As the tenure of the National Reconstruction Authority
(NRA) is going to be over by January 2021, there
are discussions about the progress made in the rebuilding drive in the last
four and a half years, disaster preparedness and extension of the
reconstruction body.
Nepal has made a remarkable progress in the post-quake
reconstruction and achieved more than 62 per cent progress in the rebuilding of
private houses damaged in the 2015 earthquake. About 24 per cent houses are
under construction. Likewise, 71 per cent schools and 56 per cent health
facilities have been restored so far.
The NRA was formally launched on December 26, 2015, eight
months after the quake of 7.6 on Richter scale devastated the central and
eastern hills in the country, killing about 9,000 people and damaging about a
million houses, schools, hospitals and other infrastructures in 32 districts.
What
Nepal witnessed in terms of reconstruction in the last four year was something
which was not common in the country like ours. Despite multiple political wrangling
in substituting the chef of the reconstruction body and various challenges in
carrying out the rebuilding task in the hills and mountains and fear of the
looming shortage of construction materials during the initial years, the
country moved smoothly ahead with the rebuilding with the theme 'build back
better'.
Setting example
Although the entire system for the reconstruction was
novel for Nepal, it not only successfully advanced with the 'build back
better', but also set an example for the same. Nepal has taught a lesson to the
world that a Least Developed Country (LDC) can also be a leader in terms of
post-disaster management and rebuilding.
Therefore, the NRA is planning to organise an
international conference on the post-quake reconstruction in November this year
to share the knowledge, skills and experiences gained from the rescue, relief
and reconstruction. It also plans multiple national and international workshops
throughout the year to hand over the skills and knowledge to future
generations.
In the last four and a half years, the government had
conducted at least three surveys to locate the beneficiaries, surveyed more
than 1 million houses completely or partially damaged in the tremors and
re-surveyed about 306,963 grievances and addressed 209,571 of them.
Similarly,
575 landless beneficiaries were approved for rebuilding their houses in the
same place while 165 households have been provided funds to purchase land in
another locations.
Many of the cultural and historical monuments in the
Kathmandu Valley and outside it are being restored with the support from
international partners like China, India, Japan, the USA and Sri Lanka.
Most of
the structures in the Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan Durbar Squares are being
rebuilt while China is rebuilding the Nuwakot Durbar. A new Dharahara (tower) is
being constructed beside the original one that was damaged in the 2015 quake.
The damaged piece will be kept as it is in the museum while a new 22-storey
tower will be erected on its premises.
The governments were successful in finding the support
from the neighbouring and friendly countries as well as multilateral
development partners such the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for the
reconstruction.
The World Bank has offered multiple supports both in grants and
loans while China has supported in house as well as heritage reconstruction.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his state visit to Nepal in October last
year, pledged additional support to the post-quake reconstruction.
India, China, the USA, the UK and many other friendly
countries had pledged their support and offered their assistance to Nepal in
post-quake rebuilding during the International Conference on Nepal's
Reconstruction organised in 2015 in the immediate aftermath of the devastating
quake.
Remaining one year
The NRA and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) are finalising
the budget and development plan for the remaining work. Although the Chief
Executive Officer of the NRA Sushil Gyawali said that the reconstruction body
had started the exit plan from now, the final decision about the extension
would be made after holding discussions with the MoF.
However, the NRA is likely to get a year's extension and
might remain till January 2021. The NRA sources express their intention to keep
it alive for another year. A group of donors, government as well as the
National Planning Commission (NPC) are positive about the extension. Since
almost half of the total reconstruction budget – Rs. 630 billion, comes from
the donors, the government has to listen to their demands.
Donors' desire to keep the NRA alive is not an unfounded
idea. The post-quake reconstruction was implemented effectively only after the
establishment of the reconstruction body. The same had happened in case of the
victims of the other disasters like floods, landslides and fire in the past.
Many victims of floods in the Terai six years ago have not got a shelter that
the government had promised. So, the stakeholders are apprehensive of the
reconstruction progress in the absence of institutions like the NRA. The NPC
also want to keep NRA for at least one year further and going to include it in
the revision of the five-year plan.
According to the NRA, the reconstruction of the private
houses will be completed within 2020 and the responsibility will be handed over
to the local bodies in case the work remains incomplete.
Transferring responsibility
While the NRA has already involved the local bodies in
distributing the grants and making decisions about the reconstruction of the
private houses, schools and health posts, it has started a process to pass the
existing information system to the federal, state and local governments to enhance
their capacity with reliable and effective disaster information system.
Likewise, the government plans for the risk mapping of every local unit which
will be used in land use planning as well as periodic planning and building
house standards.
The remaining work of heritage reconstruction will be
transferred to the Department of Archaeology and respective local bodies. Of
the damaged 891 heritages, 387 have already been rebuilt and 123 are under
construction while the reconstruction of 381 is yet to begin. Monastery
rebuilding has witnessed the poorest progress in comparison to other cultural
and historical monuments.
Meanwhile, the government has established the National
Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority to work in the area. According
to the NRA, there have been enhanced cooperation and coordination between the
two authorities to institutionalise the exercise of the NRA, statistics, and
organisational memory.
Housing grant (as of 11 February 2020)
Total beneficiaries: 828,288
Grant agreement signed: 777,775
First instalment receivers: 772,034
Second instalment receivers: 633,656
Third instalment receivers: 540,269
Source:
NRA
Retrofitting grant (till December 2019)
Total beneficiaries: 69,620
Beneficiaries signing grant agreement: 36,546
Beneficiaries receiving first instalment: 36,907
Beneficiaries’ second instalment: 29
Source:
NRA
Challenges ahead
Managing the budget for reconstruction works is the
biggest challenge for this year. The government has allocated Rs. 141 billion
in the current fiscal year, but the source of Rs. 38 billion is unknown so far,
especially the money of the Indian Exim Bank's line of credit comes with too
many conditions that are difficult for the NRA to meet.
Enabling the local governments in taking the
responsibility of the remaining reconstruction works and create preparedness
plan for disasters is another challenge. However, the National Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Authority can be instrumental in this regard.
The
newly established agency might face difficulties in coordinating with the local
bodies that lack knowledge as well as expertise in the areas.
Carrying out land-pooling at the core city areas of
Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur also poses a great challenge. This might be
the reason that the work in the old city area in Kathmandu is not started yet. Just
to illustrate the situation: of 47,665 families in Kathmandu eligible for the
rebuilding aid, only 15,500 have received the entire instalments of the housing
grants.
About 15 per cent of the beneficiaries have obtained only
the first instalment of the housing grant but never turned in to apply for the
second one. It is challenging to find them and facilitate them in the
reconstruction process.
However, the NRA officials say that the remaining
households that obtained the first instalment and never started the house
rebuilding were not the actual beneficiaries as either they had house in
another location or their house was not completely damaged in the tremors.
The reconstruction body had also asked those families,
who are not in the beneficiaries' list but obtained the first tranche of the
grant, Rs. 50,000, to return the money else be ready to face the music. Some of
them have returned the money.
@ModDhakal
Published in The Rising Nepal daily.
