Kathmandu, Nov. 15:
More than one-and-a-half years after the devastating earthquakes hit the
country in April and May last year, the government is planning to dispatch
teams for the geological study of the quake-affected areas that are at high
risk.
Although the government
and National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) had received dozens of requests
from the quake-hit communities asking for the relocation of their settlements
fearing landslides would cause further damage to the geology of their locality,
there was no significant progress toward that direction in the absence of
authentic geological study.
Member of NRA Steering
Committee Dr. Tara Nidhi Bhattarai said that the reconstruction body had been
planning to organise an orientation programme for the geologists and engineers
who would be sent to the quake-hit areas.
"The orientation
programme will begin next week, and the study teams will be mobilised within a
couple of weeks," he said.
Dr. Bhattarai said that
the government was expediting the process so as to conclude the study in a
month.
He stated that the
government would start the relocation process immediately after it received the
report of the geological conditions of the villages.
"There will not be
delay in the relocation works, as there is no shortage of budget for it, and
relocation of settlements will begin by February next year," said Dr.
Bhattarai, who acts as an expert in the reconstruction body.
The NRA is planning to
dispatch about 40 teams.
According to the
reconstruction body, teams fewer than that can't conclude the study in a month.
It had planned to send
the same number of teams in June this year to study 475 settlements that were
at risk.
The NRA claimed that
lack of sufficient human resources and adverse political situation delayed the
progress.
However, the
reconstruction body in collaboration with the Department of Mines and Geology
(DMG) and Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention and Department of
Soil Conservation and Watershed Management had conducted studies at 115
settlements in the severely-hit areas.
From its preliminary
observations, the government had concluded that the quake had weakened the
geology in the mid-hills and mountainous areas.
It recognised that 475
villages needed to be shifted elsewhere.
Initially, pilot study
of the geological condition of Singati of Dolakha was conducted with the aim of
developing a modality for the study of all settlements that were at risk.
Gorkha, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Dolakha, Dhading and
Sindhupalchowk have many settlements vulnerable to post-quake hazards.
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