Government Should Listen to Mountain Communities More and Act Accordingly

On the night of May 15, a sleepy village of Tilgaun, nestled on the lap of Mother Nature and under the watchful gaze of Father Sky, woke up after a landslide struck all of a sudden, forcing its 30-odd residents to flee their homes for their dear lives. Coincidentally, the disaster struck the place, the gateway to the sacred pilgrimage site of Mount Kailash, hours before the start of Sagarmatha Sambaad (May 16-18), a government initiative to draw global attention to the impact of climate change on the Himalayas and beyond.

A week after the incident, how are the displaced people faring? Nepal Verified News had a conversation with Takdir Lama, vice-chair of Namkha rural municipality of which Tilgaun forms a part, on May 21.

Excerpts: 

Getting there

Via road, it takes an entire day to reach Namkha rural municipality (the largest rural municipality in the country, it is spread in an area of 2,419.64 square kilometers of which Tilgaun forms a part) from Simkot, the district headquarters of Humla, even if one were to start early in the morning.    

From the point where the road ends, one has to walk for about three hours to reach Tilgaun by crossing a 5100-meter highland. 
In the rainy season, it is harder still to reach the site, not to mention the risks facing the displaced people living there.

In Tilgaun, there are 19 households at present with a population of about 32. Due to the recent landslide just beneath the village, cracks have appeared on the walls and courtyards. Thank god, there was no loss of life that day. We have set up tents for the displaced people and supplied relief materials, including foodstuffs, by carving out a path through the snowy terrain.

We have kept displaced people away from the village by setting up tents. 
Homes have not collapsed and that’s some relief as locals can take out things like blankets and clothes to shield themselves from a biting cold. We ourselves, me included, visited the affected area on May 19.

An indifferent Center

Whatever we can do at our level, we have been doing.

Police have collected the details of the damage. We have already ferried pipes for the resumption of water supply in the affected area and also dispatched a technical team for the construction of a water storage tank. The municipality is rushing food supplies like rice, fluor and edible oil to the affected people and arranging additional tents along with lightning arrangements.

But it will take  crores of rupees to protect the settlement or to relocate the affected people. We are appealing provincial and federal governments for support, along with I/NGOs. Nothing has come off as of now.

There were rumors that a helicopter carrying a team of experts may land anytime for studying the landslide event, which has not happened as of now.

A climate change event?

The public buzz is that climate change may have caused the disaster. After the disaster struck, a group of locals went up to check if a glacial lake had burst its banks, triggering the landslide, by trekking for about half an hour. They found that the lake had dried up—maybe because water probably sipped through underneath and drained into the brook, thereby triggering the mudslide and putting Tilgaun in peril. 

Mountain dialogue sans mountain people

All this happened when Sagarmatha Sambaad was underway at the Center. The Sambaad should have focused on issues facing Himalayan and mountain communities as a result of climate change. It should have come up with different kinds of programs to cope with the challenge, it should have brought on board lawmakers representing the Himalayan region also as they could have articulated our most pressing concerns like changes in the Himalayan region, impact on water supply, impact on lives and livelihoods in a remote part of the country in an effective manner.

The government failed to ensure the representation of people affected the  most due to climate change. Future programs of the government should prioritize these issues by giving us the opportunity to put forth our problems.

There’s no guarantee that such disasters won’t happen again. 

Keeping this in mind, the government should conduct hazard mapping throughout the country by mobilizing experts, devise and implement plans and programs to deal with the disasters.