President Bidya Devi Bhandari said that Nepal will develop all physical structures and infrastructures strong enough to endure any disaster. "The quake has taught us an important lesson in terms of disaster preparedness and resilience, so we must not forget the lessons it taught us," she said while speaking at the inaugural session of the ICNR 2021.
According to her, the damage and loss in the quake was primarily because of the weak infrastructure, and creating resilient infrastructure can lower the risk during the disasters.
President Bhandari appreciated the courage of Nepali people and their support in the rescue, relief and reconstruction drive.
"The reconstruction work was a massive task amidst limited resources, complex geographical condition and state restructuring process. However, meaningful cooperation among the national and international agencies and support of people led the reconstruction campaign to success," she said.
She appreciated all national and international partners, donors and agencies which extended their support to the reconstruction process.
The first ICNR in 2015 had drawn the pledges of Rs. 425 billion for post-quake relief and reconstruction. However, actual pledge stood only at Rs. 325 billion.
"We can now proudly say that the people at the epicentre, Barpak, and all affected areas have returned to their own houses while the historical structures like Dharhara, Ranipokhari and Durbar High School have been resurrected with more beauty and resilience," stated President Bhandari.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Narayan Khadka thanked all donors and supporters. "About US$ 4.9 billion was estimated for the post-quake reconstruction which was beyond the capacity of the government. International community came forth to offer us the much-required support for the reconstruction and rehabilitation," he said.
Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma said that the government had moved ahead with the policy of integrated settlements in safer locations.
The government had established the NRA on 25 December 2015 and the national reconstruction campaign was launched in January 2016.
The NRA has completed the basic reconstruction and rehabilitation works of infrastructures damaged on April 25, 2015 earthquake during almost six years of its establishment and has already handed over the responsibility of remaining works to concerned ministries, departments and agencies, read a statement issued by it in October.
I has handed over the remaining works to the concerned government agencies.
The three-day conference is being organised to share Nepal’s learning and experiences with national and international communities and is being organised with the slogan of – “From Reconstruction to Resilience".
The conference also aims at strengthening relationship between government and multilateral agencies, bilateral agencies and civil society considering the way forward on resilient Nepal, and inform the government about the disaster-related laws and policies.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 9 November 2021.
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