Feature: Nepal facing uphill task in rebuilding

It is lucky for Nepal's Federation of Swoyambhu Management and Conservation Committee. The popular tourist destination Swoyambhu Temple managed by the body could receive about 40 foreign tourists per day after the world heritage site was formally reopened on Monday.

However, the shrine area on the hillock with broken houses and debris has nearly become a back shop and a building site where about 50 laborers were working, without too much safe places for tourists to stroll around.

Mahendra Ratna Budacharya, general secretary of the committee, told Xinhua on Thursday that as four houses collapsed and another 24 damaged in the strong earthquakes in April and May, they needed more than three months to clear up the mess at this religiously important site that was visited by about 500 foreigners everyday before the 7.9-magnitude quake on April 25.

Despite warnings over safety from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Nepal, the Nepalese government reopened almost all its seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Valley on June 15 to boost tourist arrivals, saying "Nepal is safe".

Furthermore, the Nepalese government set up a national committee led by its Culture, Tourism and Aviation Minister Krispasur Sherpa for the revival of its battered tourism sector days ago.

According to a fresh report of the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment drafted by the National Planning Commission, tourism, followed by housing, finance, industry and commerce, agriculture sectors, suffered worst, losing 623.8 million U.S. dollars.

In Pokhara and Chitwan, two chief tourism destinations outside of Kathmandu, over 50-percent discount has been offered to attract holidaymakers, but the efforts reaped little.

"There used to be around 80 percent occupancy in both hotels, but now 99 percent of bookings have been canceled till September," said CN Pandey, who runs a travel agency in Kathmandu and two hotels in Pokhara and Chitwan, adding that it will take around four months for initial recovery and around a year for full business.

Gyanu Pradhan, 70, who has been living under tarpaulin for one and a half months, said he had no enough money to dismantle his damaged house for rebuilding.

"We have consulted the village development committee about the way out. We are still waiting for their answers," he added.

According to the data from the Nepalese government, 50,000 private houses were fully destroyed and nearly 30,000 houses partially damaged in the devastating quakes.

Nepal's Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development and Ministry of Urban Development are working together to introduce a new national code for building quake-resistance houses.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Surya Narayan Shrestha, an executive member of National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), a non-governmental organization, said that Nepal is in dire need of experts and trainers with expertise to guide and monitor people to build quake-resistance houses in an affordable way.

The expert said that the NSET in coordination with the government and other stakeholders is going to mobilize around 600 engineers and volunteers to help construct safer houses in the 14 worst-hit districts.

After the earthquake in April, the Nepalese government banned the construction of new buildings until July 15 this year.

Business people have expressed the fear that once the ban is lifted, demand for construction materials, such as corrugated roofing sheets and cement, will surge and it is hard for local manufacturers to meet the demand because of low production capacity and power shortage.

Jay Ram Lamichhane, chairman of the Federation of Contractors' Association of Nepal, told media that Nepal has long been in shortage of construction materials and the situation would be tougher if the ban is over.

Moreover, the closure of Tatopani Customs and Rasuwagandi Customs due to frequent landslides have made importing goods from neighboring China more time-consuming and expensive.

Nepal needs 666.31 billion Nepali rupees (6.7 billion U.S. dollars) in short and medium terms for recovery of all its 23 sectors, according to the report of the Post Disaster Needs Assessment.

For Nepal, where around one quarter of its 27 million population was living under the international poverty line, reconstruction is a long-term process and Nepal can get support by many ways including debt relief for three to five years, Jamie McGoldrick, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nepal, has told Xinhua. Endite