Yet, today, the victims of this calamity are again preparing to spend another cold winter in their temporary shelters.
So what went wrong with regard to the rehabilitation measures? There can be no doubt that the relief operation launched by the government did help to save lives and provide immediate succour to the quake victims. But once the remote regions of Tangdhar and Uri went off the news radar, the effort to rebuild homes and lives lost momentum and the whole agenda got quickly swathed in red tape. Contrary to the official claims that 70 per cent of reconstruction work has been completed in Tangdhar so far, 90 per cent of those affected still live in temporary shelters.
One of the biggest factors for delays is the lack of clear policy and planning. According to the government’s own assessment, 21,587 homes were razed in the quake while 5,924 houses were partially damaged. In the past one year, some 2000 structures have been built in the Uri region while 1,545 plinths have been erected in Tangdhar. This includes the work done by dozens of non-governmental organisations which have been camping in the region for several months.
The government announced Rs 1.30 lakh as compensation for each family that lost their home in the quake. This money, too, is being given in instalments and a year after the quake only Rs 40,000 has been disbursed to each family. How can a family whose lives have been permanently devastated reconstruct a home with such a meagre amount? Especially when the transportation cost of building material is three to four times more than the actual cost of the material in several of the quake-hit places? The government should have made a proper assessment of the needs of the families before devising the policy of disbursement. As a result of the shoddy disbursement of compensation, the process of reconstruction has taken much longer than it should have, forcing many into spending another harsh winter in temporary shelters.
So what should the government do now? For one, it should immediately raise the compensation money from Rs 1.30 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. Secondly, it must make arrangements to either subsidise transportation charges, ferry building materials to the reconstruction sites, or provide building material at some central place in each of the affected regions. This would also encourage people to use their compensation money in a proper manner.
With heavy snowfall expected very shortly, the next six months will be crucial. Since the reconstruction process has to be postponed until next spring, the government would now have to step in with free or subdised rations for the affected families. Also, we must remember, it is not just homes that were destroyed. More than 90 per cent of school buildings, primary health centres and water supply infrastructure have been razed.
The pace of the reconstruction of the state government’s own infrastructure is extremely poor. Some 303 government school buildings in Tangdhar and Uri collapsed in the quake. Today, not a single school has come up, and students are forced to study in makeshift sheds or community halls. In Uri the sub-district hospital and 30 health centres were destroyed in the quake while all the health centres except two were razed in Tangdhar. Not only have none of the health centres been reconstructed, the government has failed to carry out repairs on the sub-divisional hospital in Tangdhar as well. The story of local water supply schemes is similar. Though 70 per cent of these schemes were restored temporarily within the first two months, nothing has been done to reconstruct them on a permanent basis.
Instead of concealing its failures, the government should urgently re-assess the situation and put in place a long-term strategy to get Uri and Tangdhar back on their feet. This includes working to keep the Sadhna Pass — the only entrance to the Tangdhar valley — open so that the region is not disconnected from the rest of the world with the first snowfall. Most of all, it needs to strongly convey the message that it still cares for those whose lives were devastated by the earthquake and who are left staring into the void a whole year after that tragic event.
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