18. Experience of Nepal: Implication to Risk Reduction

The Kathmandu Valley (KV) stands top as the most seismically vulnerable cities in the world (Geo-hazard International, Global Earthquake Safety Initiative, USA, 2001). Recent studies indicated that more than 60 % of the houses will be severely damaged if earthquake of 8 and more magnitude occurs. As a result, 40,000 people will die due to building collapse while more than half million people will be displaced. Quality of buildings (both structural and non-structural) is one of the key reasons behind this damage assessment. In-spite of this situation the Metropolitan City offices and municipalities in KV are grossly ignorant till recently and hence have very limited progress in effective implementation of Nepal National Building Code (NBC) which is in place since 1994. Among many other reasons; limited trained human resources, poor governance, weak monitoring and evaluation in place, no testing facilities, etc. are the factors behind this failure. In the other hand, risk and vulnerability in Kathmandu valley is growing everyday with new building permit being issued. In order to improve the situation on the ground, an effective public private partnership (PPP) mechanism can be an effective tool to implement NBC based on the principles of Risk, Reward and Responsibility (3 Rs). In this regard, with the technical and financial support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Nepal initiated couple of innovative activities such as risk sensitive land use planning, e-building permit system, involvement of central bank and commercial financial institutions to effectively implement the NBC, etc. This paper describes some of the above mentioned initiatives involving private sectors to implement the NBC and make buildings safer from future earthquake shocks.