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“...externality that could not and should not deter
hydro development.
Caught Unawares?
The idea of the ‘Big One’ has been a long-running exis-
tential threat in Nepali discourse since the 8.0 magnitude
Nepal-Bihar earthquake in 1934 that killed an estimated
11,000 people. And the general seismicity of Nepal is also a
largely accepted truth, supported by the country’s various
policies, plans, and programs dedicated to disaster pre-
paredness and risk reduction. These include the Natural
Calamity Relief Act of 1982, the Nepal Risk Reduction
Consortium formed in 2009, and the Kathmandu Valley
Earthquake Risk Management Project. That the April 25
earthquake occurred on a Saturday likely saved thousands
of lives because school was not in session and that morning
many Nepali were outdoors enjoying the spring weather.
That the diminished loss of life was owed to any sort of
preparation on the part of the Nepali government and its
many multinational supporters was generally discounted
(Sharma 2015;...”
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