Kathmandu: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Urban Development Prakash Man Singh participated in World Urban Forum 2024 convened by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) on Monday and spoke on the topic cities and climate crisis. He stated what the government of Nepal is doing to address the urgent housing needs of citizens affected by climate change impacts, and how the Ministry is ensuring that these solutions also consider the vulnerabilities of communities to future climate risks, including challenges in mobilising international finance, challenges posed by climate change impacting housing and urban development, particularly in light of the severe challenges the Himalayan ecosystem faces. Here are the key points:
On right to housing
The Constitution of Nepal guarantees the fundamental right of every citizen to housing, land tenure security and social justice. We have taken critical steps towards its implementation. Right to Housing Act in 2018 provides necessary legislative framework for implementation of various Housing Programs targeting the most marginalized. After the devastating earthquake of 2015, Nepal has put in place institutions, policies and guidelines to address urgent housing needs, with grant-based mechanism for the temporary shelter and owner-driven housing reconstruction. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) collaborates with provincial and local governments, as well as the United Nations and humanitarian organizations, to mobilize aid and resources for shelter, basic services, health, food security likewise. With stronger local government, designated disaster-affected municipalities as ‘crisis zones’ are empowered to fast-track emergency response and rehabilitation efforts, focusing on shelter, food, healthcare, and infrastructure. The government provides grants for temporary shelter, to families impacted by any emergencies, which is followed by housing reconstruction grant with technical backstopping to the communities. The culture of owner driven housing and successful reconstruction of almost a million houses in 2015 earthquake proves its relevance in Nepal and countries with similar socio-economic constraints and cultural practices. On Building-Back-Better, the housing grants are tied to compliance with the building codes. Our building codes were prepared for earthquakes, as Nepal is highest at risk. However, with increasing impacts of floods, landslides, fire and even extreme heat we understand the greater need to review our codes from multi-hazards perspective and lowering the carbon footprints.
In large scale disasters, we are experiencing collapse of settlements in physical and economic aspects. Planning instrument for settlements need to consider the theory of ‘planning-back-better’ in this context, which means that reconstruction of settlements is more prominent than that of the housing units.
Our efforts to implement risk sensitive and risk informed planning and investments is being challenged by overwhelming impact of climate change, derailing our development gains. We need support from international communities and cooperation to accelerate our efforts in adapting to and mitigate climate change impacts.
This requires finance and for us accessing swift, affordable international financial assistance remains a challenge. As a developing country, facing the direct brunt of climate change, our ask is for easy access to climate finance coupled with technical support to accelerate its absorption for increasing resilience of our communities. It is for the global financing system to be inclusive and responsive for the developing countries prone to disaster.
On climate change challenges
For Nepal, climate crisis is becoming our day-to-day reality. We are one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, and we can already see its devastating impacts in lives, livelihood and infrastructure, both in rural and urban areas. This issue of extreme impact of climate change on snow-capped mountains was highlighted by the Secretary General of the UN in his visit to Nepal in 2023.
We know the worst is still to come, as we are struggling to meet 1.5-degree target and unabated global warming melting our Himalayas, with immediate impacts to the settlements in the downstream, extending across the borders.
We will see increased extreme climatic events, like cloud bursts, severe floods, drought, high temperature and regression in climate promise, that increases our worry on the worst that we need to face.
Unprecedented rainfall in September is a recent example of what we are going through, impacting lives across the country and the highest ever rainfall in the Kathmandu valley’s recorded history. In a single event, 250 lives were lost and over 500,000 households affected, about 11,000 displaced, straining the housing needs.
Nepal on the other hand is rapidly urbanizing, with over half of the population living in urban and peri-urban areas. There are critical capacity gaps in planning and adaptation at all levels.
In the new federal structure, our priority is to strengthen the multi-level governance for sustainable development and the need for strongly integrating climate responsiveness in development decisions. For Nepal, adaptation is our major priority to take urgent action to reduce vulnerability. We have reviewed our urban policy and development strategies aligned in the federal context and are climate responsive. Nepal approved the National Adaptation Plan, that requires USD 47.4 billion to implement 64 programs until 2050, while the government can only contribute USD 1.5 billion. We need global support with easy access to innovative adaptation finance arrangement to tackle the climate challenges.
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