Mass Wasting in Nepal

Nepal is an underdeveloped country with the geography of very high mountains and hills. 2/3 of the whole population of the country is living in Kathmandu Valley which is surrounded by really big hills. People have been living in those hills from a really long time. According to a research done by Gopal Sharma, who works for Scientific American, Nepal faces an annual monsoon rain which could be fatal in cases of flooding and landslides. Heavy rain in the hilly regions of Nepal makes the soil loose and fall off the hills which has killed hundreds of people in the course of years. In the 2018, at least 60 people died due to mudslides and more than 200 people have been reported injured. Nepal has been trying to reinforce the areas of mass flooding with stones and cement but they've only been successful in doing it in certain places.
2016 Landslide killed 7 people in the houses in the picture
A research based on landslides in Nepal from 1978-2005, there was a total of 397 fatal landslides which killed 2179 people with an average of 78 people every year. The poor infrastructure development of Nepal can be blamed for most of these deaths as people struggle to find a safe place to live in. Many villages in Nepal are located in hills and valleys which are both dangerous when it comes to landslide. Hopefully the government addresses the issue soon and help people who live their lives in the edge of high hills.
Before and after picture of a small village named 'Lantang' in Himalayan region of Nepal where 350 people died due to landslides in 2015.

Comments

  1. Ana GGMarch 30, 2019 at 2:38 PM

    It is good to know their government helps the population when one of these events happen. Like Pakistan this week, your country has mountains and quakes so mass wasting events are common. In the map below I saw all the central of Nepal has a high risk of landslides. Hopefully mapping the riskiest areas will help to know where not to build or at least where to help first...
    http://www.gisresources.com/nepal-pilot-project-landslide-hazard-mapping/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sebastian BurchMarch 30, 2019 at 7:19 PM

    Hello,

    I enjoyed your post! The picture and layout of your post made it easy to read and understand. It’s interesting how 2/3 of the population is living in a valley where they are at Risk of landslides. I think the infrastructure of Nepal makes it difficult to be protected against landslides.

    ReplyDelete

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