Nepal Celebrates its Fourth Earthquake Safety Day, January 12-15, 2002

Every January 15 is recognized as Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Safety Day in memory of the occurance of the worst ever earthquake tragedy striking the valley on January 15, 1934. The 4th Earthquake Safety Week was held during January 12-15, 2002. This is an extract of the article written by Shubhekshya Upadhyay, a class seven student studying in Paragon Public School, Battisputali, Kathmandu, Nepal. It interestingly illustrates a perspective of Nepalese children towards earthquake preparedness.

“What is an earthquake? All of us know about it and many of us have experienced it also. Simply, earthquakes are caused by natural movement of the tectonic plates beneath the earth surface. No one can stop this natural movement but we can save ourselves from the effects caused by this kind of movements. Earthquake can take place any time. So we must always be ready with all the things we need during an earthquake. When an earthquake strikes, if we are inside the house, we should safely go and hide ourselves under table, desk or a bed instead of panicking. Always remember that we should never jump from the window. During an earthquake, if we are outside our home we should move away safely from the over-passage, under-passage bridges, etc. We should never stand near the electric poles and never enter a house as soon as the earthquake stops as because the shock may return.

All the people do not know about these things. We should organize many programs to educate people about them. In Nepal there was a devastating earthquake which took place on January 15, 1934, killing many lives of Nepalese people. In 1999, the Nepalese government decided to celebrate the Earthquake Safety Day on every January 15 as a memorial to those who died in the 1934 earthquake tragedy.

In this event different institutions working on the earthquake-related field organize various programs to educate people about earthquake safety. In January 2002, there was an exhibition in Jawlakhel, Lalitpur Nepal. There were about thirty booths of various institutions that are working to make communities safe from earthquakes. International agencies like Geohazards International, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, also participated in this event. All the display materials were very interesting and useful to all.

In my opinion it is not sufficient doing this kind of exhibition once a year. It should be done frequently. There should also be programs in school so that every student will learn about it. These types of programs are done only in Kathmandu but it should be done throughout the country so that all the people of the nation will know about it.

I would like to tell you all that Nepal is one of the countries that lie in the earthquake zone. So to prevent us from earthquake we should study different books about earthquake and consult many people about it.

Finally, I would also like to thank every institution who organized different programs to celebrate Earthquake Safety Day.”