A massive 7.8 earthquake rocked Nepal on April 25, 2015. The government effectively shut down just weeks later after lawmakers couldn’t agree on the provisions of a new national constitution. The National Reconstruction Authority disbanded as a result, and was recommissioned just recently after the new constitution was adopted.
Meanwhile, India, Nepal’s neighbor and strongest trading partner, blocked aid convoys from crossing into Nepal. Depending who you ask, that move was India’s attempt to flex some muscle against Nepal for constitutional proposals it disapproved of, or to protect drivers from confrontations with violent protesters across the border. Either way, the embargo lasted for four months, during which truckloads of food, and fuel, and building supplies languished on a highway while people inside Nepal slept in the rain without knowing when they would get their next meal.
Finally, the government says, a national reconstruction program is getting out of the gate. Let’s hope that’s true, because a lot of catch up is needed before any appreciable progress can be measured. One year later, here’s where things stand:
The toll:
- 9000: people killed;
- 1,000,000: homes destroyed;
- 4,000,000: people still living under substandard temporary conditions.
The “progress”:
- 0: number of homes rebuilt by the National Reconstruction Authority;
- 0: number of schools rebuilt by the National Reconstruction Authority;
- 50: number of people who received “compensation grants” to rebuild destroyed homes;
- $250: amount of money they received.
The money flow:
- $4,100,000,000: amount pledged to Nepal by other nations at international donor conference;
- $0: amount of pledge dollars received.
Reports also say that villagers in the hardest hit remote areas have yet to receive ANY governmental assistance, and still have not been reached by aid groups.
-Kathleen Bergin
May 3, 2016 at 7:03 pm
HI Kathy. What do you know about the Ecuador Earthquake and how that situation is going? I would love to see a post about that.
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May 4, 2016 at 2:18 pm
It’s strange Lori – but the main press outlets that usually report on big disasters haven’t been focusing on Ecuador. Reliefweb.org – which is the UNs humanitarian web portal, posts reports from big donors and relief participants, but the info for the most part is limited to stats about the impact of the earthquake and scope of operational assistance. I wonder if the international press reported on the event, but think it didn’t pack enough punch to stay in focus. I say that cynically of course, because the relative size of the disaster to what happened in other countries doesn’t matter to someone who is affected directly. But I do wonder if that’s why Ecuador hasn’t dominated disaster news.
To give some perspective on this: the earthquake in Ecuador was the biggest that country saw in, what, 30 years I think, but it was much smaller than Nepal and certainly Haiti. Some quick figures:
Nepal: apx 600 people died, 1M displaced (can you even belief this is considered “small”?!?). Nepal: 9000 died, 4M displaced. Haiti: 200,000-300,000 died (estimates vary), 1.6M displaced and living in verified camps – but that doesn’t count (a) people living in the many unregistered camps, and (b) what’s believed to be the majority of displaced who found refuge outside of camps with host families. Five years after Haiti, there were still 85,000 people in displacement camps – which is almost 10 times the number of people who actually died in Nepal, and a whopping 141 times the number of people who died in Ecuador. As they say, “some are worse, but none are better.”
Reliefweb also links to news articles,mostly in Spanish. Local news is where you typically get *unvarnished* info about how relief/reconstruction is playing out. I’ll know more once I find time to look into Eng language reports.
Thanks for caring!!
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