Blockade pushed reconstruction of destroyed health facilities by six months

KATHMANDU, Dec 12: The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) said that the ongoing economic blockade imposed by India on Nepal has pushed the reconstruction of health facilities demolished in the April 25 earthquake by six months.

Out of the 384 health facilities completely destroyed by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake, several donor agencies had pledged to reconstruct 198 health facilities.


Most of the aid agencies had signed memorandum with the MoHP to complete the reconstruction works by December, this year.

"Due to the ongoing economic embargo, construction works have been pushed back by up to six months," Mahendra Bahadur Shrestha, chief of the Policy Planning and International Cooperation Division at the MoHP, said. He informed that the MoHP has so far signed 35 memorandums with various international donor agencies including GIZ, Save the Children, JICA, KOICA and others, who have committed to invest over US$ 3.5 billion in the reconstruction of the 198 health facilities, including district hospitals and central-level hospitals.

"Those health facilities were supposed to be completed by this month but the blockade has pushed the reconstruction works for over six months," Sunil Khadka, Infrastructure Planning Advisor at the MoHP, said. He informed that the donor agencies have postponed the December deadline to June 2016.

According to Khadka, only very few aid agencies and organizations have so far completed the reconstruction works. Due to the scarcity of raw materials, fuel and other essentials, construction of the health facilities have been halted since the India imposed economic sanction on Nepal for almost three months.

The MoHP has resumed health care services from makeshift tents in the 14 earthquake-ravaged districts, where most of the health care facilities were demolished.

Health experts warn of serious setback in the achievements the country has made in health sectors.  They said that the blockade poses serious threat to lives of children and ailing people and has become an obstacle to the government's aim of reducing neonatal death and death related to pneumonia and hypothermia.
Several aid agencies including the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and others have voiced their deep concerns about the worsening shortages of medical supplies.

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