Nepal's Disaster Damages Stood at $7 Billion Over 4 Decades

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Nepal has incurred cumulative damages totaling US $7 billion (Rs 930 billion in current prices) over the past four decades (1980-2020) due to disasters such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, and droughts. A new report of UNDP titled 'Inclusive Insurance and Risk Finance published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has stated that the losses from disasters in the 40 years from 1980 to 2020 amounted to US$ 7 billion. Among all of its natural hazards, those that cause the greatest devastation in terms of human and economic impact in Nepal are earthquakes, floods, and landslides.

Between 1980 – 2020, earthquakes were responsible for affecting the highest number of people (over 6 million in total), following closely in terms of total number of people affected are floods (5.7 million), drought (500,000), and landslides (376,000). Among the damages so far, the biggest damage was the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake. The report mentions that this earthquake alone caused 85 percent of the total economic damage. "Expenditure data from 2012 – 2020 show that the Government of Nepal spent on average NPR 50 billion (approx. US$ 0.4 billion) for post-disaster response annually," says the report. 

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