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EDITORIAL

The nation witnessed a heavy loss of human lives and physical property from last Friday’s devastating earthquake. A 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted western Nepal claiming a heavy casualty of human lives and property in Jajarkot and Rukum West.

Nepal is known as the earthquake zone as the Indian plate and Tibetan plate are moving towards each other. Geological experts have been time and again giving warning that Nepal may face a mega earthquake in the days to come. During the 2015 devastating earthquake, the total energy was not released. The energy is stocked near the Hetauda location in the Makwanpur district and at any time, the energy can be released creating a heavy casualty of human lives and physical property. Accordingly, geological experts have warned that Western Nepal is under serious threat of a mega earthquake as a big earthquake has not taken place for above 500 years. In the recent past, an earthquake epicentre in Bajhang jolted west Nepal. Within a few weeks, another earthquake on Friday midnight jolted West Nepal. The earthquake epicentre in Jajarkot is just a 6.4 magnitude but it caused a heavy casualty of human lives and property. Above 3500 houses have been collapsed or damaged. If such a scale of the earthquake takes place in Japan, the casualty rate will be zero. The casualty is the result of the constructions which have no earthquake resistance. We cannot stop earthquakes but we can construct earthquake-proof houses minimizing the casualty rate.  

Everywhere, there is politics in Nepal. None of the political leaders has time to think about the nation. They have no time to think about the warnings given by geologists. Now, taking the geologists’ warnings seriously, the government must mobilize the local bodies to inspect the earthquake resistance capacity of every house all over the country. If the houses have less earthquake resistance, the government should ask the residents to construct earthquake-resistant houses even by providing financial support, or if not, providing loans to minimize the casualty rate. Timely awareness about earthquake-proof construction is necessary. Talking about the houses in the Kathmandu Valley, many of the constructions are under serious threat. Sending inspection teams and making aware the residents of their houses is important. Considering the possible mega earthquake in Nepal, this task has to be done seriously by the government. This is also the responsibility of the citizens as well. Educating citizens about the disaster is obvious. The local bodies, while allowing permission for the construction of new houses, should strictly maintain the earthquake resistance guidelines.