National symposium on post-quake reconstruction begins

Kathmandu, Aug. 24

 A four-day national symposium on post-earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation has begun on Monday.

 The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) is organising the symposium on virtual platform to share its experiences, good practices and lessons learnt in the last five years of post-earthquake reconstruction.

 It will run till Thursday, August 27.

 The symposium aims to bring together various stakeholders, including development partners, various organizations, experts and individuals, involved in the reconstruction to develop a common view on the successes, achievements and the lessons learnt during the five years of reconstruction works, according to Dr. Chandra Bahadur Shrestha, Executive Committee member of the NRA and Coordinator of the International Conference Organizing Committee.

 The national symposium is being organized as part of the preparation to hold an international conference on the reconstruction and rehabilitation which is scheduled to be held later this year.

 Inaugurating the symposium, Chief Executive Officer of the NRA Sushil Gyawali said that there had been significant progress in the reconstruction of physical structures damaged in the April 2015 earthquake. He said the NRA was in the process of documenting the best practices and lessons learnt to make it available for future generations.

 CEO Gyawali informed that more than 90 per cent of the beneficiaries have now entered into the reconstruction process. Out of 790,000 beneficiaries signing agreement for the government grant, 603,000 (76 per cent) beneficiaries have received the third and final installment of the grant. More than 500,000 beneficiaries have completed building their houses.   

 Secretary at the NRA Ramkrishna Sapkota said that this symposium was a good opportunity to share NRA’s experiences with the concerned stakeholders.

 In the next four days, the symposium is set to hold deliberations on six thematic areas – private housing reconstruction; public and social infrastructure reconstruction; cultural heritage reconstruction; livelihood; rescue and relief; and good governance. Sixty different research papers will be presented during the symposium.

 The symposium is attended by representatives of various government agencies, donors and development partners, experts, earthquake-affected people, private sector and paper presenters, according to Manohar Ghimire, Deputy Spokesperson of the NRA and Member-Secretary of the International Conference Organizing Committee.

 On the inaugural day of the symposium today, four technical sessions were held and 15 working papers presented which focused on various aspects of the reconstruction of private housing, both in rural and urban areas. The working papers were also presented on structural engineering and retrofitting.

 The symposium will have four technical sessions every day. Four papers will be presented at every session that lasts for 90 minutes.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 August 2020.