Ramechhap, April 26

Two years have gone by since the 2015 earthquake damaged several houses in Ramechhap like in many other districts. However, the reconstruction process is moving at a slow pace with just 890 out of 43,000 houses rebuilt in one of the most affected districts.

Quake victims say they have failed to rebuild their houses due to lack of water, resources, workers and inadequate grant amount. Most of the houses rebuilt are in Rampur of Ramechhap Municiplaity and Manthali Bazaar of Manthali Municipality. Ramechhap Red Cross has been working in collaboration with the local community at two wards for drinking water, health and house construction in an integrated manner. Of the 625 beneficiaries eligible for the second instalment from Rampur, only 144 families have received the money.

Nepal Red Cross Society Ramechhap district Coordinator Jayram Basnet said that four quake victims of Rampur had received the cash of the third and fourth instalment. Similarly, of the 426 beneficiaries eligible to get the grant amount from Manthali Bazaar, only 16 have received the cash of the second instalment.

Chief Rishiraj Acharya at National Reconstruction Authority Ramechhap said that 890 houses had been rebuilt despite all the limitations and construction of the remaining houses was also moving ahead as expected. Acharya the water crunch and scarcity of construction workers responsible for the delay in reconstruction of houses.

District Natural Disaster Committee Chair and CDO Surya Bahadur

Khatri said reconstruction work was relatively fast-moving in Ramechhap when compared to other districts. Khatri stressed the need to pick up momentum of reconstruction.