Nepal makes scant progress in rebuilding 2 years after quake
The paved alleys are still lined by the skeletons of homes once filled with families. Shop shelves are empty, and the water well in the center of town remains clogged by fallen debris. Children carefully side-step piles of broken brick on their way to school.
This is life today in the tiny Nepalese farming town of Sankhu, once famed for its lively Hindu temple festivals and rich produce markets just outside the capital of Kathmandu.
Nearly everything was lost on April 25, 2015, when a terrifying earthquake shook the Himalayan nation, killing more than 9,000 people and toppling nearly a million homes nationwide.
Little progress has been made in the two years since, raising questions about the government’s commitment to the recovery effort as well as the fate of billions of dollars in foreign aid.
In Sankhu, where the quake claimed 98 lives and toppled 800 homes, most of the remaining residents have struggled to restore what they once had. Many say they have yet to receive any help from the government despite pledges of aid money and help with bank loans.
The violence and devastation wrought by the earthquake dominated newspaper headlines worldwide and triggered an outpouring of foreign concern. Aid pledges totaling $4.2 billion poured in — about half what the government estimates it will cost to rebuild homes and infrastructure.
The government is still collecting that foreign aid, with agreements signed already for $3.1 billion. But to date, it has spent only $330,000. That’s allowed Nepal to rebuild just 3.5 percent of 626,694 homes so far counted as having been destroyed in the quake. And even that count is incomplete, including only homes in the 14 worst-hit districts. There are still another 17 districts to survey.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Nepalese left homeless by the quake are preparing to spend a third rainy season hunkered down in temporary shelters, often flooded and exposed to the elements, relying on handouts of one-time sales for cash to get by.