Repair and Reconstruction of damaged houses of Earthquake 3 affected district of Nepal
On Saturday, 25 April 2015 at 11:56 local time, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake as recorded by Nepal’s National Seismological Centre (NSC), struck Barpak in the historic district of Gorkha, about 76 km northwest of Kathmandu. Nepal had not faced a natural shock of comparable magnitude for over last 80 years.
The catastrophic earthquake was followed by more than 300 aftershocks greater than magnitude 4.0 (as of 7 June 2015) (Nepal Earthquake Post Disaster Needs Assessment, 2015). Four aftershocks were greater than magnitude 6.0, including one measuring 6.8 which struck 17 days after the first big one with the epicenter near Mount Everest. To date, there are over 8,790 casualties and 22,300 injuries. It is estimated that the lives of eight million people, almost one-third of the population of Nepal, have been impacted by these earthquakes. Thirty-one of the country’s 75 districts have been affected; however 14 were declared ‘crisis-hit’.
Numerous aftershocks were shooing the country even after the three big quakes which gave people fear and were forced to live in tents, tarpaulins and many under open skies who didn’t have access to the resources. Kathmandu valley and its outskirt areas also suffered major loss in terms of lives and properties with the earthquake. Poorer rural areas have been more adversely affected than towns and cities due to their inferior quality of houses.
The destruction was covering residential and government buildings, heritage sites, schools and health posts, rural roads, bridges, water supply systems, agricultural land, touristic trekking routes and hydropower plants. Through several assessments of national and international organizations it is estimated that more than 604.000 houses were fully destroyed, and more than 288.856 houses partially damaged.
In response to the earthquake, Caritas Luxembourg in cooperation with local partner organization POURAKHI Nepal has implemented an emergency relief program (AH/CAR/2015/0004) that provided immediate life-saving assistance in regard to shelter items and blankets to affected families. After the emergency relief phase, the organization assessed the need for support towards reconstruction in their working districts, especially to prevent out-migration from rural and remote areas.
Furthermore, a team of POURAKHI Nepal and Caritas Luxemburg start initiation for Repair and reconstruction of Project in earthquake affected District to promote and support local building culture. After so many times of discussions, consultations and frequent communications, all are finally agree to start feasibility study in Three Affected Districts that are Dolakha, Dhading and Rasuwa.
After effective field visit in all three Districts, location of the project were finalized for Dolakha-Magapauwa VDC ward 7(114 households) , Dhading-Katunje VDC ward 7(256 households), Rasuwa –Gatlang VDC 1-6 & 9 ward (378 households) total 748 households. During visit and in office discussion at POURAKHI Nepal it was confined that Direct Beneficiaries will be Earthquake affected households who have received Government grant recommended by National Reconstruction Authority.
Moreover, official discussion and formal planning of the the project have started with Design of Logical framework, budget development, correction and communications through skype and finally Cooperation Of contract was signed between Caritas Luxemburg and POURAKHI Nepal. For Technical expertise CRATerre France , Architectures Sanfrontiers(ASF) Nepal was undertaken in partnership with POURAKHI Nepal for effective implementation of project in Targeted area.
