Nepal Government’s Emergency Response to the 2015 Earthquake: A Case Study
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Emergency Response after an Earthquake
2.2. Disaster Risk Reduction
2.3. Disaster Risk Governance
2.4. National System for Disaster Management
3. Methodology
- Central Question:
- Specific Questions:
- Based on your experience, what were the guidelines and policies the government followed to respond to the 2015 earthquake?
- Based on your experience, who was effectively involved in the emergency response? (Refers to government institutions.)
- Based on your experience, why did institutions respond in that way? Were they effective? Please elaborate.
- Based on your experience, how did the coordination mechanisms within the government ministry and departments work? What was the coordination like between the civil administration and the security forces? Please elaborate.
- During the immediate emergency response, what were the information-generating and sharing mechanisms that allowed the security forces and civil administrators to best respond to the disaster? Please elaborate.
- Based on your experience, what were the weaknesses and challenges you faced during the emergency response operation? Please elaborate.
- Based on your experience, what were the strengths of the Nepal government in coping with the large-scale disaster response?
3.1. Selection of Participants
3.2. Data Collection and Analysis
3.3. Details of Participants
4. Response Structure and Timeline
4.1. Government Institutional Arrangement for Disaster Management
4.2. National Disaster Response Framework 2013
4.3. Timeline of the 2015 Earthquake
5. Results
5.1. Policy and Guidelines
Without the National Disaster Response Framework 2013, we could have gone haywire in responding. Thank god the framework was there at least.
5.2. Coordination Mechanism (Refer to Table 3 and Figure 3 and Figure 4)
Firstly, we do not have a clear policy and guidelines describing the detailed roles and responsibilities to address disaster situation. Second, we do not have adequate knowledge, experience and resources. Third, we lack coordination within our government ministries and departments.
At NEOC, the information that we usually received was from District Disaster Relief Committee, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force. Thus, we did not get much information from the Nepal Army, and since the Army took over the leadership on the ground, they were coordinating more from the military headquarter.
5.3. Strengths
Those hospitals, which conducted drills earlier, were able to activate the emergency operations more quickly as opposed to those that had written plans but never rehearsed.
Sharing their professional obligation, one military commander deployed in the remote district of Kavre added the following:The security forces are an organized and disciplined force amongst all. Thus, the deployment of these forces was highly effective in comparison to others. Since they follow a unitary command system, all the troops can be mobilized with one single order.
Finally, the majority of the respondents talked about a strong sense of solidarity in the community as one of the key strengths and the motivated youth volunteers.Our soldiers’ own families were victims, but they could not go home because they were deployed with us. As a commander, I know their feelings, but we have to follow the orders.
5.4. Weaknesses
Further, one Local Development Officer pointed out the problems with the absence of elected representatives at the local level, which he claims to have created coordination difficulties for them. He stated the following:In our old existing institutional setup, a Village Development Committee Secretary is a responsible government representative to coordinate reliefs at the village level. During the time of disaster and since long, the country did not have enough Village Development Committee Secretaries. How can you coordinate activities to the village when there are no representatives? Another constraint is monetary as it requires money to send or assign someone to visit the village. For that, we do not have a separate budget.
Local level elections14 have not been held for more than two decades. If we had local representatives like Village Development Committee Chairman and their team such as Ward Chairman, Ward members, and Ward secretaries at the village, the district, and central administration (PDDP 2002) will have a clearer picture of the local problems.
Assume that we have an emergency flood situation, and that we needed to evacuate the villagers from a certain area. As our process, we will call the District Disaster Relief Committee (DDRC) meeting at District Administration Office. The DDRC committee members would then agree and decide on evacuating the people. However, at that point, our security officials will state that before their deployment, they are required to take the final permission from their respective headquarters. Therefore, in such cases, though we already decide for executing a plan at DDRC, it will not go into immediate execution and that can also create delays.
The responsible district officials like Chief District Officers and Local Development Officers should have adequate knowledge in the field of disaster management. For example, the work procedures under disaster scenarios and knowledge of available policies and guidelines.
In a district office, Chief District Officer is responsible for numerous tasks. For instance, head various committees, sign all the issued citizenship cards, and passports, and resolve the complex public-private disputes. Besides, the Chief District Officer also take on coordination works from monitoring and evaluation of the programs to entertaining the inbound guests. Chief District Officer is a single person and how do you think they will perform given the responsibility of disaster management on top?
Forget about big equipment and technology, we did not even have concrete drilling machines and sufficient generators. We used our bare hands. The international SAR teams were well equipped. We had never seen those types of machinery, we learned much by seeing them.
Initially, the collected relief materials were distributed haphazardly in the district without any monitoring system as we also lacked experience and the time was ticking. The early relief materials did not go thru one door policy as instructed by the central authority. It was not possible for us at the District Disaster Relief Committee to immediately apply the system without experience, which demanded a slow process to pass through bureaucratic and administrative steps.
While hospitals had their own internal emergency preparedness plan, there existed no communication and coordination system amongst hospitals. If we had an inter-hospital communication and coordination system, we could have worked more efficiently. For instance, prompt referrals to appropriate hospitals.
We did everything from our side to treat the victims and exhausted all our resources. But not a single authority visited us to ask how we were doing and if we needed any help.
Private hospitals and nursing homes in Kathmandu could not give the services like public hospitals because they do not have sufficient human resource. Most of them usually outsource more than 80 percent of their core medical staff, and they have only a few full time in-house medical doctors.
Private hospitals were not sure how much the government would reimburse. Despite the confusions, Vayodha and Alka Hospital did provide services to the inbound victims, but due to the chaotic influx, they could not keep the records as to how many they treated. The government later offered around USD 5000 to compensate which was less than they had actually spent.
Upon receiving the international medical team, we required more helping hands. Thus, we announced through FM18 Radio asking for volunteers having knowledge in Public Health. In response, hundreds of public health students, teachers and youth from Kathmandu showed up the next day. However, we could not use them as we had no plan to manage large numbers of volunteers.
First, the air traffic controllers at Tribhuvan International Airport struggled to control the foreign military air crafts. No one knew who should control them at the airport. The Americans, Indians and Chinese flew in their own way. Nobody had time to explain to them the runway layouts, crossing procedures, the points where they could and could not go. Second, when big aircraft like the Hercules arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport, they had no appropriate forklifts to offload them. Consequently, it occupied space in the crowded airport which then delayed other aircraft en route. Third, the airport did not have proper storage facilities.
I was annoyed by our media, their negative news on the Government’s response was not helpful. They should not vent negativity at the time of national crisis, which will only help to increase public anger. It not only made difficult to coordinate the necessary response but also created misunderstanding amongst the public and the international community.
6. Discussion
It is by default the duty of security forces to take care after rescue and relief operations as they are trained forces.
We arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport two weeks after the 25 April 2015 earthquake and cleared the immigration normally with no complaints. Throughout our time in Nepal, we were welcomed and supported by the people. There was no interference by government or security personnel. I think the government was eager to be as helpful as possible toward relief teams come to help.
Nepal saved Nepal, and the Nepalese can be justly proud of their ability to respond and recover. They can be equally satisfied knowing that the international community wanted to—and was allowed to—assist (CFE-DMHA 2016).
Coordination between civilian and military actors is essential during an emergency response. The increasing number and scale of humanitarian emergencies, in both natural disaster and conflict settings, has led to more situations where military forces and civilian relief agencies are operating in the same environment.
7. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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1 | For more information, please see: National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) 2072 (p. 3). MoHA, GoN. |
2 | Lalitpur district falls under the category of a crisis-hit district (very heavy damage). |
3 | The Nepal Disaster Report 2013 indicated that there were more than 80 international and national non-governmental organizations in Nepal working in the domain of disaster management. For more info: https://reliefweb.int/report/nepal/nepal-disaster-report-2013. |
4 | Secretary refers to the administrative head of the ministry, its line agencies and field offices that also supervise and monitor policy and program implementation (Source: A Guide to Government in Nepal: Structures, Functions, and Practices. Asia Foundation, 2012). |
5 | For more information, please refer to www.neoc.gov.np. |
6 | United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC); International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG). |
7 | Local Emergency Management Agency (LEMA). |
8 | The NEOC was established later in 2010. |
9 | Focus group discussion one incorporated the key officials from Disaster Management Division, Ministry of Home Affairs including the National Emergency Operation Center. |
10 | Source: Interview with Honorable Bam Dev Gautam, the then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister. He was also the acting Prime Minister at that time. |
11 | Focus group discussion two consisted of veteran civil servants that had assumed the Chief District Officer positions and had significant experiences working with the District Disaster Relief Committee. |
12 | Field Observation of the National Emergency Operation Center complex was performed on two consecutive days on 2 and 3 January 2016 by the researcher. |
13 | Daily local newspapers in the Nepali vernacular and English dailies such as The Himalayan, Annapurna, Annapurna Post, Naya Patrika, Nagarik, The Himalayan Times, The Kathmandu Post, and Gorkhapatra were analyzed. They were published from 27 April to 23 June 2015. |
14 | Nepal had not had local-level elections for more than 20 years. Recently, the government of Nepal announced two rounds of voting for 11 May (First Phase) and 28 June 2017 (second phase) for local representatives with nearly 50,000 candidates vying for 13,556 positions on village and city councils. For more info, please refer to “Election Commission, Nepal” at www.election.gov.np. |
15 | Focus group three comprised a homogeneous set of five army officers that had worked closely with the District Disaster Relief Committee in one of the disaster’s hard-hit districts. |
16 | During the field visits to major public hospitals, the researchers were able to collect the official presentations made by these hospitals in reference to their response to the 2015 earthquake disaster and lessons learned. |
17 | Triage means evaluation and categorization of the sick or wounded when faced with insufficient resources for the medical care of everyone at once. For more information, see (www.medicinenet.com). |
18 | Frequency modulation (FM). |
19 | Focus group discussion four included three army pilots. |
20 | As per the National Disaster Response Framework 2013, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal is responsible for airport security and air traffic management. |
21 | During the 25 April 2015 earthquake disaster in Nepal, Mr. Bam Dev Gautam was a Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister. He is also a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). |
22 | Besides the Nepal Army, a total of 41,776 members of the Nepal Police force and 24,775 members of the Armed Police Force were deployed for security and SAR operation in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake (Source: Ministry of Home Affairs). |
23 | In an interview. |
Flagship 1 School and Hospital Safety | Coordinator: Asian Development Bank (ADB)/Ministry of Education /World Health Organization/Ministry of Health and Population Focus: Reducing mass casualties and damage in hospitals and schools through retrofitting, training and raising awareness | Key Achievements
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Flagship 2 Emergency Preparedness and Response | Coordinator: UNOCHA/Ministry of Home Affairs Focus: To enhance the GoN’s response capacities at the national, regional and district-level in a coordinated manner with all in-country resources including the armed forces, as well as integrating incoming international humanitarian and military assistance |
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Flagship 3 Flood Management in the Koshi River Basin | Coordinator: World Bank (WB)/Ministry of Irrigation Focus: Address the risk of floods in Nepal. Managing water-induced disasters, focusing on the Koshi Basin. Short-term goals focus on enhancing institutional capabilities in flood management while long-term goals focus on implementing effective flood mitigation |
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Flagship 4 Community-based Disaster Risk Management | Coordinator: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society (IFRC)/Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development Focus: Capitalize on Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) at Village Development Committee (VDC) level by developing a set of minimum characteristics for disaster-resilient communities and adopting a minimum package of common elements to be included in all CBDRM projects. Aims to make 1000 VDCs disaster resilient |
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Flagship 5 Policy/Institutional Support for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) | Coordinator: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/Ministry of Home Affairs Focus: Institutional, legislative and policy frameworks for DRM system building and embedding DRM into Nepal’s development efforts. Ensure new risk is minimized |
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S. N. | Positions | Organization | Number Interviewed |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Deputy Prime Minister/Home Minister | Ministry of Home Affairs | 1 |
2 | Joint Secretary, officer, and Under Secretary | Ministry of Home Affairs | 3 |
3 | Joint Secretary | National Reconstruction Authority | 1 |
4 | Joint Secretary, local development officers | Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development | 3 |
5 | Officers, other ranks below officers | Nepal Army including Air Service | 6 |
6 | Chief district officers, Under Secretaries | District Administration Office | 6 |
7 | Secretary and Under Secretary | Ministry of Urban Development | 2 |
8 | Former police chief, medical doctor, officers | Nepal Police | 5 |
9 | Medical doctors, and officers | Armed Police Force | 4 |
10 | Chairman and a member | Nepal Red Cross Society, Kavre & Nuwakot district | 2 |
11 | Journalist | Karobar Daily (local vernacular) | 1 |
12 | Medical doctors | Trauma center, Bir Hospital | 2 |
13 | Paramedic | District hospital, Dhading | 1 |
14 | Director, and Medical Director | Patan Hospital | 2 |
15 | Medical doctors | Civil Service Hospital | 2 |
16 | Medical doctors | Shree Birendra Hospital | 2 |
17 | Director, medical doctor | Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital | 2 |
18 | Chief technical advisor | UNDP, Nepal | 1 |
19 | Not applicable | General public, volunteers & victims | 5 |
20 | Member | National Planning Commission | 1 |
21 | Under Secretary | Ministry of Education | 1 |
22 | Public health specialist | Ministry of Health and Population | 2 |
23 | Former Secretary | Ministry of General Administration | 1 |
24 | Member of parliament | Communist party of Nepal | 1 |
25 | Team leader | Portland fire and rescue, USA | 1 |
TOTAL | 58 |
S. N. | Humanitarian Cluster | Government Cluster Lead Organizations | Cluster Co-Lead Humanitarian Agencies |
---|---|---|---|
1. | Health | Ministry of Health and Population | World Health Organization (WHO) |
2. | Water, Sanitation and Hygiene | Ministry of Urban Development | United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) |
3. | Shelter | Ministry of Urban Development | International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)/United Nations Human Settlement Program (UN-HABITAT) |
4. | Food Security | Ministry of Agriculture Development | World Food Program (WFP)/Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) |
5. | Logistics | Ministry of Home Affairs | World Food Program (WFP) |
6. | Camp Coordination and Management | Ministry of Urban Development | International Organization for Migration (IOM) |
7. | Education | Ministry of Education | UNICEF/Save the Children (SC) |
8. | Protection | Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare | United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)/UNICEF/United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) |
9. | Telecommunications | Ministry of Information and Communication | WFP |
10. | Nutrition | Ministry of Health and Population | UNICEF |
11. | Early Recovery Network | Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development | United Nations Development Program (UNDP) |
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Shrestha, B.; Pathranarakul, P. Nepal Government’s Emergency Response to the 2015 Earthquake: A Case Study. Soc. Sci. 2018, 7, 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7080127
Shrestha B, Pathranarakul P. Nepal Government’s Emergency Response to the 2015 Earthquake: A Case Study. Social Sciences. 2018; 7(8):127. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7080127
Chicago/Turabian StyleShrestha, Bahul, and Pairote Pathranarakul. 2018. "Nepal Government’s Emergency Response to the 2015 Earthquake: A Case Study" Social Sciences 7, no. 8: 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7080127
APA StyleShrestha, B., & Pathranarakul, P. (2018). Nepal Government’s Emergency Response to the 2015 Earthquake: A Case Study. Social Sciences, 7(8), 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7080127