Disaster Preparedness Network-Nepal (DPNet), established in 1996, stands as a key national umbrella organization dedicated to enhancing disaster management in Nepal through a unified approach involving national and international agencies. The core focus of DPNet is on fostering coordination, collaboration, learning, and sharing of experiences in strengthening disaster management practices. The organization plays a crucial role in knowledge management, capacity building, policy advocacy, and in facilitating networking among government and relevant stakeholders.
A field mission by the Disaster Preparedness Network–Nepal (DPNet) has concluded that widening or blasting the Chobhar Gorge would do little to curb Kathmandu Valley floods and could, in fact, unleash new geological and cultural risks. The findings, presented on 7 July 2025 to the NDRRMA, come amid public chaos over rumours that the gorge’s fractured bedrock will be dynamited to speed Bagmati River outflow.
The National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) opened the new fiscal year with a high-level meeting on 7 July 2025 at the NDRRMA. Chaired by NDRRMA Chief Executive and NPDRR Chair Dinesh Bhatt, the gathering drew senior officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) Dr. Tok Raj Pandey, line ministries, security forces and provincial governments, as well as representatives of United Nations agencies, bilateral donors, international and national NGOs, the private sector, academia, the media and disaster-affected communities.
Chobhar is now at the center of discussion following a rumor that the government is going to blast out bed and side rocks of the gorge to widen and deepen the Bagmati River ‘to solve the flood problem in Kathmandu valley’. The Chobhar Gorge is the outlet of the Bagmati watershed including Kathmandu valley, and surrounding mountains. In the recent years, Bagmati River and its tributaries get flooded during monsoon and affect adjacent settlements and urban infrastructures like roads and bridges. One of such devastating flood occurred on 28 September, 2024.
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