Home Minister Shakti Kumar Basnet attended as a chief guest of the ceremony of handing over emergency water facilities in Kirtipur, Khumaltar, and Daikhu.

Oxfam in Nepal with financial support from DFID has implemented two large scale projects namely Urban WASH Preparedness and Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction Projects in Kathmandu Valley and in Western Terai Municipalities since April 2012.

Minister Basnet, Head of DFID Nepal  Dr. Gail Marzetti and country director of Oxfam Nepal Cecilia Keizer handed over stock pile and water facilities installed in the premises of Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, NARC and Deikhu to Lumanti and ENPHO. According to a press release, the emergency water facilities in Kirtipur, Khumaltar and Daikhu are handed over to TU, NARC and Kathmandu Upathaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL).

Oxfam in Nepal, using its prior experience of responding in Koshi flood, actively dispatched the necessary stock piles in Khumaltar and Kirtipur in the earthquake affected places to support people instantly after April 25 earthquake. The emergency water facilities installed in Kirtipur and Khumaltar were significantly used serving people with clean drinking water for at least four months after disaster. The preparedness through these stockpiles and emergency water proved to be successful in responding the Earthquake 2015.

The projects aim at strengthening emergency response capacity among most vulnerable communities to floods and earthquakes. Both projects were successfully accomplished producing good results and impacts in terms of applying knowledge and skills while responding to the 2014 flooding in Kailali District and April 2015 Earthquake Response in Kathmandu Valley and nearby districts.

“As a part of emergency preparedness, Urban WASH project has installed seismic resistant emergency water facilities and stockpiled emergency WASH materials in the premises of Tribhuvan University (TU) in Kirtipur and Nepal Agriculture and Research Council (NARC) in Satdobato for emergency humanitarian response as recommended by the Government of Nepal,” states the press release issued by Oxfam.

Nepal is one of the disaster prone countries in the world ranking 11th in earthquake vulnerability, 30th in flood and 4th in climate change impact causing deaths, injuries and displacement to hundreds and thousands of people.

Oxfam in Nepal was executing Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) program in different districts of Nepal to prepare the nation to respond possible disasters. OXFAM with funding support from UK Government (UKAid), was implementing Urban Risk Management Project in Kathmandu Valley since 2012 focusing its emergency WASH preparedness works in two Open Spaces (Kirtipur in Kathmandu and Khumaltar in Lalitpur) with Emergency stockpiles and emergency water facilities, out of 83 open spaces endorsed by the Ministry of Home Affairs when a mega earthquake rattled Nepal.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 Richter Scale struck Nepal on 25th April, 2015 followed by a magnitude 6.8 aftershock, 17 days later on May 12. A third of the population was affected, with almost 9,000 people killed, more than 22, 000 injured and nearly 900,000 houses destroyed or damaged. Kathmandu Valley (Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts) were badly impacted. A total of 1,732 (male 813 and female 918) deaths and 12,973 injured persons (male 6890 and female 6083) were recorded in Kathmandu Valley.

However, Nepal is still a disaster prone zone. Many districts are still highly vulnerable to flood, landslides and the nation is always prone to earthquake at anytime. Hence, it is important that every unit of nation working on DRR be strengthening in preparedness.