Exemplary Progress In Reconstruction

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.