Emergency response capacity is critical in Nepal as the mountainous country is a hotspot for natural disasters including floods, landslides, droughts, and epidemics. Moreover, the Eurasian and Indian plates beneath Nepal are creating enormous pressure as they push the Himalayan range into the sky. This pressure will continue to build until it eventually releases through a large-scale earthquake.
Rapid and complex urban growth, high-density settlement patterns and unregulated construction of new buildings further add to the threat, leading to extreme vulnerablility. GeoHazards International ranks Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, as the most at-risk city in the world to earthquake. All of this means that Nepal and its capital, Kathmandu, have the potential to be instantaneously devastated, undermining the economic and infrastructure gains of several decades and leaving significant numbers of the more than 2.5 million people that call Kathmandu home buried under rubble.
Addressing the dire threat facing its population, the Government of Nepal, with technical advice of a joint team of international experts from the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America, recently developed a plan of action to strengthen Nepal’s search and rescue capacity in its effort to mitigate, prepare and respond to disasters.