Overview

Bhutan is prone to different types of hazards, such as earthquakes, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), landslides, flash floods, windstorms, and fire, posing varying degrees of risk to the lives and livelihood of its inhabitants. The country lies in one of the most seismically-active areas of the world.  GLOFs are a serious hazard in the country, and flash floods and landslides are recurrent threats to human life, property, and livelihood.

In 2006, the Royal Government of Bhutan adopted the National Disaster Risk Management Framework as a comprehensive disaster risk reduction strategy to minimize disaster impact. The Framework is a multi-sectoral strategy, the first in the country with a holistic approach to disaster management that seeks to ensure that all sectors can contribute to promoting disaster resilience, in keeping with their mandates, capacities, expertise, and strengths. Under this framework, the Royal Government of Bhutan is also working to ensure the adoption of the National Disaster Risk Management Act, with a view to further strengthening of the country’s disaster management system. One aim of the Act is to decentralize disaster management activities and provide nodal institutions at all levels with authority for more effective implementation of the disaster reduction strategy.

Exposure and Vulnerabilities

Virtually the entire country lies in the most seismically-active zones along the boundary between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. The Indian plate is moving northwards relative to the Eurasian plate, pushing the Himalayas upwards as the plates collide. In consequence, high-intensity earthquakes are frequent in the area. Additionally, lack of incorporation of adequate disaster risk reduction elements in construction practices, unplanned urban growth, and lack of enforcement of building codes and by-laws mean that physical infrastructure is at risk from geological hazards. Owing to the effects of global warming, the region’s Himalayan glaciers are shrinking rapidly. Agriculture and forestry products provide the livelihood of most Bhutanese, who must bring more and more land under cultivation, denuding hillsides and rendering them vulnerable to landslides, mudslides, and flash floods in the rainy season. Other underlying vulnerabilities are lack of awareness of disaster risk reduction and management, lack of preparedness, and environmental degradation.

Challenges

While robust disaster management institutional and legislative frameworks enjoying strong governmental commitment are in place in Bhutan, the country needs to conduct risk assessment studies that include hazard mapping, resource assessment, and risk and vulnerability assessment. Lack of inventories of critical infrastructure, such as hospitals, bridges, and schools, are often cited as among the major shortcomings in ensuring the existence of seismic measures. The need for seismicity  mapping and risk and vulnerability assessment has been emphasized on different occasions.  However, another major challenge is poor managerial and technical capacity for multi-hazard risk and vulnerability assessment.

Approach

The World Bank is providing support to the Royal Government of Bhutan in achieving its aims in the disaster risk management area. The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is supporting the project to build Bhutanese capacity for seismic resilience and to develop a multi-hazard safety action plan for hospital and schools. The project is now under way and is expected to provide a better understanding of the level of earthquake hazard in the country for the development of a seismicity map and the data and tools required to begin its critical building and infrastructure assessment.

The Bank will also provide training on probabilistic risk assessment to facilitate the use of CAPRA tools in Bhutan. Training will focus on probabilistic risk assessment of seismic and flood risks and vulnerabilities, using CAPRA tools. It will also assist all relevant agencies in Bhutan working in the disaster management area to develop their short, medium, and long-term risk management action plans.