Located in a wide valley at the heart of the Himalayas, Kathmandu’s unique setting makes it prone to multiple hazards, including earthquakes, landslides and monsoon floods.
Rebuilding and recovery from the most recent major disaster, the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, is still ongoing throughout the city and peripheral settlements. Meanwhile, the trend of rapid upward and outward urban expansion continues, often uncontrolled, and is leading to a mix of diverse low-income communities and a reduction of open spaces and agricultural fields. This is driving an increase in the number of vulnerable communities exposed to multi-hazard risks, and compounds wider social, economic and environmental challenges.
Kathmandu’s political and governance landscape is also changing. In 2008 Nepal underwent a shift from a Hindu monarchy to a federal republic, leading to a transition in governance structures and institutes. The new government is setting the agenda for rapid urbanisation across the country with four new ‘smart satellite cities’ for the Kathmandu Valley. This will be delivered by numerous ministries through the ‘Integrated Urban Development Plan’ and the coordinating ministry, the Ministry of Urban Development, is seeking to integrate disaster risk reduction concerns within its plans.
Earthquakes are one of the most prominent hazards in Kathmandu due to its location in a seismically active region. The 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal had a magnitude of 7.8, resulting in over 8,000 deaths, more than 22,000 injuries, and widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure in Kathmandu and surrounding areas.
The 2015 Gorkha earthquake was the single-deadliest disaster of Nepal’s history.
Floods are particularly serious during the monsoon season. In August 2020 floods caused by heavy rainfall resulted in at least 49 deaths, displaced thousands of people, and caused damage to property and infrastructure [source: DHM].
Landslides are a significant hazard in Kathmandu, particularly in the hilly areas surrounding the city. In 2019, landslides triggered by monsoon rains resulted in over 90 deaths and caused significant damage to infrastructure and property in Kathmandu and other parts of Nepal [source: Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium].
In Nepal, the rapid growth in urban population, which is a result of rural-urban migration and the conversion of seemingly rural areas into municipalities, has caused a substantial expansion of informal settlements. Frequently, lack of institutional capacity, infrastructure and knowledge for disaster preparedness is exposing ‘new urban’ residents to multi-hazard risks.
The encroachment of flood plains and riverbanks has further exacerbated the situation, increasing the vulnerability of the city to floods and landslides. Lack of compliance with urban planning guidelines has resulted in poor-quality infrastructure, including buildings that are not constructed to withstand natural disasters such as earthquakes.
The exposure to multi-hazard risk and effects of disasters on residents vary along the lines of formal to informal settlements, class, caste/ethnicity, gender, and ability and access to local political economy.
Situated in Ward 21 of Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC), on the southern part of the Kathmandu valley, Khokana is the medieval Newari town covering a total area of 3.2 sq. Km and inhabited by more than 5000 people.
In Khokana, Future Visioning involved engaging with a diverse group that included the Ward Disaster Management Committee and the Ward authorities, but also social groups such as women, marginalised and migrant communities, and the inhabitants of Sano Khokana, a small settlement within of LMC -21 administrative boundary. Their different visions and aspirations for the city were summarised by Tomorrow’s Cities researchers into a meta-vision for Khokana.
Strengthening community-based disaster management institutions to tackle COVID–19 and local disasters
DownloadThe effects of the Coronavirus or COVID-19 have been very apparent as people, politics, and economics of the world have been brought down to a grinding halt. Almost all of the governments around the globe are grappling to contain the spread of the virus, and the government of Nepal is not an exception. A glimmer of hope in this lockdown is on the skills of global medical science. We all believe that sooner or later medical science will guide us back to a post-pandemic society. However, while dealing with it at present, it has laid bare the capacity of our government and other institutions which are involved in risk management.
Trend of urban growth in Nepal with a focus in Kathmandu Valley: A review of processes and drivers of change
DownloadThis report documents and discusses the urbanization trend, spatial transition, major drivers of urban change, and existing institutional mechanisms of urban development in Nepal , one of the top ten fastest urbanizing countries in the world. Particularly, it reflects on the gaps and challenges for urban governance in Nepal and focuses on Kathmandu Valley, the “hub” of urbanization in Nepal. The urban population growth rate in Nepal almost doubled from 3.6% in 1991 to 6.5% in 2001, and the number of urban centers increased from 58 in 2013 to 293 in 2017. The review shows the transition of Nepal from predominantly rural to an emerging urban economy is primarily the result of the governmental decisions that merged rural administrative units and designated them as municipalities, administratively the urban units of Nepal. Rural to urban migration is another important factor driving urban growth in Nepal. Unplanned land use, shrinking open spaces, haphazard construction, and poor services have become major urban features of Nepal, which resemble the growth of Kathmandu Valley.
Kathmandu Valley, with an estimated population of 2.54 million, is growing at 6.5% per year, indicating one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in South Asia. Haphazard and unplanned urbanization of the valley have degraded the urban environment, increased urban poverty, and exposed the growing urban population to multi-hazard risk. Aiming to balance urban development, develop disaster-resilient cities and enhance urban resilience, the government has formulated the urban development strategy and declared new programs for the development of emerging urban centers and “smart” cities in the valley. However, such centrallyplanned infrastructure development activities lack coordination and contradict the formal policy intentions, and are facing resistances in some places, rendering their implementation uncertain. The majority of the urban population lacks resiliency and the government lacks institutional and financial capacities and coordination crucial for undertaking inclusive, equitable, and resilient urban development. The current constitutional provision that restrains the government from imposing any kind of restriction on the use of private property has come up as an additional impediment to urban governance in Nepal and thus making urban areas increasingly disasterprone and the urban population, primarily the urban poor, vulnerable to multiple hazards. Kathmandu Valley has become an evidence of these processes and their ramifications. The report has concluded by providing key insights that can be useful in making tomorrow’s cities inclusive, equitable, and resilient.
Tomorrow’s Kathmandu statement on UK Government cuts to Overseas Development Assistance
DownloadIn Kathmandu, UKRI GCRF funding is enabling the Tomorrow’s Cities Hub to work in partnership with government, research institutes, civil society and communities. This interdisciplinary team is actively working to secure disaster risk management and livelihood opportunities for the most vulnerable populations caught up in rapid urban development. This five-year investment by UKRI is designed to secure lasting change, yet is under threat due to cuts to the UK’s ODA budget.
Mapping DRR institutions and actors across scales from centre to local: Kathmandu, Nepal
DownloadThis is the first report coming out of Work Package 1: Theme 2 (Governance and Institutions) for the Tomorrow’s Cities GCRF Hub in Kathmandu city. It constitutes a qualitative institutional mapping of formal and informal organisations and key stakeholders involved in DRR governance in Kathmandu, across all scales from national to local. This report was finalised shortly following the Kathmandu City Hub Launch on Friday 28th February 2020. It draws on fieldwork constituting a first round of expert interviews and literature review conducted by Dilli Poudel from July-December 2019. It also builds on the Khokana field report released by SIAS in July 2019. The data contained in this report (including the Appendices) should be considered a work in progress; they will be built upon in subsequent rounds of fieldwork and used to refine research questions going forward.
