No planning and research was done to identify and classify areas based on geographical characteristics, land capacity and soil quality
Sujata Awale
Kathmandu
The temblor on April 25 that hit the country left a lot of destruction. It destroyed many residential buildings, apartments, government offices, industrial enterprises, hospitals, schools, et cetera in the country. Few areas in the valley like Gongabu, Nayabazaar, Kalanki, Ramkot, Sitapaila, Sankhu were severely damaged due to the earthquake and frequent aftershocks. Experts said that most of these structures were constructed defying National Building Code (NBC) and building by-laws in the valley which made them risky and the earthquake took its toll. Haphazard and unplanned urbanisation, non engineering structures defying building codes, inadequate research, lack of dispatching information and lack of adaptation of seismic resistance techniques are reasons why the valley faced much deadly destruction.
Weak enforcement
Research shows that the Kathmandu valley is a seismic prone zone. However, this fact has been taken too lightly by the government and concerned stakeholders. “Despite having building codes for all purposed building, the government as well as public displayed indifference and did not bother to strictly enforce and implement the laws,” said Senior Structural Engineer Dr Rajan Suwal. Citing that people constructed buildings as per their wish, he said, “People transferred building purposes — residential to corporate, hospitals, schools, added floors on weak foundation, built non-engineering structures made the city more vulnerable to disaster.”
Citing that there was no monitoring mechanism, Suwal said, “Structural analysis was not made compulsory and people were not aware about the importance of engineering structures.” He said that everyone should now learn from the past mistakes and now should not compromise on design, soil testing, foundation design, quality of construction materials and adopting seismic resistant techniques on structures.
Lack of planning and research
No planning and no research was done to identify and classify sectors based on geographical characteristics, land capacity and soil quality. Identifying and zoning of land for housing and urbanising purposes was also left out. “The government randomly declared village development committees as municipalities without any plans and policies being unaware about the possibility of haphazard urbanisation in those areas,” blamed Suwal.
In this regard, Engineering Geologist Dr Ranjan Kumar Dahal said, “Not only were existing policies not implemented, but the government also did not prioritise the possibility of a natural disasters and its effect on development.” He is of the opinion that the city should be planned keeping in mind natural disasters such as landslides, floods, fires, earthquakes, soil erosion, et cetera.
In the Land Use Policy 2012, there is a segregation of liquefaction zones, flood and landslide prone areas. Engineering students have conducted many studies on disaster prone areas. However, the information was ignored and not adopted in the policy level. “It is matter of shame that the government has not done any research on geology till date. National Building Codes that we follow are based on Indian codes, which are not suitable for our topography,” said Dahal. He further said that city planning needs detail research about ground acceleration design, soil thickness, soil testing, ground response and microscopic survey for earthquake resistant preparedness. He stressed on the need for having a Seismic Zonation Map based on the research and a NBC that supports land use policy. “The existing building code has to be revised and it should include town planning, hydropower project development, transportation and other manuals clearly and the government should enforce it strictly,” he added. He further said that the government should not delay the introduction of the Disaster Risk Management Act to incorporate all possible disasters.
No data, no studies
While the general public awaits answers as to why a few areas were fully damaged and some are not, experts said that they didn’t have a database to complete their study. Geotechnical Earthquake Engineer, Dr Monika Maharjan said, “The government has not disclosed data of all 21 seismic stations till date, without which we could not find out why few places such as Goganbu, Nayabazar, Balaju, Sankhu, Kausaltar were so severely affected.” She said that unless the database is released, it will be hurdle for the study of liquefaction, thrusts and faults zones.
Maharjan stated that without data the soil testing and soil condition study is of no use. “The government should first proiritise release of data from the database stations to study the conditions of the ground underneath. Only after that with the help of research the government should introduce a seismic hazard map,” she opined. Elaborating about the hazard map, she said, “Seismic hazard maps will provide insights about the status of soil and other disaster prone areas. And it will categorise areas according to class and the National Building Code should determine how to design structures in such areas.”
Citing that this is high time to introduce proper guidelines and codes, Maharjan said, “Previously people along with enforcement agencies were liberal and indifferent about probable destruction by natural disasters like an earthquake. Now, we can’t afford to make the same mistake.” According to her, structures can be made anywhere but the important factor is the proper study and zonation of where and how to make such structures.
She stressed on revising the building code and strict monitoring and enforcement of existing policies while planning for a new city. “If the government does not strictly enforce this, we can’t imagine what the situation will be in case of any disaster in the future.”
Waiting for approval
The Ministry of Land Reforms and Management introduced the Land Use Policy 2012 and established National Land Use Project (NLUP) in 2002. NLUP is entitled to make national plans for land use. However, NLUP stated that they cannot enforce the plan into practice. “Land use policy is just a textual guideline which is not tangible to implement. There should be a law and an Act to provide right, responsibility and restriction for using land and to implement land use projects,” said Nab Raj Subedi, Project Chief at NLUP. Citing that they have already sent the Land Reform Act for a sixth amendment last year, he said, “The act is still pending with Cabinet. As soon as it gets a green signal, we will implement our plans,” he added. According to him, they have a land use plan for 450 VDCs alongside the Mahendra Highway.
However, no significant work till date has been done for zoning and mapping for urbanisation. In the policy, there was a study carried out classifying land for agriculture, forest, pasture, settlement, urban development, industrial area, et cetera. After the recent earthquake, the project is also working on rapid hazard assessment for 14 affected districts. “We plan to complete this study by next week and will initiate having a hazard map of the country within the end of this Nepali year 2072,” he informed.
Subedi admitted that there have been loopholes.“Now people have realised the importance of building structures as per policies and laws. They have realised that even though the government turns to a blind eye, nature can penalise heavily,” he added. He said that the government should introduce national planning to focus on natural disasters and food security while coming up with new city planning. “Here the role of the government in implementing laws is important while the public should follow them,” he added. “Lack of integrated systems and coordination with different government bodies to dispatch the right information is another challenge that we face,” he said, adding that the issue needs national priority.
Published on The Himalayan Times, Perspectives May 31, 2015
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