Eurasia Review
26 April 2016
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- Nepal Earthquake One Year On: Building a More Effective Relief Effort – Analysis
Nepal Earthquake One Year On: Building a More Effective Relief Effort – Analysis
One year since the devastating Nepal earthquakes, the international relief effort holds lessons for future emergency response. While reconstruction efforts remain stifled, the immediate international relief operations experience offer some insights on how to deliver humanitarian assistance to mega disasters more effectively.
The recent wave of disasters, from earthquakes in Myanmar, Japan, Ecuador, to flooding and droughts in America and Africa respectively, have once again highlighted the increasing frequency and magnitude of natural calamities across the globe. It is also becoming increasingly clear that many national governments are often unable to cope and grapple with the fallout singlehandedly. Help from the international community in responding to such disasters becomes instrumental in saving lives and minimising suffering. Last year, Nepal was a case in point.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck Gorkha district in central Nepal on 25 April 2015 (and the resultant aftershocks), took close to 9,000 lives, injured 22,000 plus, and fully destroyed more than half a million homes. It also ended up displacing over 60,000 people and resulted in economic losses upwards of US$ 9 billion. Doubtless, these numbers would have registered much higher without the overwhelming support from the international community in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
… Maxim Shrestha is an Associate Research Fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
NTS Centre / Online
