitude earthquake struck the Kathmandu Valley. A <a href="http://www.unisdr.org/archive/2975">2012 UNISDR</a> news article, “Nepal’s tragedy in waiting,” was alarming:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Conservative estimates are that the next big earthquake could result in 100,000 dead, 200,000 injured and one to two million people displaced in the fabled Kathmandu Valley where memories live on of the 1934 earthquake which took more than 8,000 lives.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Risk assessments were conducted, recommendations made, and some buildings seismically retrofitted, and yet three years later there have been so many deaths. Why?</p>
<p>The blame lies primarily on shoddy construction practices such as un-reinforced cinder block construction and failing to adequately secure roofs to support beams and walls and to a solid foundation, as well as the stock of aging, dilapidated structures. </p>
<p>Nepal’s unstable political situation also hampered disaster risk reduction and preparedness efforts. Despite the country’s popularity as a tourist destination, Nepal’s government is dysfunctional and corrupt. The country has been plagued by political violence and currently there is no [constitution](http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/30/an-earthquake-exposes-nepals-political-rot/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=%2AEditors%20Picks&utm_campaign=2015_EditorsPicks_Promo_ACAlliance2RS4%2F30](http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/30/an-earthquake-exposes-nepals-political-rot/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=%2AEditors%20Picks&utm_campaign=2015_EditorsPicks_Promo_ACAlliance2RS4%2F30%20%22%22).</p>
<p>The World Bank Worldwide Governance <a href="http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/pdf/c166.pdf">Indicators for Nepal</a> look eerily similar to those of <a href="http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/pdf/c100.pdf">Haiti</a>;and the <a href="http://www.bti-project.org/reports/country-reports/lac/hti/index.nc">visual representation</a> of Nepal’s state capacity in Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index visual indicates only slightly more capacity than Haiti. </p>
<h2>Retrofitted buildings were more secure – why weren’t there more of them?</h2>
<p>Yet <a href="http://www.earthquakesafety.com/earthquake-retrofitting-faq.html">advanced building practices</a> could have made a difference: the National Museum of Nepal was recently retrofitted, and it is <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/04/27/402514817/in-nepal-aftershocks-keep-people-fearful">still standing</a> – virtually undamaged. The <a href="http://un.org.np/coordinationmechanism/nrrc">United Nations Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium</a> was established in 2012 to highlight what could be done, but its prescriptions have been plagued with implementation challenges.</p>
<p>Doing the most sensible thing is not always easy. Limited resources are always a problem. Competing agendas such as those between historical preservationists and earthquake safety engineers, and clashes between forces of tradition or modernity and those influenced by superstition or science can impede disaster risk reduction efforts. If disasters are seen as “Acts of God,” for example, there tends to be less commitment to prevention, mitigation, and preparedness and less blame falls on political leadership for not anticipating the event.</p>
<p>Welcome to the new normal, especially in the developing world. Here is the recipe for disaster: Population growth and demographic pressures, rapid and unplanned urbanization, environmental degradation, and building codes and zoning regulations that are insufficient, and nonexistent or unenforced, coupled with weak institutions and rampant corruption. </p>
<h2>Haiti and Chile reveal how disasters can be mitigated</h2>
<p>A myriad of factors contribute to earthquake damage, but unsafe building practices can explain why in 2010 so many more people died in Haiti than in Chile in earthquakes that year. The Haiti earthquake (magnitude 7.0) was was potentially less catastrophic compared to the Chile earthquake (magnitude 8.8). <a href="http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/pdf/c41.pdf">Chile,</a> however, is one of the least corrupt and best governed countries in the Americas, and cultivates a disaster risk reduction culture. Building codes and zoning rules are mostly enforced. The toll in Chile was 525 dead, 25 missing, while the estimates of the death toll in Haiti ranged from 230,000 to 316,000. Chile as able to <a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-smart-leadership-revived-chile-after-a-historic-disaster/">bounce back</a>. Five years later, Haiti is just as vulnerable, if not more. Like Haiti, it will be difficult for Nepal to bounce back at all.</p>
<p>In poor communities, especially in the developing world, it’s also not unusual for people to erect their own structures with little or no engineering supervision or expertise. Poorly constructed buildings tend to concentrate in densely populated cities, and high population density simply translates into <a href="https://www.ehs.unu.edu/file/get/11895.pdf">more deaths</a>. </p>
<p>When disasters, hazards, vulnerabilities and risks are known to occur with some frequency, governments have a human rights obligation to minimize the loss of life. The latest Nepal earthquake disaster was inevitable given the lack of resources and political will needed to invest in long-term disaster risk reduction.</p>
<p>Poor, vulnerable countries cannot go it alone. They need development assistance to increase community resilience. International organizations must take the lead in ensuring building codes and standards are met. Massive retrofitting campaigns need to receive United Nations and World Bank funding. Retrofitting, which the UNISDR defines as: >“Reinforcement or upgrading of existing structures to become more resistant and resilient to the damaging effects of hazards,” is much less expensive than the costs associated with a large-scale hazard event.</p>
<p>We can expect to see more deadly disasters in the 21st century, especially in the developing world. Millions more people – poor, already vulnerable people – will be more exposed to natural hazards as the population increases from nearly 7.3 billion to more than 9.5 billion by 2050. A catastrophic earthquake disaster with over a million deaths is not science fiction. It is a real possibility. Just look at Roger Musson’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/09/million-death-quake-roger-musson-review">The Million Death Quake.</a></p>
<p>The frequency of earthquakes has not changed over the past few million years, but now millions of people live in vulnerable situations. The news story of thousands of people killed in a remote and “exotic” place like Nepal will not resonate for long in the United States, but it should.</p>
<p>Of course, disaster vulnerability is not limited to the developing world. Due to its size and geophysical characteristics, the United States is actually a very disaster-prone country, with floods, wildfires, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes and even an occasional volcanic event. Moreover, the United States ranks <a href="http://germanwatch.org/en/download/10333.pdf">20th</a> on the 2015 Climate Risk Index.</p>
<p>According to a recent joint report of the US Geological Service, California Geological Survey and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) more than 143 million people in 48 states across the United States are <a href="http://www.seismosoc.org/society/press_releases/SSA_2015_EarthquakeThreat_Press_Release.pdf">at risk</a> from earthquakes,</p>
<p>As many as 28 million people are likely to experience strong tremors in their lifetime, with estimated annual building losses at $4.5 billion. A catastrophic earthquake in the United States is on the horizon.</p>
<p>The unexpected must come to be expected. Much-needed humanitarian assistance must transition into long-term development efforts. Simply put, instilling a culture of disaster risk reduction, investing in hazard mitigation, building as best as we can, and retrofitting what remains, will save lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent T Gawronski has received research funding from the National Science Foundation and the Associated College of the South. He has also consulted for the USAID/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.</span></em></p>New building techniques can mitigate the impact of even major earthquakes. What will it take to protect infrastructure in places like Nepal?Vincent T Gawronski, Associate Professor, Political Science , Birmingham-Southern College Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/409402015-05-01T18:03:32Z2015-05-01T18:03:32ZTake care: challenges medical relief teams face after disaster<p>As medical relief teams from Nepal and the rest of the world work to distribute supplies and care for survivors, it’s worth understanding how health workers handle extreme emergency situations.</p>
<p>As a trauma psychologist at the University of Florida I provide support to people coping with catastrophic injuries. I also assist in the training of health-care workers on preparing for extreme emergencies and mass causalities. </p>
<p>The painful truth is that it is impossible to be fully prepared for what to expect in a disaster situation. In training health and emergency professionals for these events, topics range from the ethics of triage to setting up safe practice locations to facilitating access to care. We initially cover safety and preparation factors, but we also focus on well-being and mental health needs for health workers and first responders. </p>
<p>People working in this field often view themselves with a “person-of-steel” mentality – placing themselves in peril by ignoring their own needs. This is why training focuses not just on the needs of survivors, but on the relief team participants as well.</p>
<p>In 2010, I was part of a medical relief team working in Haiti after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated the nation. The parallels between the Haitian earthquake and the April 25 2015 Nepal earthquake are stark. Like Haiti, Nepal also requires emergency assistance from the world community. What, then, are the lessons we can bring forward from the earlier event that can assist relief teams today in Nepal? </p>
<h2>Be prepared and take care of yourself</h2>
<p>When we arrived in Haiti, we knew that food and fresh water would be an issue. Prior to departure, our team received advice that we should pack several days of supplies for ourselves. We did – and those supplies were either mishandled at the airport and given away to other volunteers, or given away to survivors who were begging for help. </p>
<p>So on day one, our primary mission was not to save lives, but to save ourselves. Right away we counted ourselves among the earthquake survivors who had no immediate source for food or water and it took several hours to locate a UN camp to help us out. </p>
<p>Aid teams must be prepared to change gears to ensure their own survival and prepare for the unexpected, even at the cost of delaying care. </p>
<h2>Protecting others means protecting yourself</h2>
<p>Without question, participating in disaster relief brings <a href="https://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/04/27/children-nepal-aid-needs">out the best in humanity</a>. First responders to a crisis, including the earthquake in Nepal, are often neighbors and friends, running toward the emergency to dig survivors out of the rubble, even at the expense of their own safety.</p>
<p>But disaster can also bring out the worst in some. When a disaster has made it difficult for a government to provide services or basic assistance to its populace, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/world/americas/17haiti.html?pagewanted=all">people panic</a>. And when relief workers arrive, that panic can turn otherwise peaceful people into a mob. Just as a drowning person might pull a rescuer underwater, survivors can threaten those who are providing assistance. </p>
<p>It’s easy for relief teams to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of survivors in need of assistance. Resources may become strained and depleted, leaving countless people unserved and, potentially, unsaved.</p>
<p>In Haiti, relief camps were set up on the outskirts of tent cities that grew as temporary shelters for those displaced by the earthquake. When people learned of our medical relief center, hundreds of people began lining up. </p>
<p>Some were bleeding, some had broken bones, some were dying. Others had no medical problems but were eager for any assistance they could find. Security is needed for crowd control, to maintain order, and to ensure the safety of the relief workers and survivors themselves.</p>
<p>Early reports from Nepal <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/nepal-quake-toll-rises-4-310-official-020855309.html">suggest similar circumstances</a>, with people rushing toward relief personnel, begging for any assistance including medical care, food and water, or just basic information. Aftershocks from the earthquake only serve to heighten the panic and make an already terrible situation that much more difficult to endure. </p>
<h2>Psychological and physical toll on relief workers</h2>
<p>The chaos that can result after a disaster can be traumatic for both survivors and relief workers. Few of us have witnessed death, and fewer yet have experienced a mass casualty scenario. It takes a psychological toll on survivors and on relief workers alike. </p>
<p>After a disaster, devastation assaults all of our senses. The sights of collapsed buildings, of bodies and gore; the sounds of crying out in pain, or the distant crack of gunfire; the acrid smell of rotting vegetation or the indescribable scent of decomposing bodies; the taste of our own sweat as we exhaust ourselves trying to make a difference; and the feel of the elements, such as pouring rain or unyielding heat, urging us to give up and go home. </p>
<p>In the face of trying to assist people in such dire circumstances, too often, relief workers ignore their own body signals suggesting that we need to rest, to eat, to hydrate. </p>
<p>In Haiti, our team was working in 100F weather with no shade, and by the end of the first day in our makeshift hospital I collapsed. When I came to, I was on a crude stretcher with an IV in one of my arms and one of my friends telling me how hard it had been to locate a vein due to my severe dehydration. </p>
<p>Even as a psychologist, and with specific training in disaster relief and psychological first aid, I found myself in harm’s way by trying to over-exert, over-extend, and, ultimately, over-spend my own body’s limited resources. Several of our team members had stress reactions ranging from breaking down into tears to experiencing psychotic symptoms and becoming hostile with each other.</p>
<p>As with the survivors themselves, the horrors aid workers endure persist long past the direct exposure to trauma. We bring our experiences home with us. </p>
<p>Recovery from bearing witness to such events is a process that can last days, weeks, months, or even a lifetime. It is not uncommon to experience sleep disturbance, nightmares, or withdrawal from friends and families.</p>
<p>As with soldiers returning for war, up to 30% of aid workers returning home <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/mar/03/post-traumantic-stress-disorder-aid-workers">may experience anxiety symptoms</a> so severe that they meet criteria for a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition requiring professional mental health assistance to manage. </p>
<p>At the end of the day it is easy to lose oneself in the scope and magnitude of the disaster. Even saving a hundred people might seem trivial when balanced against the thousands of survivors who still require assistance. </p>
<p>The devastation can weigh heavily and make us wonder if our presence mattered. The consolation is the reminder that for those we have saved and those we helped, our presence made a difference.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40940/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Chesire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People working in this field often view themselves with a “person-of-steel” mentality – placing themselves in peril by ignoring their own needs.David Chesire, Associate Professor & Licensed Psychologist, College of Medicine, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/344722015-05-01T17:54:20Z2015-05-01T17:54:20ZSeismologists deploy after a quake to learn more, so we can prepare for the next one<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79990/original/image-20150430-30705-10ausqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Surface measurements hint at what's going on within.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ctbto/15825401591">CTBTO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
– William Faulkner</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When disasters like the <a href="http://ds.iris.edu/ds/nodes/dmc/specialevents/2015/04/25/nepal/">Nepal earthquake</a> strike, seemingly out of the blue, one can’t help but feel anguish at the mismatch between the capacity of human memory and the tenacity of denial. The simple truth about great earthquakes, and the miserable cascade of events they often trigger, is this: if an earthquake has affected a region, recently or in historical records, then future earthquakes in that region are inevitable. But, if no damaging earthquake has happened in recent memory, it’s easy to ignore the need to prepare for a future event of uncertain magnitude and proximity. The earthquake cycle is long relative to the terms of a city council, a state legislature, and even a national government.</p>
<p>As a practicing seismologist, the political questions implicit in a discussion of how much risk a society is prepared to assume relative to the costs of mitigation are largely beyond my influence. On the other hand, seismologists like me can help address the question of where earthquakes have occurred in the past – and where they will occur again in the future.</p>
<p>We can estimate how large a magnitude earthquake can be expected in a given region. We can determine <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/soiltype/">how different substrates</a> – soils, sand, fill, bedrock – will affect ground shaking, and we can <a href="http://www.gsi.go.jp/ENGLISH/page_e30085.html">map the distribution</a> of these foundational materials on a building-by-building scale, if necessary. We can assess the propensity for <a href="http://landslides.usgs.gov">slope failure</a>, which leads to landslides. And, for some regions, we can come up with ballpark <a href="http://serc.carleton.edu/quantskills/methods/quantlit/RInt.html">estimates of the average time</a> between large-magnitude earthquakes.</p>
<p>Even after a major quake, there’s much seismologists can learn that can hopefully help people prepare for the next one. </p>
<h2>What do we want to know?</h2>
<p>Scientists and policymakers ideally want to forecast the time, place and magnitude of a future earthquake. Knowing that information well in advance, we could issue a region-specific targeted alert, complete with estimates of expected shaking. Such knowledge would allow for the maximum safeguarding of populace and infrastructure. Perfect forecasting would also mean no disastrous <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/opinion/a-failed-earthquake-prediction-a-crime.html?_r=0">failures-to-predict</a> and no false alarms.</p>
<p>So what can seismologists do to get closer to this goal?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79991/original/image-20150430-30696-1v9qkjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79991/original/image-20150430-30696-1v9qkjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79991/original/image-20150430-30696-1v9qkjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79991/original/image-20150430-30696-1v9qkjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79991/original/image-20150430-30696-1v9qkjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79991/original/image-20150430-30696-1v9qkjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79991/original/image-20150430-30696-1v9qkjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79991/original/image-20150430-30696-1v9qkjq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Quakes happen along the edges of the planet’s tectonic plates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quake_epicenters_1963-98.png">NASA, DTAM project team</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>It all comes down to plate tectonics</h2>
<p>In seismology, our framework for understanding earthquakes begins with <a href="http://www.livescience.com/37706-what-is-plate-tectonics.html">plate tectonics</a> theory. The Earth’s surface is divided into around 12 major shell-like plates that move relative to one another. Earthquakes happen when the plates rub against each other or collide. We’ve observed that the vast majority of earthquakes occur within the wide (60-600 miles; 100-1,000 km) boundary zones at the edges of the slowly, continuously moving plates. Within these boundaries, plate motions are typically distributed on many active faults that sometimes slip – benignly! – slowly and continuously like the plates. But far more often the plate boundaries stick and are motionless for long periods before suddenly rupturing and producing catastrophic large-magnitude earthquakes.</p>
<p>Given the slow, steady motion of the plates, you might think that earthquakes on plate boundary faults would rupture periodically, say every few decades or centuries, when the stresses that build up on the faults due to the steady motions become greater than the frictional strength holding the fault still. Seismologists have been looking for such nicely behaved faults since the first precision-instrument recordings of earthquakes in 1889, but to no avail. We’ve yet to discover a predictable fault that has a quake right on schedule every 80 years, for example.</p>
<h2>Recording at the surface for hints from within</h2>
<p>We already know a lot about most major faults – where they are, their extents and depths, and at least their recent destructive histories. But there are many crucial things about these faults we don’t understand. The best-studied faults are basically covered with various instruments recording seismic phenomena, and I do mean covered: these observations are made only at the Earth’s surface, or very shallow depths. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80015/original/image-20150501-30721-2zs6m3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80015/original/image-20150501-30721-2zs6m3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80015/original/image-20150501-30721-2zs6m3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80015/original/image-20150501-30721-2zs6m3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80015/original/image-20150501-30721-2zs6m3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80015/original/image-20150501-30721-2zs6m3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80015/original/image-20150501-30721-2zs6m3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80015/original/image-20150501-30721-2zs6m3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Setting up surface sensors to record seismic waves after 2010 earthquake in Chile.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ray Russo</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>We rely on <a href="http://crack.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/seismic-waves.html">seismic waves</a> generated by earthquakes themselves to characterize the faults and their behavior. These waves of energy spread out from a rupturing fault and are recorded on seismometers and other geophysical instruments. Their characteristics, recognizable to seismologists, tell us about the type of earthquake rupture and the extent of the faulting. But, because these waves travel through complex materials on their way to the Earth’s surface, our ability to ‘see’ details of what happens at depth is inevitably compromised.</p>
<p>Seismic recordings have taught us that major fault zones are complex, typically involving multiple surfaces on which slip can and does occur. These surfaces are usually not continuous, but rather indicate that the major faults are segmented - planes of slightly different orientations juxtaposing <a href="http://nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110106">potentially very different materials</a>. Different segments of the fault zone can slip apparently independently, although they do influence each other.</p>
<p>Fault surfaces are rough, not smooth, and marked by asperities: sharp bumps, knobs and ridges on the walls of the fault that jab from one side into the other, creating locked points or patches. Stronger patches are more likely to remain locked until the steady plate motions build up enough to break them, while weaker patches slip slowly and steadily. <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/parkfield/fluids.php">Groundwater flow</a> may both weaken fault rocks by dissolving minerals, or strengthen a patch of fault through precipitation of new minerals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79994/original/image-20150430-30726-1hmm6ue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79994/original/image-20150430-30726-1hmm6ue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79994/original/image-20150430-30726-1hmm6ue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79994/original/image-20150430-30726-1hmm6ue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79994/original/image-20150430-30726-1hmm6ue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79994/original/image-20150430-30726-1hmm6ue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79994/original/image-20150430-30726-1hmm6ue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79994/original/image-20150430-30726-1hmm6ue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Japan’s 2011 Tōhoku earthquake registered on seismograms in Hawaii.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/parksjd/7245859020">Joe Parks</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>For every large-magnitude earthquake that occurs on a fault system, thousands or even tens of thousands of little earthquakes will occur. These low-magnitude events can be triggered by small changes in stress on the fault. For example, when seismic waves from a large-magnitude quake somewhere else in the world pass by segments of California’s San Andreas fault, the fault lights up with <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090709140817.htm">lots of little tremors</a>. So we infer that many faults are near ‘criticality’ – at least some patches of the fault segments are ready to slip at any time, just waiting for a minuscule amount of stress to be applied.</p>
<p>If the faults are actually moving, just a little bit, essentially all the time, what has to happen for these little motions to coalesce into the big slip over a large area that would be a huge quake? Seismologists have been looking for consistently observed precursory phenomena – some change in fault behavior or structure that always, reliably, occurs before or even during the cascading of little earthquakes into a monster earthquake. So far, we haven’t found it.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79992/original/image-20150430-30721-bl45jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79992/original/image-20150430-30721-bl45jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79992/original/image-20150430-30721-bl45jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79992/original/image-20150430-30721-bl45jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79992/original/image-20150430-30721-bl45jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79992/original/image-20150430-30721-bl45jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79992/original/image-20150430-30721-bl45jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79992/original/image-20150430-30721-bl45jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unloading seismic monitoring equipment in the field.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ctbto/15642118967">CTBTO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Lots of science to be done after a big quake</h2>
<p>Ironically, large-magnitude earthquakes like the Nepal event provide some of the most useful information for seismic hazard mitigation: the thousands of aftershocks in the following days and months occur all along the surface of the fault segments that ruptured. Seismologists usually rush to <a href="http://www.earthscope.org/assets/uploads/pages/Wi11_MauleAftershockDeploy.pdf">deploy many temporary seismic stations</a> in the rupture region to record these aftershocks and then locate them with high precision – thus defining the fault’s slip surface accurately.</p>
<p>To do this well, we need to surround the rupture region with sensors that turn shaking due to seismic waves into electrical signals that are then recorded on a weather-proofed computer hard disk. The seismograms they record show the ground moving up and down and side-to-side systematically as the waves travel past the sensor.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80014/original/image-20150501-30716-1k3ycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80014/original/image-20150501-30716-1k3ycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80014/original/image-20150501-30716-1k3ycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80014/original/image-20150501-30716-1k3ycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80014/original/image-20150501-30716-1k3ycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80014/original/image-20150501-30716-1k3ycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80014/original/image-20150501-30716-1k3ycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80014/original/image-20150501-30716-1k3ycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of a seismic microzonation map for the city of Bangkok.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bangkok_microzonation_map.jpg">Tuladhar, R., Yamazaki, F., Warnitchai, P & Saita, J., Seismic Microzonation of the Greater Bangkok area using Microtremor Observations, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics,v33, 2004: 211-225</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>The aftershock team’s work affords us an accurate measure of these parameters. Then we can make a firm estimate of the largest magnitude earthquake a particular cascading sequence of rupturing fault segments can produce. The upper magnitude limit for the region can then be used to estimate the maximum expected shaking, and, in combination with studies of substrate materials, <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/designmaps/">expected hazard maps</a> can be produced, building codes updated based on realistic expectations, and civil defense planning focused to mitigate specific disaster scenarios.</p>
<h2>How to protect against future quake disasters?</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002926#general_summary">Nepal earthquake</a> was long expected. A <a href="http://www.rediff.com/news/report/nepal-earthquake-is-an-eerie-reminder-of-1934-tragedy/20150425.htm">predecessor event in 1934</a> ruptured an even greater area, yielding a higher magnitude quake. And if earthquake preparedness there received less-than effective attention given this clear warning, imagine how much more difficult it is to motivate preparation in places that are susceptible to huge earthquakes, but whose most recent big quake occurred long before any of us were born, even before written history…. The past is never truly past, indeed!</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79993/original/image-20150430-30709-z5suvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79993/original/image-20150430-30709-z5suvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79993/original/image-20150430-30709-z5suvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79993/original/image-20150430-30709-z5suvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79993/original/image-20150430-30709-z5suvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79993/original/image-20150430-30709-z5suvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79993/original/image-20150430-30709-z5suvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79993/original/image-20150430-30709-z5suvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Nepal’s earthquake caused countless buildings to crumble.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unitednationsdevelopmentprogramme/17250166966">United Nations Development Programme</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>Globally, we need a program of identification and characterization of potentially hazardous faults in urban areas. From those studies, site-specific expected seismic shaking maps can be developed and construction codes and engineering design specifications for infrastructure enacted, mitigating hazard to new and future construction.</p>
<p>Then urban political leaders and civil defense agencies must collaborate to lead local populations in an open and honest dialog to identify both irreplaceable cultural heritage, and also infrastructure that must survive natural disasters intact in order to prevent an earthquake from triggering a series of consequent catastrophes – fires, water and food shortages and disease outbreaks. These structures should be retrofitted to survive the predicted shaking from the maximum expected magnitude earthquake for the given area. A number of different mechanisms to pay for this costly preventive engineering are almost certainly needed, tailored to local conditions.</p>
<p>It’s clear the Earth has moved before and will move again, but will we move to do what’s necessary to mitigate preventable disasters?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Russo receives funding from the US National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>For seismologists, there’s much to be learned after a major earthquake, as aftershocks help them map out the fault with high precision. More data now can prepare a region for its next big one.Ray Russo, Associate Professor of Geophysics, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.