Nepal paying price of climate disasters, says PM’s personal under secretary Dhakal, calls for int'l support

KATHMANDU: Prakriti Dhakal, Personal Under Secretary to Prime Minister Balendra Shah, told a high-level event in New York that Nepal is paying the price of climate disaster in lives lost and development setbacks, and urged greater international support for affected communities.

Speaking during the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week, Dhakal took part in the third panel session of an event themed "Adapting to the New Climate Reality: Why Accelerating Impacts Demand New Responses".

Dhakal recounted her experience of the Rasuwa-Bhotekoshi flood, saying she was at the Prime Minister’s office when news of the flood arrived on the morning of August 26. The Prime Minister immediately called an emergency meeting and the office became a crisis management room.

“I telephoned my father in Chitwan and told him to stay safe. He said, ‘there is nowhere to go’. After that, I hung up the phone and returned to the rescue plan,” she said, adding that the fact her family remained safe was “luck, not a plan. For a country carrying the risk of glacial lakes, luck cannot be a plan.”

Dhakal said Nepal has more than 2,300 glacial lakes, with studies identifying 21 as potentially dangerous, and that preparedness and effective adaptation are essential to tackle such risks.

She warned of the severe human cost of the disaster. “This disaster has destroyed schools and health posts. Hundreds of children have been left without parents. More than 10,000 people need psychosocial counselling. Thousands of women and girls, including pregnant and breastfeeding women, require immediate support,” she said.

“Many families have yet to find the bodies of their relatives. No statistic can determine the cost of such a loss,” she added, noting that some communities have been unable to perform final rites for those who died.

Dhakal said Nepal mounted an immediate response, with the disaster management system developed after the 2015 earthquake effectively mobilised during the emergency. “More than 21,000 security personnel were deployed, over 1,800 helicopter flights took place, and more than 13,700 people were rescued,” she said.

She highlighted Nepal’s limited contribution to global emissions and its role in mitigation. “Nepal's contribution to total global carbon emissions is only about 0.1%. More than 46% of Nepal's land area is covered by forests, a large portion of which is conserved by communities. Nepal has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2045,” Dhakal said.

Pointing to the transboundary nature of climate risks, she said rising temperatures in the Himalayan region are stretching the limits of adaptation and that the speed of floods can leave communities with insufficient time even when early warning systems are in place.

Preliminary estimates, she said, indicate reconstruction after the Rasuwa-Bhotekoshi flood alone could cost up to $4.8 billion. “This is a large portion of Nepal's total national budget. This money could have been spent on building new schools and hospitals, but we are forced to spend it on rebuilding structures we had already built,” she said.

Dhakal warned that the impacts of disasters originating in the Himalayas reach across borders, noting the Bhotekoshi flood advanced towards the Ganges river system, and urged understanding of interconnected climate risks through a “from Everest to the sea” concept.

She called for both immediate and long-term measures that place affected communities at the centre, saying preparedness, adaptation and adequate financial support are needed alongside relief and reconstruction to protect at-risk communities from future disasters.

At the event, Dhakal was joined by Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown; Khalid Ali of the Proximate Fund; Anna af Ugglas of the International Confederation of Midwives; and Mikko Ollikainen of the Adaptation Fund. Megan Rowling of Climate Home News facilitated the discussion.