KATHMANDU, May 1

People today said they have learned a great deal from the April 25 .

Sabitri Khadka, 51, from Thankot was in a micro-bus on her way to see the collapsed historical structures in Basantapur Durbar Square with her four-year-old granddaughter Sneha Khadka. The owner of a five-storey building regrets having such a huge building, which she said could be fatal during major earthquakes.

The quake had shaken the building, shattered the window panes and a falling television set had fallen, injuring her son.

“I now realise that it is better to construct houses not exceeding one or two storeys with a strong foundations than constructing multi-storey buildings that pose threat to several lives during major quakes,” she said.

Ramila Puri, 35, of Kalimati said, “The temples at the heritage sites, such as Basantapur, Bhaktapur and Patan and monuments like Dharahara are going to be limited to textbooks only for many generations to come. They will have to refer to books, photographs and videos of the collapsed structures unless they are reconstructed in their original form.”

Many well-to-do families have found that living in tents as is done in slum areas of the Valley is not really uncivilised. The quake survivors were forced to take shelter under tents in open spaces to escape the potential danger of aftershocks as they did not dare to return home.

“Look! Even the rich people boasting of huge and well-furnished buildings are enjoying life inside the tents with the poor and homeless. We shared good moments with squatters as we pitched our tents beside their community. I respect all the poor living in slums,” said Jukab Gurung, 25, who is taking refuge in the Thapathali slum area.

Many Kathmanduites had constructed new concrete buildings and rented their old mud and brick houses to other people from outside the Valley. The tenants suffered after the quake brought down traditional mud and brick houses. These traditional houses are very old ranging from 50 to 100 years.

Rabin Tamrakar, the owner of a 99-year-old house in Ason said, “I should have reconstructed and renovated my old house through retrofitting to withstand the earthquake. Due to my negligence, some of my tenants and pedestrians lost their lives,” he said, adding that no one should continue to rent out and stay in such old houses.

People were not prepared to face a major earthquake due to their negligence of awareness programmes conducted by the government and private organisations. The United Nations had warned of a possible earthquake and taught safety measures. The government was approached with requests to retrofit temples oat heritage sites but all effort went in vain when the authorities gave no ear to the early warnings.

“We requested the Department of Archaeology, Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Guthi Sansthan to renovate and retrofit the temples at the heritage sites to withstand the earthquake, but they did not listen to us. So on the day of the great earthquake, the weak temples of the three Durbar Squares of the Valley crumbled,” complained Deepak Raj Karnikar, a local of Basantapur Durbar Square.