Why Nepal Is Still in Rubble a Year After a Devastating Quake

[WhiteTara]

http://time.com/4305225/nepal-earthquake-anniversary-disaster/

It was a year ago that Ram Giri’s home imploded. The earthquakes that killed nearly 9,000 people in Nepal in April and May 2015 twisted the brick walls of the two-room structure, spilling the exterior into what had been the family’s living space. Here is a brick-filled cavity where there was once a roof, now temporarily covered with corrugated tin sheets, and the small annex that housed the family’s livestock been reduced to a dusty pile of rubble. To keep what’s left stable, Giri spent his savings on wooden trusses to hold up the walls. “It can collapse at any moment,” he says, gazing over his village in the country’s Sindhupalchok district, still strewn with debris from the 7.8- and 7.3–magnitude quakes. All around him, desperate villagers remain stuck in shaky tarpaulin tents and small tin sheds that seem barely strong enough to withstand the monsoon rainstorms due this summer, let alone another temblor in this earthquake-prone nation. Yet nearly a year after the first devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which stuck on April 25, 2015, there is no sign of any rebuilding.

The picture is the same across swathes of Sindhupalchok — the hardest-hit of Nepal’s 75 districts — and beyond. The quakes and a succession of powerful aftershocks destroyed more than 90% of Sindhupalchok’s homes. Across Nepal, nearly 650,000 families were displaced, forced to abandon their homes and communities for tented relief camps. Up north, furious landslides left remote alpine villages like Barpak, which sat at the epicenter of the April quake, all but cut off from the rest of Nepal, accessible only by helicopter. Countrywide more than 600,000 homes were damaged beyond repair, as pent-up energy from the collision of two subterranean slabs of rock known as the Indian and Eurasian plates rippled out across one of the world’s poorest countries. The quake was so powerful it actually moved Mount Everest by more than an inch. It was the worst natural disaster to befall Nepal in more than eight decades.

All told, the economic impact was estimated at around $7 billion. The good news was that international donors stepped up to aid Nepal, where there the per capita income before the catastrophic disasters was already lower than in poverty-stricken African nations such as Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone. At a June conference in Kathmandu, they promised $4.1 billion to help the country get back on its feet. “The response and the level of commitment was higher than anybody had predicted,” says Renaud Meyer, the country director in Nepal for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

But the money earmarked for rebuilding homes has yet to reach victims such as Giri, many of whom have only received around $150 in compensation since the earthquake. With reconstruction work at a virtual standstill and scores stuck in tents, numerous earthquake victims were reported to have perished during the country’s freezing Himalayan winter. “Everything was a on good track [until the donor’s conference]. And then it went wrong,” says Meyer, as the rebuilding initiative was overtaken by a protracted battle over a new Constitution that had been in the works ever since Nepal’s monarchy was abolished in 2008. “This was a moment to focus on rebuilding the country, but the priorities were all wrong,” says C.K. Lal, a prominent Kathmandu-based political commentator. “Instead, we were consumed by a political fight.” For the reconstruction process, the result was paralysis as political dysfunction in Kathmandu turned attention away from the rubble-strewn countryside.

[Aerows]

1. Because the Clinton Foundation

didn't channel aid into the area because they were too busy working up a campaign run?

Lord God almighty this election is exposing every nerve imaginable.

[WhiteTara]

2. I wondered how Clenis would be involved

Involved or not, Clenis is powerful. Not as powerful as Hillary (who can move mountains and change weather) but right up there.

[Aerows]

3. "Clenis"

has to be the most politically ridiculous phrase that exists.

[WhiteTara]

4. It's been around for a long time

and relates to his awesome powers. But you're right it is pretty stupid.

[Nevernose]

5. You didn't read the article, just blamed Clinton

It's like being in the 1990s all over again.

(I'm Bernie all the way and certainly not a Hillary fan, but at least make attacks based in reality, or at least reading)

[Aerows]

6. Clinton Foundation.

It's coming to a head, and the results won't be pretty.

[Nevernose]

8. Maybe, but has nothing to do w/ Nepal

The article goes into some depth about Nepalese political instability and the causes. International aid isn't the problem.

Do you have any links about the Clinton Foundation or its problems? Genuinely curious.

[Aerows]

10. At the risk of being alliterive

Honduras, Haiti and Hillary.

She made quite a few messes as Secretary of State. She defied and lied to President Obama.

Now that I've tossed those items out there, we have her breaking the law with her not secured email server sitting out there on the internet while she was being set classified information.

I don't know what in the hell the Democratic party is thinking by letting her run on the ticket.

I'd like to believe that I would be as bipartisan to lambast Bernie Sanders if he did the same things ... and I absolutely would.

Failing to confront corruption - no matter where - is exactly what has gotten all of us into this mess.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

11. In other words, you got nothing

Except the vomit that exists in your hate-filled imagination.

The problem in Nepal is Napalese political dysfunction, not even being able to put together new building codes. The Clinton Foundation isn't even there. And it's done a ton of good.

Your response was akin to Palin's answer to what newspaper she reads: "Any of them. All of them." In other words, nothing.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[egalitegirl]

12. Don't know about Clinton Foundation but...

American charities including those run by Democrats are usually accused by Asians of trying to convert natives to Christianity during times of crisis. They go there armed with Bibles and try to force them to convert. Once they convert to Christianity, they start obeying the church which is what the imperialists want. The church is the tool of both Democrats and Republicans. This is why the State Department keep coming up with human rights reports against other countries as well. Bill Clinton supported such schemes too.

[Lurks Often]

7. Sadly not surprising

Nepal is a poor country, the road system in the foothills and mountains runs from poor to non-existent. Many of the people residing in the foothills and mountains are subsistence farmers with a standard of living roughly comparable to the American pioneers who went west in the earlier 1800's. All while the politicians argue among themselves.

[Nevernose]

9. We strongly considered stopping there this summer

Because we've got a hell of a vacation planned.

Although they're desperate for tourist dollars, we decided that it would be just kind of fucked up, like visiting New Orleans after Katrina and gawking. We'll give money to an NGO instead.

[egalitegirl]

13. Do not give to NGOs!

Giving to an NGO is like giving to the imperialist agents. You are better off finding a school or an orphanage and sending money directly to them. The worst NGOs are the ones connected to churches.

[dembotoz]

14. poor countries remain poor countries

can not repair infrastructure that was poor in the first place