Nepal in Crisis: What Comes After the Rain?
I often get homesick, and for the past week, I’ve been traveling all over. The place I’m staying, Hotel Makalu Birgunj, has been a good refuge. The staff treat you well, and I was shielded from the floods and rains of the past few days in the comfort of my hotel room. The heavy rain affected the entire nation, with many homes destroyed by floods. My home, Kathmandu, wasn’t spared either. While our place wasn’t flooded, the surrounding areas were devastated by the Bagmati River that flows nearby. It’s hard not to think that this will only get worse in the future.
Starting today, there are warnings of extreme heat in many parts of the country. The easy culprit is Climate Change, but that’s just the symptom. The real cause, and solution, lies with us—humans. In times of disaster, we often see the best of our nature. Just yesterday, a stranger dove into a flooded river to save people he had never met, while rescue personnel worked tirelessly. Yet, this spirit of helpfulness often appears only in the face of catastrophe. When things are calm, we forget the need to prepare for what’s ahead.
It’s easy for me to sit in my hotel room and criticize what I don’t fully understand. But having lived in Nepal my whole life, I know well how unprepared we are when disaster strikes—and how readily we welcome foreign aid afterwards. Failure is understandable, but the lack of effort to prevent it is not.
To those who gave their all yesterday to help each other, I wish them well in life. And to those who could have made preparations for massive rescue efforts, I hope next time, they’ll be better prepared.
Seeing the blue skies after yesterday’s floods is a relief, but I can’t help thinking about the people whose recovery will take years, if not decades. What steps will we take now to ensure that next time, the devastation won’t be as great?
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