979,241 houses damaged in the Gorkha Earthquake

Kathmandu, June 11: The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) Sunday unveiled that 979,241 houses were damaged by the devastating Gorkha Earthquake that rocked the country in 2015.

Updating the latest micro-data of the damage surveys, the national statistics agency under the National Planning Commission said that it conducted the assessment of 1.052 million houses and found that only 71,587 houses sustained no damage in the tremors.

It took more than two years for the government to complete the post-quake damage assessment.

“The quake had inflicted damage to 93.2 per cent out of 1.052 houses surveyed. About 333,298 houses were destroyed and 648,063 houses were damaged,” read a statement issued by the CBS.

The CBS had assessed the damage by collecting the details regarding the type of house, ownership, height, plinth, age of the house and sloppiness of the land.

Of the 31 quake affected districts, the highest loss occurred in Sindhupalchowk where 96.1 per cent houses were damaged in the tremors. Likewise, 94.4 per cent houses were damaged in Rasuwa and 92.3 per cent in Nuwakot district.

“The survey found that 96.3 per cent houses were built on the private land owned by the house owner, and 3.7 per cent houses were built on public land,” said Gyanendra Bajracharya, director at the CBS.

The post-quake damage assessment was conducted in 14 severely-affected and 17 moderately-affected districts across the country in three stages.

In the first stage, survey was carried out in severely affected 11 districts – Gorkha, Nuwakot, Dhading, Dolakha, Makawanpur, Ramechhap, Okhaldhunga, Sindhuli, Kavrepalanchowk, Sindhupalchowk and Rasuwa.

Every detail of houses and families was collected during the survey.

However, in the second and third stage, the survey was conducted on the verification model.

According to the verification model, the surveyor doesn’t collect the data of the damaged houses again but verifies the data collected in the earlier assessment.

The government conducted survey in the Kathmandu Valley – Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts – in the second stage.

Likewise, in the third stage, survey was undertaken in moderately affected 17 districts - Lamjung, Chitwan, Tanahun, Khotang, Syangja, Palpa, Baglung, Gulmi, Solukhumbu, Kaski, Parbat, Myagdi, Arghakhanchi, Nawalparasi, Bhojpur, Dhankuta and Sankhuwasabha.

The survey was conducted by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), with the financial assistance from the World Bank (WB) and the Department for International Development (DFID).

The number of houses collapsed in 14 districts stands around 35 per cent while 57.6 per cent houses were damaged and 7.4 per cent were safe.

Similarly, 15 per cent houses were collapsed in 17 districts. About 81.4 per cent houses in those districts received minor damage, and 3.6 per cent were safe.

About 689,509 houses were completely damaged in severely-hit 14 districts, and 103,478 houses were collapsed in moderately hit 17 districts.

Director general of CBS Suman Raj Aryal, joint secretary of NPC Tulasi Prasad Gautam and deputy spokesperson of the National Reconstruction Authority Dr. Bhishma Kumar Bhusal jointly launched the report amidst a programme here.