A year after deadly earthquake, impatient Nepalis take rebuilding into their own hands

Government progress on restoring 500,000-plus damaged buildings and providing safe homes has been painfully slow. Survivors have tired of waiting and have begun work, helped by NGOs

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A boy works on the roof frame of a building next to the quake-damaged Bhairavi temple in the historic village of Nuwakot, Nepal, a year after the devastating April 2015 earthquake. Photos: Tessa Chan

Published: 6:15am, 22 Apr 2016Updated: 1:21pm, 10 Oct 2017

Sitting outside her corrugated iron shack in Nuwakot, Nepal, a 94-year-old woman reveals the secret to her longevity. “The problem with today’s youth is that they don’t drink and smoke enough,” she says, as her daughter tops up our cups of millet wine. The old woman is a rarity in Nepal. Not only did she survive the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the country on April 25, 2015, killing nearly 9,000 people, and the 7.3 magnitude aftershock that followed a month later, but is one of the few people still alive who remember an even bigger disaster - the 8.0 magnitude Nepal-Bihar quake in 1934, one of the most destructive in the country’s history.

Mrs Dangol, 94, who survived an 8.0 magnitude earthquake in Nepal in 1934 as well as last year's 7.8 magnitude earthquake, sits with her great-granddaughter outside their home in Nuwakot.

I can’t help but admire her resilience, having felt my first tremor a couple of days earlier when a 4.5 magnitude aftershock from the April 25 quake struck the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, its epicentre next to where we were having dinner in the Patan district. Aftershocks are common, but it was enough to create panic on the streets, rattle the building we were in and give me a sleepless night.

By the next day, it was as if nothing had happened.

“It’s something the international community has noticed about us,” says Abhi Shrestha of Rural Heritage in Kathmandu. “The Nepalese can go on with their lives very quickly, even after disasters of the magnitudes we have seen.”

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Just before the April 2015 earthquake happened, Nuwakot was coming into its own as a tourist destination in Nepal. Now its historical monuments, including an 18th century palace, are badly damaged or have been reduced to rubble. No repairs have been done and villagers have no idea of when reconstruction will start.

A woman enters the historic old town of Nuwakot, Nepal, one of the areas badly affected by the April 2015 earthquake.

Shrestha, who is working with the villagers to rebuild 400 traditional homes in Nuwakot, hopes that by preserving the original structure of the houses in the old town they can retain its heritage and revive its tourist trade. “It’s likely that Nuwakot could be shortlisted as a [Unesco] world heritage site in Nepal, but this will depend how this village is rebuilt,” he says. “If local people and tourism entrepreneurs aren’t careful enough, it’ll be all too easy to see modern concrete buildings here.”

Driving through rural Nepal, you’d be forgiven for thinking the earthquake had happened just weeks ago. Makeshift homes dot its sweeping vistas, children play in the rubble of collapsed buildings. Baby goats roam, a reminder that it’s spring, meaning the monsoon season – bringing with it heavy rain and landslides – is just two months away.

“I don’t see any progress. It’s been one year and volunteers are still clearing rubble,” says Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita, who won the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year 2016 award for her independent relief work following last year’s earthquake. “The government is doing nothing. They only recently started doing a survey of the damage. They should be rebuilding so people can survive this coming monsoon. Last year in Sindhupalchowk alone, 47 people died of the cold.”

The quake-damaged 18th century Nuwakot Palace in the historic village of Nuwakot, Nepal, propped up with poles.