'Procedures biggest challenge to reconstruction'

Nineteen months have elapsed since the devastating earthquake of 7.9 magnitude hit the country, but the government is still in the process of conducting the damage survey and distributing grants. Hundreds of thousands of people are forced to stay in temporary shelters and tents. National Reconstruction Authority CEO Sushil Gyawali, however, says significant progress towards facilitating the people in building their houses has been made by channeling the necessary budget for reconstruction and creating a policy base towards this end. A permanent resident of Palpa district and an engineer by profession, Gyawali has about two decades of experience in local planning.

Modnath Dhakal of The Rising Nepal talked to Gyawali about the reconstruction process, damage survey, distribution of reconstruction grant, supply of quality construction materials and coordination with the various agencies concerned in the reconstruction process, among others. Excerpts:

What is the recent scenario of post-quake reconstruction?

At the moment, household survey and grant agreement have been completed in 14 districts, including the Kathmandu Valley. People in the 11 worst-hit districts have started building their houses after receiving grant money as we ran a campaign to distribute the first installment of the house reconstruction grant. More than 550,000 households have already signed the agreement, and 450,000 of the households have received the first installment of the grant money so far. In the Kathmandu Valley, concluding the grant agreement is in its final stage. We have recently finalised the House Inspection Manual, while training for the masons and carpenters is going on. Likewise, reconstruction of health and education institutions has been started in various districts. Therefore, I would say, reconstruction has gained momentum.

The NRA has been criticised for the delay in conducting the damage survey and distributing the house reconstruction grant. It has not been able to even commence the survey in 17 other districts moderately hit by the quake.

One thing we should remember is that whenever any country is hit by such types of disaster, it creates a very difficult situation, and people as well as political parties become upset. Be it in Pakistan, India, Japan or even the United States, people went through the same difficult situation. The international community has compared our reconstruction pace with the post-disaster management in those countries, and they say that Nepal's reconstruction progress is satisfactory. The NRA is moving in the right direction. If you go to the villages, you see the people enthusiastically involved in the reconstruction of their houses, and the government is facilitating them in every possible way. Everything can't happen immediately, and this also applies to us. Yes, we can say that more progress in reconstruction could have been achieved than what we have now. But you have to consider the external factors, political environment, transition, bureaucratic process and other challenges. Despite all these, we have achieved good progress.

The survey in 17 moderately-hit districts will start in a couple of weeks. The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has been making the necessary arrangements and conducting training for the surveyors, and engineers have been hired. By the end of next week, the survey will begin. I would like to inform you that as there were comparatively less damage in the 17 districts, we are planning to conduct the survey and sign grant agreements at the same time. People need not wait for the grant money till the survey is completed in the districts. I hope within a month and a half, every household will receive the grant money.

Has there been any progress towards setting up construction material banks? What is the reconstruction body doing to check the price of construction materials and ensure the smooth supply of materials like cement, iron rods and stones?

We have held discussion with the Ministry of Supplies and plan to establish the first construction material banks in three districts – Nuwakot, Kavre and Makwanpur. We have asked the ministry to utilise the supply facility of the Salt Trading Corporation (STC). It will help us supply the required materials for the reconstruction works, control the market price, ensure smooth supply as well as quality of the materials. For this purpose, warehouses will be established in the district headquarters, and the local bodies will provide coupons to the households to purchase the construction materials, if necessary. As it will not be possible to supply all the materials to all the people, the private sector will be mobilised in this regard. Ultimately, it’s the private sector that produces and supplies the required construction materials, so we just want to create a mechanism to check short supply, black marketing and facilitate the businesses and households.

       Why has the NRA's plan to create a model house in every ward not materialised yet?

Actually, one of the reasons for the delay in creating such houses was shortage of budget. We had requested the Ministry of Finance for the budget, but it has not released it yet. Dialogue is underway with the ministry. However, the NRA is requesting the partner organizations, such as the Red Cross, involved in reconstruction of houses to develop at least a model house in each locality of their project area. So, until we are through the government process, they may create some model houses. We also plan to create such houses when the training for the mason and carpenters is organised, as they will build houses as part of their on-the-job-training. So it will be a two way approach.

If it takes five masons to build a home, we need more than 3 million workers for the reconstruction, but there is little effort to produce the skilled manpower. What is the government doing to ensure the availability of skilled workers?

We estimate that reconstruction will require 150,000 workers, which may even go up to 1 million. This calculation covers the next three to four years. For this, we are planning to involve the people of the affected areas in the first phase to create employment opportunities for them. Such manpower is important as they not only have the skills but also better understanding of the local culture and construction practices. In the second phase, we will provide training to the people from the other districts as well.

The Department of Archaeology (DoA) has been saying that the NRA created obstacles in the reconstruction of heritage sites.

It is a completely misleading claim. The NRA has asked the DoA to come up with their progress report on heritage reconstruction. There has been delay in the reconstruction works at some of the heritage sites, so we are following on it. In the initial period, some difficulties did occur as the Finance Ministry delayed both budget allocation and disbursement. But now all those issues have been resolved. So the DoA can come up with its proposals for the reconstruction of quake-damaged heritage.

Coordination with the line ministries and other departments is also poor. Is this the reason behind the poor performance of the agencies, including the NRA involved in the reconstruction works?

I would like to correct your statement. The NRA's performance has not been poor. The reconstruction work has to be done with the involvement of the people at the local level, and we have not had people's representatives at the local bodies for more than one-and-a-half decades, which forced us to take up the responsibility and accountability of the progress at the local level. It was a major bottleneck in the reconstruction progress. Had there been the local bodies and functioning well, the whole process would have been much easier and effective. We also had other difficulties at the political and administrative level. Despite all these, there has been remarkable progress in reconstruction. However, we have developed a unique mechanism to implement the reconstruction programmes by creating Programme Implementation Units in the concerned ministries, Sub-Regional Offices, District Offices and committees at the local level to execute, coordinate the reconstruction works and hear the grievances of the people. We have come up with an action plan, which has been approved by the Steering Committee of the NRA. There are certain conditions that the implementing agencies have been demanding, and we need to fulfill these demands and address the challenges.

We have challenges with budget and human resources management. We have been closely coordinating with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of General Administration to address the issues of budget and manpower. As the action plan was approved by all the concerned agencies, they have a responsibility to support the reconstruction drive with all possible measures.

Take the example of the school reconstruction programme. The NRA was able to provide budget for the programme only last week. How can we evaluate the progress of the implementing agencies in this situation? You don't provide the required resources to the implementing agencies and only expect results. It will not do justice to them.

What do you think is the biggest challenge in the reconstruction process?

The biggest challenge is the mindset of the government administration, the whole system is process-oriented, not result-oriented. Second, we don't have people's representatives at the local level to take the ownership of the reconstruction, motivate the people, mobilise and organise them. Without mobilising the people, we can't achieve the results in time. Third, the remoteness and geographical difficulty or poor connectivity and poor IT infrastructure have hampered the timely execution of the post-quake reconstruction. Fourth is human resource management, there is a scarcity of young generation workers. Apart from these challenges, poor coordination among the government agencies in terms of financial and human resource management is also creating problem. Some of the relevant entities have yet not accepted the autonomy given to the NRA by law.  

The funds required for the reconstruction works are insufficient, and the country is unable to generate all the needed funds. What do you intend to do?

There are two things. One, the international community has pledged about US$ 3.43 billion. We have signed contracts for $2.73 billion with various international agencies. They have shown utmost interest in Nepal's post-quake reconstruction. Second, it is about the internal resources that we are mobilising. If we are clear about the resources that can be managed internally, then we can call on the international community for the required support. Therefore, we have requested the Ministry of Finance and National Planning Commission to prepare a five-year budget plan, identify the possible resources available within the country and the amount that we need to seek from the international agencies. First, we need to understand the financial gap, then only can we communicate with the international community.