Kathmandu, April 23

Pass through the alleys of older settlements in Kathmandu Valley and you’ll come across numerous houses standing precariously with the support of wooden beams.

Visit Sindhupalchowk, Dolakha, Gorkha and Dhading districts and you’ll find people spending days and nights in temporary shelters made of tin sheets.

It’s the same with heritage sites, where you’ll still find age-old temples and palaces — which used to be the pride of the nation — replete with cracks or lying in ruins.

Time appears to have stood still in Nepal since April 25, 2015, as nothing much has changed since the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake took the lives of nearly 9,000 people, completely destroyed over 500,000 private houses, affected livelihood of about 5.6 million workers and caused damage and losses worth around Rs 706.46 billion.

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The government has time and again said reconstruction and rehabilitation are its priority. But it has not taken adequate steps to translate words into action.

This could be seen from the pace at which the first instalment of the grant amount for private house reconstruction is being released.

The government has pledged a grant of Rs 200,000 to each owner, who has lost a house to the April 25 earthquake or subsequent aftershocks. This amount is being extended in three instalments of Rs 50,000, Rs 80,000 and Rs 70,000.

Although the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) started distribution of the first instalment of the grant on March 13, it has so far been able to cover only 661 households in two village development committees of Singti in Dolakha.

The NRA, which is taking the lead in post-quake reconstruction and rehabilitation drive, has said it would release the first instalment in other districts soon, as surveys on number of houses damaged by quakes have just completed.

The NRA had mobilised over 1,600 engineers in 11 districts to conduct the survey in a bid to verify authenticity of claims filed by people who said their houses were completely damaged by quakes.

Through these surveys, the NRA has identified 319,912 beneficiaries. But it is not known when these beneficiaries will receive the grant.

This delay has started making more than a million quake survivors anxious, as monsoon is approaching, and if they don’t start building houses now, they might have to spend another rainy season under temporary shelters.

The NRA is well aware of the dilemma faced by quake survivors, but it does not want to take the blame for everything that has gone wrong.

“What should also be taken into account is the delay in formation of the NRA due to various reasons,” NRA CEO Sushil Gyewali recently told The Himalayan Times.

Gyewali’s statement is valid, but blame-game is not going to solve problems. It would do more good to quake survivors if government officials recall the speed with which they worked right after the quake and move ahead with the same spirit.

Right after the earthquakes, the government had swiftly prepared the report on Post Disaster Needs Assessment, which gave a comprehensive picture on damage and losses incurred by the economy and funding needs for early recovery.

Soon, the Ordinance on Reconstruction of Structures Damaged by the Earthquake was introduced, which paved the way for establishment of powerful body called the NRA.

All these works were completed before June 25 — the day when the government hosted International Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction to gather funds from foreign donors to rebuild the country.

Seeing this business-like approach, almost 300 delegates from around 60 countries and agencies, who took part in the conference, pledged to provide around $4.1 billion in assistance to Nepal.

But as days passed by, the government started reneging on its promise to swiftly set up the NRA due to differences among then ruling parties over selection of the CEO.

Finally, on August 13, the government appointed Govind Raj Pokhrel, the then vice chairman of the National Planning Commission, as the NRA CEO. This was good news for quake victims as well as the economy, which could have gotten a lift due to higher spending on reconstruction.

But the optimism was short-lived. It soon became apparent that the new NRA CEO would no longer be able to work because of the delay by Parliament in approving the ‘Ordinance on Reconstruction of Structures Damaged by the Earthquake’.

As per the Constitution of that time, ordinances had to be endorsed by Parliament within 60 days of commencement of Legislature-Parliament’s session.

Since the government had failed to do so, questions over the CEO’s legitimacy were raised. This rendered Pokhrel powerless.

The NRA finally got Gyewali as the new CEO on December 25 after the new government led by KP Sharma Oli came to power.

Since then, the NRA has framed reconstruction and rehabilitation policy and a regulation on reconstruction.

It has also simplified environmental impact assessment, land acquisition and public procurement processes by introducing different guidelines.

However, it is yet to introduce the most important document called Post Disaster Recovery Framework (PDRF), a blueprint for reconstruction and rehabilitation for the next five years.

Introduction of the PDRF is important because it will guide all works related to reconstruction and rehabilitation in the next five years. This document will also set milestones for different sectors, spell out funding needs, identify resource gaps and name agencies that will have to roll out various projects and programmes in coordination with the NRA.

So, if this document is not introduced on time, reconstruction and rehabilitation works may move ahead in a haphazard manner, resulting in underutilisation of funds and shoddy works, which will aggravate the problems of earthquake survivors.

Considering this, the biggest task in front of the NRA is to finalise this document as early as possible and implement reconstruction and rehabilitation projects and programmes rapidly.

Funding is not going to be a problem to roll out these projects and programmes because development partners have pledged to extend $4.1 billion to help Nepal rise from the rubble. Also, the government can tap its foreign exchange reserve which has swelled past Rs one trillion, which is almost 50 per cent of the gross domestic product.

Of course, the size of forex reserve may become smaller once the country starts spending money, but international organisations like the International Monetary Fund have agreed to support Nepal if it faces balance of payments problem.

So, the only thing that Nepal needs to do is enhance its fund absorptive capacity, as the government has time and again failed to fully utilise allocated funds, which has stalled the development process, preventing Nepal from achieving higher economic growth rates.