Rajneesh Bhandari
DUST TO DUST: Two years after the earthquake, a family in Namdu village of Dolakha is finally demolishing an earthquake-damaged house to rebuild.
It has been two years since the 2015 earthquake, but many survivors still haven’t got help to rebuild homes, and only half the money pledged by donors has materialised. Yet, families are doing the best they can and some are no longer waiting for the government.
Time stands still in many of the villages destroyed in the earthquake. A report by The Asia Foundation concludes that the situation of earthquake survivors is overwhelmingly bad, with 72 per cent of the 4,855 household respondents still unable to rebuild homes.
Another report by the Central Department of Population at Tribhuvan University this week indicates that many women survivors feel insecure as they continue to live in flimsy shelters.
Largely to blame for the delay is political interference in the functioning of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), as political parties compete for disbursement and to take credit.
Another reason is that donors have not put their money where their mouth is. Only half the $4.1 billion pledged in June 2015 has actually materialised, and there is a shortfall of more than $5 billion for earthquake recovery.
The NRA was supposed to be an autonomous agency to circumvent the slow-moving bureaucracy for fast-track reconstruction, but has itself been paralysed by red tape.
Newly re-instated CEO Govind Raj Pokharel says: “The NRA has to be made more autonomous with the power to mobilise and disburse its own funds.”
Many donors are spending their pledged amounts through their own aid agencies, and not through the NRA. Other donors haven’t even sent a single dollar that they promised.
The Norwegian Embassy’s Elin Linnested told us: “Norway made a re-prioritisation within its existing development budget and in the interest of time decided to use already established partner organisations to channel the $30 million pledged.”
Despite the delays and confusion, more than 90 per cent of families have got their first government grant, and need to build as per approved norms to be eligible for the next two tranches. Nearly 30,000 families have used their first grants, and applied for second and even third tranches.
Says a multilateral donor representative: “Two years is too early to expect fantastic results after a big disaster like this, even in developed countries. If the NRA is left alone to do its work, it would help expedite relief.”