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On April 25, Nepal was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 8,000 people and injured tens of thousands of others. The earthquake leveled thousands of buildings around the Kathmandu Valley, including several UNESCO World Heritage sites. It also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest that left eighteen people dead. Nepal is one of the world’s poorest nations and the international community has pledged to assist it in reconstructing buildings and providing humanitarian assistance to its population. However, the nation’s political difficulties may inhibit future relief efforts as a notoriously corrupt bureaucracy has thus far failed to remedy the problems that Nepali citizens are facing.
This topic brief will focus on the scope of the Nepali earthquake and its aftershocks, describe the international assistance that is being provided to Nepal, and discuss the challenges that Nepal will face in the coming months as a result of the earthquake. It is hoped that this topic brief can give extempers a good grounding in this unfortunate international disaster, which could significantly factor into the NSDA International Extemp topic area on “Crises and Natural Disasters.”
Readers are also encouraged to use the links below and in the related R&D to bolster their files about this topic.
The Scale of the April 25 Earthquake and Its Aftershocks
At noon on Saturday, April 25, Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley and its surrounding area was affected by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake (earthquakes are calculated on the Richter magnitude scale based on a ten point logarithimic scale). The Economist writes on April 25 that the last Nepali earthquake of a similar magnitude was January 15, 1934, when an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck the country and killed ten to twelve thousand people. Seismologists note that Nepal’s location near the Himalayan Mountains makes it a dangerous place for earthquakes and The Economist writes that the Indian tectonic plate is constantly pushing into the Eurasian plate in the region, moving an estimated five centimeters a year. The Economist on April 30 explains that the recent quake was caused when the Indian tectonic plate lurched ten feet (three meters) north. Part of the reason that the earthquake was so devastating was that its hypocenter, the point where a fault begins to rupture and that exists beneath the epicenter of the earthquake, was eleven kilometers below the surface. This relatively shallow point created significant ground-shaking, thereby creating problems for many of Nepal’s buildings that were not made of reinforced concrete. Some seismologists speculate that the damage could have been much worse if the Himalayan Mountains were not nearby to absorb more of the energy of the earthquake. It is important that extempers realize that the effects of the earthquake were experienced outside of Nepal as well. USA Today writes on April 27 that shockwaves from the disaster were felt by residents of Lahore, Pakistan; Lhasa, Tibet; and Dhaka, Bangladesh. In addition, sixty-one people died in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Tibet as a result of the disaster.
As noted in the introduction to this brief, the April 25 quake killed more than 8,000 people and injured tens of thousands. The Economist article from April 30 writes that experts had long predicted an earthquake of this magnitude as it seems like Nepal and surrounding countries are affected by a major earthquake every seventy to eighty years. Due to shoddy building codes, especially around the capital of Kathmandu over the last several decades, experts feared that a major earthquake could kill more than 100,000 people. However, the timing of the earthquake probably prevented casualties since people were not working on the weekend, children were not in schools, and people were participating in community activities outdoors. To give a point of comparison on casualties, Nepal’s earthquake was twenty-two times more powerful than the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010 and killed more than 160,000 people.
Aside from casualties, the nation’s infrastructure is in significant ruins. Deutsche Welle explains on May 16 that the April 25 earthquake wrecked more than 500,000 homes, which means that hundreds of thousands of people are now homeless. Fox News writes on May 16 that engineers are saying that 40% of Kathmandu’s damaged buildings are uninhabitable so it is not easy to relocate hundreds of thousands of people to new shelters in and around the city. The earthquake has made some of the roads to the outer reaches of Nepal very difficult to traverse. Buildings that Nepal’s farmers were relying on to shelter livestock, crops, and other materials were also destroyed and this could create complications as the nation’s agricultural sowing season is approaching. Nepal’s cultural heritage also suffered a blow as a result of the earthquake, with the USA Today article previously cited noting that ancient Old Kathmandu, a location that had centuries-old temples and towers including Dharahara Tower that was built by Nepal’s monarchy in the nineteenth century, have been leveled. The Christian Science Monitor writes on May 4 that three UNESCO World Heritage sites were completely destroyed by the disaster and more than thirty temples and monuments were also destroyed, some of which were built during the twelfth century. Nepal immediately pledged to restore these sites, but experts explain that it will take more than five years to rebuild them, something that might take longer due to the lack of resources that the Nepali government possesses. The Christian Science Monitor says on May 12 that the damage to infrastructure will also impede the education of Nepal’s children. The country has made significant progress in terms of primary enrollment as 95% of its children today are receiving an education versus 64% in 1990. However, the recent earthquake destroyed more than 15,000 schools and it will take a while to get these institutions back on their feet.
An additional problem for Nepal’s people is aftershocks from the April 25 earthquake. Aftershocks result from a fault readjusting after a major displacement event such as an earthquake. Last Tuesday, one aftershock measured 7.3 on the Richter scale, nearly equaling the size of the original earthquake. Deutsche Welle explains that aftershocks have killed more than a hundred people and injured more than 2,500. All of this just compounds the problems faced by relief workers as they have to constantly shift their attention to new locations of the country that are devastated by seismic activity. The aftershocks are also harming the psychology of Nepal’s people, with The Guardian writing on May 15 that Nepalis are experiencing feelings of powerlessness and extreme stress. Furthermore, landslides triggered by aftershocks have made it more difficult for relief workers to access remote areas of Nepal that are not receiving the same degree of assistance as those located near Kathmandu.
International Assistance to Nepal
Shortly after the April 25 earthquake nations in South Asia and elsewhere pledged to assist the Nepali government in humanitarian and reconstruction efforts. The BBC writes on May 16 that the United States has sent 300 military personnel to fly aircraft to remote parts of the country, while other nations such as India, China, and Great Britain also promised to provide aid. The Guardian on May 15 explains that some Nepali expatriates are trying to provide aid, using restaurants in London to collect resources and send them abroad. The Economist article from April 30 explains that there are likely some geopolitical motivations behind the aid as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to expand India’s influence in South Asia. During his first year in office Modi visited Nepal twice, which is notable because prior to him assuming office an Indian leader had not visited Nepal in seventeen years. Nepal’s government is closely aligned with China, which has pledged $3 million in humanitarian aid, so India sees humanitarian efforts as part of its goal to woo the Nepalese government, something it has tried to do in recent years by investing more than $1 billion in the country’s hydropower sector. The Washington Post elaborates on this geopolitical dimension of aid on April 28 when it writes that Nepal initially rebuffed an offer of assistance from Taiwan. Although Nepal eventually accepted aid in the face of growing criticism of its decision, observers linked it to not wanting to offend China. Similarly, Nepal’s government has told Indian officials not to let its rescue teams fly over the Rasuwa district that borders Tibet as that is Chinese territory. The Guardian on May 12 and May 15 explains that geopolitical issues may have factored into the Nepali government refusing the use three Chinook helicopters that were offered by the British. Nepal’s government claims that the helicopters, which can carry up to seventy people and ten tons of supplies, would damage nearby buildings, but some allege that Indian and Chinese officials did not want British aircraft near their airspace. While some humanitarian workers think geopolitical competition might help the aid effort because it might make regional powers such as China and India provide more aid than they would for other nations, it can also create hardships for the Nepali people if aid resources are not utilized to their full effectiveness due to geopolitical spats.
Much of the requested aid so far is for temporary shelters and food. The Wall Street Journal writes on May 15 that helicopters manned by the United States and India, are bringing tents, tarps, rice, and instant noodles to population centers. The scale of the disaster is quite large as The Hindu notes on May 16 that the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimates that over 8.1 million of the country’s thirty million people need aid, and that this will cost nearly $100 million so that seven million people can be assisted over the next two years. One of the problems is not so much getting these resources to Nepal, but making sure that they are moved effectively throughout the country. The New York Times writes on April 27 that although Nepal’s government has tried to consolidate thousands of tiny villages that dot the country’s mountain ridges, some of which are located more than a day’s march from the closest road or even another village, this effort has not produced sizable results. Also, the country’s investment in infrastructure remains poor, so this means that some villages that were affected by the earthquake can only be reached through the air or by trekkers that use mules and donkeys. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal article cited from May 15 noted that some relief workers have had to use these somewhat primitive transportation options in order to spread more relief more broadly. However, while these options can work they are slowing the international response to the disaster. Complicating the situation even more, The Wall Street Journal writes on April 27 that the country’s telecommunications network is poor. This inhibits the ability of the central government and relief workers to get accurate reports on the needs of remote communities and appropriately tailor aid efforts for them.
A major concern of the humanitarian assistance to Nepal is that funding is still lacking, not enough supplies are being sent, and Nepal’s slow bureaucracy is complicating the aid effort. CNN explains on May 15 that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is reporting that only 14% of the humanitarian aid sought for relief efforts in Nepal has been committed. This means that only $59 million in hard assets have thus far been donated to relief work even though the international community has pledged to send $423 million. In addition, The Christian Science Monitor writes that some supplies that are being sent are of little use. For example, National Public Radio writes on May 14 that donors in Bangladesh have sent 6,000 pairs of blue jeans, while other nations have sent baby clothes and mayonnaise. However, as The Christian Science Monitor notes on May 2, what supplies are really needed are tents as the country needs 400,000 of them, but has only been able to provide people with 29,000 thus far. And it is not even supplies that are the issue, but the Nepali government’s inability to coordinate the relief effort effectively. This has been criticized by the international community because a major earthquake near Kathmandu had been predicted for some time, but it appears that the government lacked an effective plan to deal with the size and scope of the latest disaster. U.S. News & World Report argues on May 7 that Nepal’s government is making the same mistakes as the Haitian government after its earthquake in 2010 as it is failing to account for the number of relief supplies coming into the country. In addition, Nepal’s government has dictated that standard customs inspection rules must continue to be followed, something that has created a bottleneck at the country’s only international airport in Kathmandu. Although some of these restrictions were finally relaxed due to UN pressure, they have delayed the provision of relief, and the inability to find other suitable sites to land aid has also created problems. Frustrated Nepalis are already taking matters into their own hands with some building their own temporary shelters. Deutsche Welle also writes that the promise of Nepalese authorities to pay the medical costs of those affected has not been followed through, with doctors and hospitals still not being paid and some Nepalese being billed for the costs of X-rays and bandages. The Wall Street Journal adds on April 27 that medical supplies are also running low, so this is making the provision of needed healthcare much more difficult, especially in isolated pockets of the country.
Nepal’s Challenges
Political stability is what constitutes the biggest challenge for Nepal moving forward as that will have a sizable impact on the distribution of earthquake relief and winning the confidence of the nation’s people. From 1996 to 2006, Nepal’s government was engaged in a civil war against the Unified Community Party of Nepal, who were also termed as Maoists. Following the ideology of Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, the Nepalese Maoists campaigned for the abolition of the nation’s monarchy and more privileges for lower caste peoples. Nepal is a predominately Hindu country, with Hindus composing 81.3% of the population. Hindu society has traditionally followed a caste system where people are born into a specific social group and maintain occupations ascribed to that class. People also tend to marry within their social caste. The Hindu belief in reincarnation emphasizes how good karma, or behavior in one’s current life, can lead to birth into a better caste in the next which will eventually lead to an end of one’s reincarnation and a linking of their soul to Brahman, the universal soul. Peoples who occupy lower castes are thus seen as carrying bad karma from a previous life and are thereby discriminated against. The Economist reports on March 8 that in Nepal the lowest order of the caste system called dalits, or “untouchables,” are one-sixth of the nation’s population. The Maoists sought to remedy some of these problems through land reform and better opportunities of social advancement for the poor and disadvantaged. The war had an urban-rural dimension, with the government’s forces controlling towns and Maoists dominating rural areas. A 2006 peace accord ended the fighting but since that time Nepal’s politicians have yet to construct a lasting constitution. The Economist writes that Prime Minister Sushil Koirala of the Nepali Congress Party is saying that he wants a constitution by the end of the year, but this was deemed unlikely before the earthquake since Maoists are suspicious of the government because it lacks representation of dalits in important ministries. The lack of a constitution has meant a lack of a government structure that can better link federal and local authorities. The Economist from April 30 writes that Nepal has not held local elections since 1999 and this hurts the delivery of humanitarian aid because accountable local officials do not exist to help aid workers. Furthermore, the Nepalese government has typically been very corrupt, with some bureaucrats seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of the population and some of these bureaucrats are also prejudiced against lower castes. In the long-term this may slow aid to Nepal or dissuade donors from helping because some of the influx of aid might be channeled away to enrich high-ranking officials or used to only help Kathmandu, which is home to richer Nepalis. Time remarks on April 28 that one of the reasons that the government was ill-prepared for the current disaster was political infighting as competing factions refused to work together to create a constitution, focused their attention on their own pursuits, and failed to create an effective disaster preparedness framework to grapple with a major earthquake.
Aside from political instability, Nepal must grapple with damage that has been done to its cultural landmarks. These were sites that international tourists flocked to and provided the government with much needed foreign currency. Remember, Nepal is one of the least developed nations in the world and it depends to a large degree on tourism and the remittances of migrant workers that labor in India, China, Pakistan, and other parts of the world. The Christian Science Monitor article previously cited from May 4 writes that tourism is 8% of the Nepali economy and that its activities created hundreds of thousands of jobs. The recent earthquake, though, will likely devastate tourism in the ensuing years as historical buildings have been leveled and the spring climbing season on Mount Everest will also be cut short. Over the last year, Nepal has had to wrestle with several natural disasters that included an avalanche last April on Everest that killed sixteen Sherpas and a massive snowstorm in October killed forty people on the world’s highest peak. The Christian Science Monitor argues that tourists may be reluctant to visit Nepal in the future not because of the damage done to the country by the earthquake but due to the perceived incompetence of Nepali authorities in handling relief efforts. After all, who would want to visit a country that one was not confident could rescue them from a disaster or help facilitate their exit from the country?
One of the looming crises that Nepal faces is the coming monsoon rains. These rains will begin next week and will last for the next two months. Without adequate shelter, thousands of Nepalis will be exposed to the elements and could die. The monsoons will also inhibit the reconstruction of the country as rebuilding cannot take place during the monsoons. The BBC adds on May 13 that the monsoons might cause landslides in parts of the Kathmandu Valley, bringing sediment from hillsides and coating some of the valley’s fertile farmland with mud. This took place in China in 2008 after the Wenchuan earthquake as some of the country’s farmland was made uninhabitable because landslides coated the landscape with several meters of sand. The Wall Street Journal article from May 15 notes that the rains will also further cut off remote parts of the country affected by the earthquake as it will make existing land routes impassable. The rains could also spoil grain that cannot be tended to in light of the disaster. Therefore, aid agencies and the Nepalese government are in a race against time to provide relief before the monsoons arrive.
There are several lessons that the Nepali government should learn from the latest earthquake and these efforts should also be replicated by other governments throughout the world when it comes to preparing for natural disasters. U.S. News & World Report writes in an article previously cited from May 7 that governments need to identify bureaucratic hurdles that could impede the importation and delivery of aid once a disaster strikes. In addition, forming effective multilateral and bilateral agreements for disaster aid would be worthwhile. U.S. News & World Report notes that U.S. Marines conducted training exercises for disasters in Nepal in 2013 and 2014 and that expanding such exercises to non-military personnel such as customs officials would be of great use in making faster decisions when an unfortunate event takes place. Beyond preparing for future disasters, the Nepali government, according to U.S. News & World Report on May 13 would be wise to create a coordinating body with other international actors that is staffed by those with professional experience to create a plan to deliver aid beyond the Kathmandu Valley. Allowing the Nepali bureaucracy to direct aid might be unwise since it has a poor track record of fixing problems. It is also recommended that the Nepalese government create more community participation as Iran did in 2003 when an earthquake struck Bam. There, local leaders worked with aid workers, relief agencies, and government officials to prioritize which communities needed the most aid and assessed the healthcare, psychological, and humanitarian needs of those affected.
Overall, the earthquake has exposed some of the existing political problems in Nepal, while re-emphasizing the need for governments throughout the world to have effective blueprints to cope with natural disasters. The Nepalese government is in desperate need of a new constitution to quell existing social problems and provide a more effective framework of federal-local relations. It must also grapple with the sizable influx of foreign relief supplies and make sure that all Nepalis benefit from them and not a select few. A successful effort would give the Nepali government some much needed credibility with its people, but failure, which unfortunately appears to be the existing situation, may see the renewal of hostility against the central government by lower castes and the poor, thereby creating more unrest for a nation that is in desperate need of peace and stability.