Article ID: 201902
Title: Transition of the living environment after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in rural area of Nepal: Case study of a Tamang village “Ghusel”
Authors: Lata Shayka* and Bishwo dev Bhattarai**
*Lecturer (part-time), Faculty of Environmental Studies, Tokyo City University, and/visiting researcher, Institute of Disaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural Heritage (DMUCH), Ritsumeikan University Email: lata62shakya@gmail.com **Visiting faculty, Kathmandu University and Joint secretary of Society of Nepalese Architect (SONA)
Keywords: recovery and reconstruction process, living environment, shelter, livelihood, rural area
Abstract:
It has already been four years since the Gorkha earthquake disaster, which caused 8,673 dead and 884,880 buildings damaged. According to the report on the recovery status1), more than 50% of educational institutions and clinics have been rebuilt, and only27% for cultural property and 45% for private housing are rebuilt which indicate the delay on post-disaster reconstruction. Many victims are still forced to live in temporary housing. In addition, various issues on reconstructed housing such as inadequate to livelihood and living space have been highlighted.
Generally, there are five phases in the transition period after the disaster. 1. Immediately after the disaster, 2. Temporary evacuation phase, 3.Evacuation life phase, 4. Temporary living phase, 5.Reconstruction living phase. In developed countries like Japan, the local government arranges an appropriate place for each phase. However, the Nepal government have provided various grant in different phases, such as emergency grant, winter grant, owner-driven house reconstruction grant, victims need to arrange their living space by themselves.
It is a big question, how the victims overcome that evacuation life phase and temporary living phase because many damaged rural areas still do not have access to public facilities like road, school, clinics, etc. Also, need to understand, what were the challenges for them to survive? What kind of living environment should be arranged for temporary living phase as well as their reconstruction living phase?
In this study, the transition of the living environment of victim in the rural area due to the Gorkha earthquake is figured out with the detail field study. Ghusel village of Bagmati village municipality, Lalitpur District is selected for the survey. In this village, five people died and almost 99% of houses are collapsed. This study discusses the challenges for the livable reconstruction housing from the view point of the victim’s dwelling culture.
Profile of the authors:
Dr. Lata Shakya is a lecturer (part-time) at Department of Environmental studies, Tokyo City University and visiting researcher at Institute of Disaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural Heritage, Ritsumeikan University. She completed her bachelor degree in Architecture from Mimasaka University (Okayama, Japan) and her master’s degree in Human Environmental Science from Kyoto Prefectural University (Kyoto, Japan). She completed her Doctoral degree in Urban and Environmental Engineering from Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan) where she dealt with the management system of communal spaces (courtyards) in historic city Patan. She is currently involved in the research of disaster mitigation planning, and recovery and reconstruction housing planning in urban and rural areas of Nepal. She is awarded “the Encouragement Prize of AIJ （Architectural Institute of Japan)”, “the Doctoral Dissertation Award” from Association of Urban Housing Sciences in 2014, and “the 1st JUSOKEN Doctoral Dissertation Award” in 2016.
Ar. Bishwo dev Bhattarai is a visiting faculty at the Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture Program, Kathmandu University and a practicing architect/executive director at Architects and Allied, Kathmandu. He completed Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from Tribhuwan University, Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk Campus and Masters of Science in Urban Planning from the same institute. He is also involved as Joint Secretary in SONA, an institute advocating professional rights of Nepalese architects. His working areas includes, disaster management and post disaster recovery planning, development and economic planning, energy efficient building design and community planning.
