Flood Scenario and its Risk Management, Policy, Practices in Nepal

Nepal is exposed to a variety of natural hazards and human induced disasters. More than 80 percent of the total population of Nepal is at risk from natural hazards, such as floods, landslides, windstorms, hailstorms, fires, earthquakes and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). The country is among the 20 most disaster-prone countries in the world. In part, this is because Nepal is in a seismically active zone with a high probability for massive earthquake. Globally, Nepal ranks 4th and 11th in terms of its relative vulnerability to climate change and earthquakes, respectively. Nepal as 30th country with respect to relative vulnerability to flood. Every year flood damages many health and wealth. The topography, slope, irregular and high intensity of rainfall cause the flood damage in several part of Nepal. However, such types of research works are very limited in Nepal. Thus, this paper was reviewed and aiming to explore and highlight the Floods scenario : historical trends, cases, incidents, damages, approaches of risk reduction & management practices, policy, legal and institutions in Nepal; Nepal's commitment to global and regional framework.
Thus the total 68 literatures, related to flood, damages, risk reduction and management, policy, legal framework and institutions of both national, regional and global, were collected, reviewed and studied. The desktop review was done highlighting the key aspects of flood disasters, hazard, damages, risk reduction and management, policy, legal framework were noted and analyzed. The analysis shows that there were 3 mega flood disasters especially in 1993, 2008 and 2017 in Nepal. While looking the flood scenario mainly and its socio-economic losses in the period of 1971 to July 2018, it shows that flood is the main reoccurring disaster in Nepal which claimed 4647 deaths, 84 missing, 616 injured, 3726120 family affected. Traditional approaches for flood management were focused on relief and emergency response operations based on Natural Calamity (Relief) act, 1982; where most of the efforts were made after strike of disaster. Whereas new approaches are focused on detail vulnerability, hazard, risk assessment and analysis, early warning system, community based disaster management. Such new approaches are used during disaster preparedness and response planning and project implementations as well as linkage, integration of upstream and downstream. Before enactment of new DRR/M act, 2074, all the efforts, guidelines and disaster risk management were based on old act "Natural Calamity (Relief) act, 1982 which was more focused on response & relief operations after disaster occurrences. The new DRR/M Act, 2074 covers an effective DRM effort which prioritizes DRM (including climate change concern) across government sectors and levels, with a full functional Disaster Management Council.
Nepal has ratified some key global and regional commitments on disaster management: Yokohama, Japan (1994), Hyogo, Japan (2005-2015), and Sendai, Japan (2015-2030). Nepal has made other international framework and commitments on disaster management which are: The Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR), 2016; The Paris Agreement, 1992; The Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2030); The Addis Ababa Action Agenda, 2015; Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, Cancun, Mexico, 2017. Nepal as a UN member state and signatory to the global and regional commitments is committed and entitled to fulfill its obligations related to disaster management. Nepal is trying its best to achieve all the priorities for action by 2030. However, Nepal needs further technical support, financial support and guidance from development partners and friendly nations by 2030. Therefore, this study will be useful for policy makers, researcher, academician and practicener on overall vulnerability analysis, policy & practices of DRM and flood management..

Keywords: Disaster, flood hazard, risk reduction, policy, legislation, institution, vulnerability, upstream & downstream linkage, early warning system