NRA to mobilize more teams for geological study

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.