bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2016), pp. 7–11
of Kathmandu.
03:00 – The DFATD Emergency Watch and Response Centre’s 24/7 operations officer calls Andrew Gedris, the on-call officer of the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force (START) for the weekend, alerting him of the earthquake. He, in turn, calls me and I recommend he issue an advisory and request for reporting from our mission in New Delhi.
05:16 — Having gathered what data is currently available, Andrew issues an advisory, informing the interdepartmental community of the quake.
08:11 — START sends an invite to convene an Interdepartmental Taskforce meeting.
09:30 — As preliminary assessments are underwhelming, it remains unclear at this stage whether the earthquake will require a significant response from the Government of Canada.
However, over the course of the day, as NGOs, UN agencies, and media report on the extent of the damage in Nepal, it becomes increasingly obvious that needs are much higher than originally expected. I draft a memo to the Minister recommending the deployment of the Interdepartmental Strategic Support Team (ISST) in order to assess needs on the ground and determine if and where Canadian assistance might be most needed. Our political leaders are keen for the Government of Canada to provide assistance.
22:00 —I am asked if I would go to Nepal as part of the ISST. I, as any young, eager officer would do, jump at the opportunity — never mind that I’m actually in the middle of moving out of my apartment and have a garage sale planned for the week-end…
26 April, 12:30 A frantic flurry of activities at the airport as we meet our colleagues from the Department of National Defence (DND), receive any missing immunizations, and check-in last minute. It’s too late to have my luggage routed through to Kathmandu so, unlike my teammates, I’Il have to transfer it myself in New Delhi.
27 April, 01:00, New Delhi After 35 hours en route, I’m reassured by Air India that they have retrieved my luggage at the New Delhi airport and passed it on to SpiceJet, for our flight to Kathmandu. While I will receive support from headquarters, our mission in New Delhi and SpiceJet to try and get it back, I won’t actually see my luggage again until five days after returning home to Ottawa.
Lesson Learned #1: Don’t trust Air India, even when they confirm twice that they’ve physically transferred your luggage to another airline.
18:00, Kathmandu Landing in Kathmandu after a 13-hour delay in New Delhi, we arrive in the midst of chaos on the tarmac with military helicopters, civilian and humanitarian aircraft vying for limited space. In the terminal, luggage is piled high and nerves are frayed as fellow travellers enquire if, or when, their bags will arrive and if their flights will depart that day. It is obvious that we’ve landed in a country still trying to make sense following a major natural disaster. We eventually find two of our six bags and Hong-Won, a fellow ISST member, and I negotiate a taxi ride to transport us to the UN house to see if we can get a better idea of what structures have been put in place to coordinate incoming aid and assistance.
At the UN house, with UN personnel obviously fighting off sleep, it is made apparent that the information we need regarding levels of damage and needs at the district level is barely trickling Nepal Earthquake ISST. From left to right, DART Commander Lt Colonel Ed Izatt, ISST Signaller Corporal James Nicholls, ISST Lead Christopher Gibbins, ISST Policy Advisor Rick Steenweg (author), ISST Civil-Military Advisor Lt Colonel André Gloumeau, ISST Humanitarian Advisor Hong-Won Yu.
into the capital. On our way to the hotel, the well-informed cab driver has more useful data to offer on the availability of services and the government’s response than UN personnel at this time.
Lesson learned #2: Useful information can come from the least likely of sources.
28 April, 04:00 Sleep is for the weak — or at least those better able to cope with the time change. I take a quick walk through the streets of Kathmandu before breakfast to stretch my legs and get an idea of the lay of the land. The team meets at 6:00 to discuss our day’s plans and split up to cover more ground. After scheduling a couple of meetings for Christopher Gibbins, my Director and ISST lead, I line up a morning chat with an Israeli diplomat and a visit to UK Aid to discuss their own efforts thus far.
Other members of the team are occupied with acquiring the necessary landing rights from the airport authority, national government, and Nepalese military for the Canadian Forces’ C-17 flight carrying humanitarian supplies and members of our Humanitarian Assistance Reconnaissance Team (HART), the forward component of the Canadian Forces’ Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART). Through much effort, they manage to gain the necessary permissions for the Canadian Forces to bring in their supplies and personnel and evacuate over 65 Canadians aboard two Canadian Forces’ C-17 return flights to New Delhi.
29 April Meetings with government officials, embassies, UN agencies, and partner NGOs during the first 48 hours are useful in making connections that will be needed to continue ensuring landing permission, coordinating aid, etc. Unfortunately, we are unable to glean sufficient information about needs in outlying districts through attending coordination meetings and discussions with others in Kathmandu. Having been informed by central coordinating bodies of areas in high-need, we decide on the afternoon of 29 April to conduct our first field reconnaissance, or “recce” to Dhadiwng district, west of the capital, to gain firsthand information.
30 April The ISST spends the morning in meetings, welcoming the second C-17 flight, and joins up with members of the HART and our knowledgeable Nepal Army Liaison Officer, Dilip.
14:00 — Our three-car convoy leaves Kathmandu via the winding, steep and narrow “King’s Highway” to areas Dilip hears are in high need of humanitarian assistance. The knuckles of my fellow passengers are white and repeat instructions are bellowed to the local driver to “slow down”.
Having been informed by central coordinating bodies of areas in high-need, we decide the afternoon of 29 April to conduct our first field reconnaissance, or “recce” to Dhadiwng district west of the capital to gain first-hand information.
This first recce allows us to witness a well-run Nepalese military operation to evacuate citizens and tourists from more remote mountain villages to a central point where a Bhutanese medical hospital provides first response and triage services. Each helicopter evacuating those in need brings with them humanitarian supplies to provide to remote villages with basic needs. We speak to the base commander, learning that they have things under hand. We encounter a few grateful Canadian trekkers who were evacuated, and ensure they are safe on their way back to Kathmandu.
23:00 — Returning to Kathmandu, we conclude that needs in the Dhading district, while great in isolated areas, are largely being met by the Nepalese military and regional partners (Bhutan and India). Recognizing the need to reach more inaccessible populations, we decide that I should join a few members of the HART on a longer recce out to the more isolated Sindhupalchok and Dolakha districts. The other members of the ISST will stay in Kathmandu to liaise with allied militaries and governments, UN agencies, NGOs, and continue to ensure that appropriate landing rights are received.
Lesson Learned #3: Get out of the capital and speak with locals. There’s a gold mine of useful information in the hills.
Bhaktipur, near Kathmandu, as residents sort through the rubble and prep: Photo: Rick Steenweg 1 May, 10:00 Before heading out on the recce, I provide my first act of civilian utility to the mainly military recce team by picking up a variety of trekking maps, which provide more detail than those currently available to the Canadian Forces, including regional roads and the location of mountain villages. We head out, myself, five members of the Canadian Forces, two drivers and a lower-ranked Liaison Officer (L.O.) from the Nepalese military.
14:30 — We are delayed by a humanitarian convoy distributing food aid on the main route towards Cauchara, Sindhupalchok district. Stopped in a random village, we survey the houses and infrastructure and recognize that the damage is much worse than what we had seen the day before. In a number of villages, the piles of rubble greatly outnumber structures still standing. Those left are likely unsafe to enter. There are numerous tents set up and people are busy sorting the rubble into piles of building materials for reconstruction after the coming monsoon season.
There is a commotion with the humanitarian convoy — likely due to caste discrimination, which we heard was an issue with the provision of food aide by Indian and Nepalese NGOs. Our L.O. walks over and, with the force of his uniform and oratory skills, calms the crowd so that the convoy can continue at a snail’s pace to the next town.
15:00 —- Majors Wade and Gourd and I decide that continuing behind the long convoy will cause major delays as the one-lane mountain-ridge road offers zero opportunity of passing. So, having been informed that British forces were considering setting up shop in Cauchara, we contact the Head of the ISST and the DART Commander to receive permission to turn around and head to our second destination.
It is already obvious that Sindhupalchok is in great need of outside assistance and that there would be ample work for the DART if British forces forgo Cauchara as a base for their operations.
19:00 — After eight hours of harrowing hairpin-turns up the side of a mountain and along ridge-top roads with deep precipices on either side, we finally make it to the Nepalese Army base in Charikot, Dolakha district. The base commander provides us with a detailed explanation, in superb English, of where the DART could utilize their capabilities to support the local battalion in helping local, hard-to-reach populations.
20:00 – We decline the invitation to share the barracks with 40 sleeping Nepalese soldiers, set up our tents, and are nourished with a delicious Nepal Army meal. Leaving our L.O. to continue catching up with his buddies, we bed down for the night.
2 May, 6:00 Up and with our tents packed away, it is a full hour before we locate our L.O., who is worse for wear after a night of enjoying the local drink. We leave him in the car as we search out and speak with the doctor in charge of the local medical clinic, the District Health Officer, and the District Emergency Commander. Each in turn welcomes our team and readily provide us with a better understanding of medical and other needs in the surrounding area.
I am amazed time and time again by the hospitality of every Nepalese I meet. Regardless of their own personal situation and hardship, everyone has the time and a smile for a group of Canadians searching for information on where we can best provide assistance. In broken English, numerous people share
Author with DARI civil-military and engineering experts speaking to I records of all camp residents and their needs.
with me with the damage in their communities off the main roads, their concerns about rebuilding and keeping foodstuffs dry in the months ahead, and the loss of friends and loved ones.
I am amazed time and time again by the hospitality
of every Nepalese I meet. Regardless of their own personal situation and hardship, everyone has the time
and a smile for a group of Canadians searching for information on where we can best provide assistance.
8:30 — Returning to the base, I speak with representatives from Plan International while Majors Ward and Gould meet with the base commander in order to thank him for his generous hospitality. The Commander assigns a new L.O. to our team, who will prove indispensable in engaging with locals, translating, and providing helpful information about local economies, diets, building techniques, and caste differences during our return to Kathmandu.
15:00 — On the return journey, we examine a number of possible sites for the DART’s Forward Operating Base, taking into account space requirements, future site remediation, infrastructure, accessibility and impact on other humanitarian actors. Having pinpointed a possible base location we return to Kathmandu with a plan for the DART if HQ accepts the ISST’s recommendations.
3 May I have the opportunity to accompany Canadian Forces engineers and civil-military experts in conducting a recce of three nearby Internally Displaced Persons camps to determine which are likely to abide by SPHERE Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response and which should be amalgamated with larger camps. As someone who has worked on humanitarian issues for two years, it is an eye-opening experience to witness humanitarian convoys, coordination bodies, and displaced persons camps first-hand. There are no Red Cross flags, matching tents set out in long rows, or clean, white Toyota Landcruisers here. These
As someone who has worked on humanitarian issues
for two years, it is an eye-opening experience to witness humanitarian convoys, coordination bodies, and displaced persons camps first-hand. There are no Red Cross flags, matching tents set out in long rows,
or clean, white Toyota Landcruisers here. These camps are small and ad-hoc, set-up in town squares
and a local high school, using old tarps and other leftover materials as necessary.
camps are small and ad-hoc, set-up in town squares and a local high school, using old tarps and other leftover materials as necessary. They won’t be able to withstand the coming monsoon season, nor a prolonged period of inhabitation and our job is to help determine which should stay, and which should be consolidated in larger camps to be built by UN agencies in the days ahead.
Like everywhere, people in the camps are more than happy to provide us with camp statistics (recorded in a school notebook) and other information as needed, and are fine with the prospect of moving to another location, as long as they were close enough to their destroyed homes to rebuild in the months ahead.
Major Frank Gould and author, map in hand, discussing the health needs of nearby remote villages with the lead doctor of the local clinic.
site location we recommended is central to both Sindhupalchok and Dolakha districts and was chosen as the DART’s Forward Operating Base, housing over 100 members of the DART at its height. The base provided a central location for operations into surrounding areas as the DART treated over 717 Nepalese patients, provided maps and imagery products to Nepalese and foreign partners, removed rubble — opening route access to approximately 204,000 Nepalese — and helped connect remote communities with relief efforts. Furthermore, the Government of Canada’s matching fund raised $23 million, meaning that Canada’s citizens and government provided over $46 million in life-saving assistance for those left most vulnerable from the devastating earthquake.
Settling back into life at HQ, my first-hand knowledge of the DART, their camp and operating locations, and, especially, the needs and challenges on the ground, were useful in informing others involved in the whole-of-government response. The 10-day trip — sleeping 4-hour nights and having an active role in Canada’s humanitarian response — was the type of work I joined the department for. The type of work where one can witness the results of one’s actions and where a junior officer has an opportunity to be part of the decision-making process. I can only hope that Canada’s efforts will heln the excentionallv resilient Nepalese to build back
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2016), pp. 7–11. Read the rest of this issue →
