Nepal’s response to the devastating Tibet border flood disaster has come under criticism from prominent civil society activists, who say excessive centralization has delayed relief, sidelined elected local governments and prevented assistance from reaching victims when it was needed most.
In a joint statement, 35 civil rights activists called for an overhaul of rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts following the August 26 ice-and-rock avalanche and subsequent flood.
The scale of the catastrophe continues to grow.
Citing an August 31 report by Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, the statement said around 900 bodies had been recovered, while about 10,000 people were injured or missing and more than 4,000 had been rescued.
Despite around 21,000 security personnel being deployed along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers, the activists said the federal government had failed to ensure a sufficiently coordinated response.
They alleged that centralization delayed the distribution of collected relief during the crucial first days of the disaster.
While praising the Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force for their rescue efforts, the activists criticised the government’s “one-door system” for aid distribution as ineffective.
They called for federal, provincial and local governments to work alongside civil society, professional groups and citizens, arguing that elected local authorities must play a leading role in rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The group also demanded greater transparency in managing domestic and international aid.
It urged the government to establish a special mechanism to oversee the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund and called for a parliamentary committee to monitor the overall relief and rehabilitation process.
Concerns were also raised over access to information.
The activists warned that limiting information to selected media organizations could fuel misinformation and called for domestic and foreign journalists to be allowed to report freely from affected areas.
The statement also linked the disaster to the broader climate crisis, saying available scientific evidence indicated that global warming contributed to the massive ice-rock avalanche on the northern flank of Langtang Lirung and the ensuing flood.
It urged Nepal to strengthen early-warning cooperation with China, particularly because many rivers flow into the country from Tibet, and to expand scientific collaboration across the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.
The disaster has damaged more than 100 kilometres of roads, dozens of bridges and around a dozen hydropower projects with a combined capacity of about 900MW, while thousands of hectares of agricultural land have been buried under debris.
The activists warned that as Nepal moves from rescue to reconstruction, an inclusive and locally driven response will be critical to recovering from one of the country’s most devastating recent disasters.
