Roundup: UN urges more support for Nepalis with reconstruction one year after earthquake

UN and its partners are urging more support for the people of Nepal with their reconstruction after the devastating earthquake one year ago and helping them get well prepared for future emergencies.

A powerful quake of 7.8 magnitude struck Nepal on April 25, 2015, killing more than 8,700 people and damaging over a quarter of a million houses.

"The UN is concerned that the monsoon season is expected to begin in a few months and many vulnerable families remain without adequate shelter," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

The ad interim UN resident coordinator in Nepal, Craig Sanders, said that the UN remains committed to support preparedness and longer-term development in the country.

According to the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), support must be extended to the three million or more people who lost their homes a year ago so they build back better to earthquake-resistant standards.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and its partners are also supporting green and sustainable post-disaster recovery in the country.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that an estimated 1.6 million school children are now starting the new academic year in affected areas. Many of them, however, continue to study in temporary classrooms.

"While recovery and reconstruction works are moving ahead, the agency stresses on the need to redouble efforts to ensure children can study in safe transitional or permanent classrooms as early as possible," Dujarric said.

The April 25, 2015 earthquake and its aftershocks injured more than 22,000, and destroyed and damaged more than 250,000 houses. While 8.1 million people were directly affected, millions across the mainly rural nation were exposed to increased landslides. Major life-supporting ecosystems were also severely damaged.

UNEP said that a rapid environmental assessment undertaken by the government of Nepal following the earthquake revealed significant destruction of forests and protected areas as well as damage to ecotourism infrastructure such as nature trails, trekking routes and camping sites.

The earthquake also destroyed renewable rural energy technology solutions such as improved cooking and biogas stoves. Water sources shifted in some areas, with reduced or no flows in places, and new sources starting to flow in others.

Freshwater ecosystems were also affected by increased sedimentation and some rivers were temporarily blocked by landslides. The economic cost of loss of ecosystems services from landslides has been estimated at nearly 328 million U.S. dollars.

Following the earthquake, UNEP worked with the government of Nepal to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of the disaster. This included the development of a comprehensive waste management strategy at national and sub-national levels to manage the estimated 3.9 million metric tons of earthquake debris, which included hazardous material.

With landslides becoming three times more frequent following the earthquake, UNEP facilitated the sharing of best global practices on landslide management. Working with the government and development partners, UNEP also identified opportunities to green the reconstruction process.

The Asia and Pacific region accounts for nearly half of the world's natural disasters. The five biggest disasters to strike Asia Pacific in 2013 caused some 100 billion U.S. dollars in economic loss and killed more than 19,000 people.

Also on Monday, the head of the UNISDR, Robert Glasser, marked the anniversary of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal last year, with a call for greater investment in resilient infrastructure if the death toll from future earthquakes is to be reduced.

"The Nepal Earthquake was long forecast and worse could happen in the future," Glasser said. "As the rebuilding effort is now set to get under way in earnest, every support must be extended to the 3 million or more people who lost their homes a year ago so they build back better to earthquake-resistant standards."

Glasser said that UN member states have recognized that reducing earthquake risk is a priority given that about 750,000 people have died in earthquakes and tsunamis over the past 20 years.

Nepal and recent earthquakes in Ecuador and Japan are a reminder of the urgent need to invest in disaster-resilient infrastructure as agreed in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. A major part of urban resilience is ensuring compliance with building codes and planning laws.

"Building back better cannot be done overnight," Glasser stressed.

"Nepal is a textbook example of how difficult and long drawn out the process can become when risk governance is complicated by the overall political context, including major gaps at the level of local government," he said. "The socio-economic impact of this disaster is enormous and it will have a long-term impact on the country's development and the welfare of its people."

Along those lines, health sector partners recently reviewed lessons learned from the earthquake, and recommended strengthening and expanding emergency preparedness and response capacities beyond the national capital, Kathmandu, and testing them periodically, to prepare better for future emergencies.

As more than 80 percent of health facilities in the affected districts were either damaged or destroyed in the 2015 earthquake, the injured had to be rushed to hospitals in Kathmandu, which remained functional as they had been retrofitted, their staff trained in mass casualty management and they had emergency plans in place that were immediately activated. Endit