Kathmandu Metropolitan City
20 KCDRUA 2009-08-19T08:12:56Z 3 2009-08-15T08:04:17Z I've figured it out.&nbsp; Kathmandu's disaster preparedness plan is the most cost effective scheme in the world - hope like hell that nothing bad happens.&nbsp; It's like we're all drivers who drive around hairpin corners with cliffs with no seat-belts.&nbsp; Wait a second, we do that too.<br><br>I've seen this at countless levels.&nbsp; Lets take earthquake preparedness.&nbsp; This country is heading for a major catastrophe.&nbsp; Everyone I meet in Nepal knows this.&nbsp; But there is this level of complacency and inaction that boggles the mind.&nbsp; Yes the government can be doing more to form disaster rescue plans, but there's so much each one of us can do to mitigate the danger.&nbsp; Look at the designs of all the new buildings coming up in our city.&nbsp; Earthquake safe design? Wait, we have earthquakes in Nepal?&nbsp; Fail.<br><br><img alt="" src="http://www.cptv.org/local/special/disaster/disaster.gif"><br><br>Ok.&nbsp; Swine flu.&nbsp; You know, the stuff that's been all over the news and on everyone's minds lately.&nbsp; If, god forbid, it gets here into Nepal I'm willing to bet there's zero safety nets in place.&nbsp; Just a few short years ago two tourists checked into a hospital because they were worried they might have caught SARS from their trip before coming into Nepal.&nbsp; The response?&nbsp; <em>The hospital turned them away because the staff were completely unprepared and afraid of catching it themselves</em>.&nbsp; Yep.&nbsp; I'm really confident now that we have a good flu epidemic plan in place - it's called hoping like hell that it doesn't get into Nepal.<br><br>At this rate this post will turn into a book, so I'll just list areas where we're completely unprepared.<br><ul> <li>Floods</li><li>Disease [epidemics]</li><li>Fires (hello Ason + name me one building in Kathmandu with a fire escape or fire extinguishers)</li><li>Financial (what, you think there's regulation at banks in Nepal?)</li><li>Hospital equipment (dear God, if or when I need emergency medical care please let me be outside Nepal)</li></ul><br>Yes, we're a poor nation.&nbsp; But you know what?&nbsp; This is not about money.&nbsp; We can drive cheap cars <em>and </em>wear seat belts. 20 27.702871 85.318244 84 disaster-preparedness 0 0.0 0 0 active 1 Disaster preparedness 2009-08-19T08:12:56Z 1