Topic: UN's response to Natural Disasters
Country: Nepal
Delegate Name: Kade Katrak
School: Mattawan High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Nepal position papers GLIMUN 2013 committees
Across the world, disasters strike on an infrequent basis, but with devastating results. Such disasters are often predictable and when they are it should be a worldwide mission to procure the scientific data necessary to predict them and to share that data. Countries like Haiti could have benefited from warning that the international community could have benefited from even the slightest warning when the 2010 earthquake killed an estimated 316,000 people. Those in the areas bordering the Indian Ocean could have benefited from better warnings before the 150,000 died in it. Typhoon Haiyan could have been mitigated slightly by additional warning. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund has been a huge boon to countries most heavily affected by these disasters.
Nepal is no stranger to the havoc that can be wrecked by natural disasters. Floods both seasonal and occasionally unseasonal have dealt damage to our country and the delta’s down river from us throughout our history. If any efforts could be exerted to help us predict these increasingly unpredictable floods Nepal would be grateful. If a major disaster strikes Nepal would be glad for any additional warning and help distributing that warning. Certainly, Nepal would also be profoundly grateful for any aid offered by the international community in the wake of such a disaster, but mitigating the effects by spreading warnings and preventing deaths in the first place would be preferable. Containing damage in the first place by helping Nepal to construct dams and reservoirs would also be beneficial both for Nepal and for lower lying areas beneath us.
Ultimately, Nepal would love to see a resolution which not only relieves damage after the fact, but treats the roots of the problem, by allowing our country and other countries to better forecast damaging events and by controlling those events whether by dams or dikes for coastal areas. Either way Nepal would like to see an investment in means to control our major natural disasters as well as to forecast them. Dams in highland areas would also allow the mitigation of drought during the dry season in areas below us through the strategic release of water. Nepal would prefer more efforts to contain damage by natural disasters by responding before deaths reach the degree which attracts international assistance and the release of large sums of money from funds like the UN Central Emergency Response Fund and supports the building on the current emergency relief policies.
