Hi, welcome to Cold Takes by Boju Bajai. In this newsletter, we bring a round-up of news and feminist views from Nepal and the Nepali internet.
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On Saturday we all woke up to terrible news about the deadly earthquake in western Nepal, which killed over 150 people and injured dozens more in Jajarkot and Rukkum West. The tremors were felt as far as Kathmandu and parts of north India.
This is the second devastating earthquake to have struck Nepal in less than ten years. Heartbreaking images and videos of damaged homes reduced to mounds of stones and splinter woods, hospitals packed with wounded, panic stricken faces of family members looking for their loved ones in front of their collapsed homes from western Nepal have taken over news headlines and our social media feed. The earthquake in western Nepal rattled Kathmandu too. We’ve watched the tragedy unfold and the death toll climb in western Nepal in the last 24 hours. And for many of us, who survived the devastating earthquake of 2015, it’s brought back anxiety inducing flashbacks, and feeling helpless, desperate and angry.
The earthquake struck villages in the hilly terrain in western Nepal where most homes, according to media reports, were made of stone and mud. But even concrete buildings in market towns collapsed from the strong tremors on Friday night.
Earthquakes aren’t predictable and being prepared for it by enforcing strict building codes, is the only way to minimise the damage, especially in countries like Nepal that are in active seismic zones. Having emergency responders including healthcare workers is an essential part of earthquake response, especially in remote areas like Jajarkot and Rukkum West with limited road connectivity, and access to hospitals. There have been news reports of how seriously injured people from the earthquake epicentre in Jajarkot had to be flown to hospitals in Surkhet. And even then, they didn’t receive timely medical attention.
According to Nepali Times, “Himalayan seismologists have been warning that a mega earthquake is long overdue in western Nepal because there has not been a big one to release the tectonic tension there for over 600 years.” And the region around where the earthquake hit western Nepal has recorded a series of earthquakes and aftershocks since last year. In neighbouring Sudur Paschim province, an earthquake last month killed one person and damaged hundreds of homes in Bajhang. And last January even more people in Bajura were displaced as 400 houses were damaged by another earthquake of similar magnitude.
But beyond announcing immediate relief packages, news of such a tragedy are rarely followed by local and central government’s programs to address lowering risks from such disasters in the future. From organising periodic earthquake drills to help local authorities practise what to do in the aftermath of an earthquake and prioritising resources in emergency plans -there was a lot that subsequent governments could have done since 2015.
Also, what is with our ruling class flocking to the already precarious disaster hit zones. Having the prime minister and MPs flying there isn’t going to help, as one user pointed out on Twitter. Instead it further distracts our already under-resourced security and rescue emergency apparatus in such remote areas from being mobilised for those truly in need. When will our leaders stop using disaster zones as photo ops and instead prioritise disaster preparedness after such a tragic episode?
For many of us who survived the 2015 earthquake and saw death and devastation up close, the acute lack of political will when it comes to proactive disaster preparation is infuriating to say the least.
The debris of fallen structures from 2015 in a corner of Tudikhel, now thick with grass, has become a permanent fixture in the heart of the nation's capital. Meanwhile high rise buildings that clearly don’t look like they’ve adhered to strict building codes, continue jutting out into Kathmandu’s skyline just metres away from the mound of debris in Tudikhel.
These two images in Kathmandu are daily reminders of how life and politics have moved on in the country’s capital even after the devastating earthquake of 2015 which killed about 9000 people and displaced thousands more.
The reconstruction in remote villages where entire settlements were reduced to rubbles has been painfully slow. Let's not even get to the irregularities in the earthquake reconstruction funds.
So all we can hope this time is that the devastating earthquake that struck western Nepal on Friday night will finally jolt leaders in the capital to action and prioritise proactive disaster preparation and speedy post-earthquake reconstruction. Or else, it will be a long harsh winter for thousands of people in remote pockets of Jajarkot and Rukkum West, where life wasn’t easy even before the devastating earthquake.