Numerous quake damaged health facilities lie in abandon even as NRA’s term nears end

Kathmandu, Sept. 5

Reconstruction and retrofitting of more than half of the health institutions damaged in the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake has not begun even more than five years after the disaster.

Likewise, reconstruction of one-third archaeological monuments is pending while the post-quake reconstruction body National Reconstruction Authority’s term is going to expire after four months, in January 2021.

Although private house rebuilding has achieved a significant success, the development of public sector structures is rather slow.

However, the progress in government building reconstruction has been almost complete with just nine structures remaining out of 162. But the same progress is not replicated in terms of the buildings of the security agencies as more than half of such structures have remained the same after their damage in the quake.

According to the NRA statistics, reconstruction of 167 buildings of security agencies out of 216 damaged in the quake has not begun yet. Rebuilding of the damaged offices even in the Kathmandu Valley like the Hanumandhoka Police Office is yet to be done.

However, there has been a significant progress in terms of school reconstruction with just 170 buildings remaining out of the total 7,553 damaged in the tremors.

The NRA said that the delay in heritage reconstruction was due to the conflict with the local stakeholders at multiple locations, and absence of proper policy to reconstruct the historical cultural monuments like monasteries. The monastery reconstruction guidelines were prepared more than two years after the reconstruction body was formed.

Large and important heritage sites like the Nuwakot Durbar have lately witnessed the commencement of reconstruction work while the structures like Kasthamandap in the Basantapur Durbar Square and Ranipokhari are still under construction.

Public sector reconstruction

Status	Number
Target	51,099
Completed	38,398
Under-construction	12,965
Remaining	1,079

Source: NRA

Meanwhile, the housing sector reconstruction has achieved a significant success with the completion of the reconstruction of 507,623 houses of the total 790,260 families that signed the housing grant agreement with the government.

About 603,550 families have obtained the last instalment of the grant of Rs. 300,000. It means these houses will be completed very soon.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 6 September 2020.