The post-disaster reconstruction should be more than replacing damaged houses and infrastructure. It should be an opportunity to make Nepal’s settlements and buildings safer, more resilient, and better suited to a changing climate and potential disasters.
While relief and rescue operations from the 2026 Bhotekoshi-Trishuli floods continue, reconstruction planning should not wait. Rebuilding homes, roads, and bridges exactly where they were may feel natural, but restoring unsafe locations and designs only recreates the same risk. The 2026 disaster raises a broader national and local planning question: where and how should Nepal build amid steep mountains, active rivers, unstable slopes, and increasingly unpredictable glacier- and rock-induced floods?
Nepal faces recurring earthquakes, floods, landslides, and other hazards. According to the World Bank, more than 80 percent of its population is exposed to a major natural hazard every few years, and climate change is increasing uncertainty through shifting glaciers, warming permafrost, heavier rainfall, floods, and landslides. Reconstruction should address these multi-hazard assessments.
First, Decide Where It Is Safe to Build
In reconstruction, site selection matters more than designing the building. Before large-scale work begins, affected areas should be mapped for hazards. Geologists, hydrologists, geotechnical and civil engineers, planners, and local officials should jointly identify land suitable for permanent settlement and areas where development should be restricted or prohibited. At minimum, the assessment should evaluate flood depth and velocity, river erosion, debris flows, landslides, slope stability, seismic hazards, and drainage patterns.
Some areas should be designated as no-build zones. Others may be suitable for development only with specific engineering measures. Relatively safe areas can be designated for normal settlement expansion. Local governments have often allowed settlements and infrastructure to develop spontaneously and incrementally without considering cumulative hazard exposure, and residents have paid the price.
Floodplains deserve particular attention. A "100-year flood" does not mean a flood that occurs once every 100 years. It means an event with approximately a one percent probability of occurring in any given year. Over 30 years, the probability of experiencing at least one such event is roughly 26 percent. More importantly, historical flood probabilities may no longer adequately describe future risks as the climate changes rapidly.
Floodplain planning should consider several possible events, including glacier-induced floods, extreme rainfall, debris, and riverbank erosion. Wherever possible, flood-prone land should be reserved for uses that can tolerate periodic flooding, such as agriculture, open space, parks, forests, and recreation, and not for permanent residences and critical facilities. This would also protect some of Nepal's most productive agricultural land from urban or rural building development.
Critical facilities, including hospitals, emergency centers, schools used as shelters, communications facilities, and government buildings, require especially careful site selection to avoid potential hazards.
A Safe Settlement Must Also Support a Livelihood
A settlement that is physically safe but economically unviable will fail. Nepal has learned this lesson in previous relocation and reconstruction efforts. For example, residents displaced in Laprak, Gorkha, by the 2015 earthquake were provided with 600 brand-new residential units at another location in Laprak. However, they returned to their original locations because the new settlement did not accommodate farming, livestock, or other aspects of their livelihood. Similarly, a 233-unit housing complex built in 2012 for landless squatters in Ichangu Narayan, Kathmandu Valley, remained largely unused because residents lacked access to jobs and livelihood opportunities. This is why settlement planning must begin with the question: How will people here make a living?
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New settlements should be compact rather than sprawling. Where possible, farmland should remain within a practical walking, cycling, or short vehicle trip of homes. Local commercial activity, small enterprises, tourism, and other employment opportunities should be incorporated into the settlement plan. In rural Nepal, land is part of the household economy and social identity. Reconstruction that ignores this reality is unlikely to be durable.
Drainage Should Not Be an Afterthought
Many settlement problems begin with water management. When roads, roofs, walls, and other impervious surfaces are added to a hillside, rainfall that once infiltrated the ground becomes rapid surface runoff. If natural drainage channels are blocked or undersized, water can accumulate or be redirected toward houses and roads. Natural streams and drainage paths should be identified and protected before locating buildings. Where appropriate, retention or detention ponds can temporarily store stormwater and release it gradually. Vegetated swales and other forms of green infrastructure can slow runoff and reduce the burden on conventional drains.
For example, large drainage pipes in several locations east of Tribhuvan International Airport were removed because they obstructed water flow and caused flooding in the Pepsi-Cola area of Bhaktapur. Since their removal, flooding has not recurred, even during heavier rainfall.
Rainwater harvesting should also be encouraged. Roof runoff can be collected in tanks or other storage systems for irrigation, cleaning, and, with appropriate treatment, potentially potable use. The objective is to manage the entire movement of water through the settlement.
Building Codes Can Save Lives If They Are Followed
Since the 2015 earthquake, Nepal has made substantial progress in earthquake-resistant construction. Its series of National Building Codes (NBC) set technical standards for seismic design and for reinforced concrete, masonry, steel, timber, and other building systems. Separate guidelines also address bamboo, reinforced cement concrete, and masonry construction. These documents are designed to protect occupants’ health and safety and must be strictly followed. Reconstruction funding should be linked to code compliance and quality control of design and construction.
Residential buildings need sound foundations, strong structural connections, proper reinforcement, suitable wall configurations, and skilled workmanship. Qualified structural engineers should design larger buildings. In flood- and landslide-prone areas, buildings must withstand water, erosion, slope movement, flooding, and earthquakes. A well-constructed house can survive severe flooding. During the Bhotekoshi flood, a 40-year-old blue-green house remained intact because it had a reinforced-concrete frame, deep pillar foundations, high-quality materials, and a large boulder on its upstream side.
Traditional Materials with Modern Engineering
Stone, timber, mud, and bamboo have long shaped Nepal’s building traditions and, when carefully selected and engineered, can remain valuable materials. Concrete and steel will remain essential for many buildings and infrastructure projects. However, suitable local materials can lower transportation costs, create local jobs, and reduce environmental impacts.
Bamboo is especially useful in many parts of Nepal because it is lightweight, fast-growing, and locally cultivable. Its low weight can also support earthquake-resistant construction. However, bamboo buildings require proper treatment, structural connections, fire protection, and maintenance. Modern engineering should strengthen traditional knowledge rather than replicate it without technical review. The Department of Urban Development and Building Construction’s (DUDBC) 2025 bamboo construction manual provides useful guidance. Similarly, masonry, stone, steel, and timber use should also follow sound technical evaluation according to Nepal Building Codes (NBC).
Let the Natural Setting Help
Forests, vegetation, wetlands, terraces, and natural drainage systems all perform useful functions for settlements and buildings. Vegetation can reduce surface erosion and help regulate surface runoff. Wetlands and open areas can temporarily hold water. Agricultural terraces can control both water movement and slope stability. A disaster-resilient settlement should retain its natural landscape elements and drainage system.
Respecting the cultural landscape is equally important. Residents have knowledge that maps and engineering studies cannot fully capture. They know local water flows, livestock areas, farmland, monsoon-accessible routes, and culturally significant places. When relocation is necessary, affected communities should help choose the site and shape housing, agricultural arrangements, public facilities, and access to livelihoods. The goal is to build thriving communities, not isolated housing colonies.
Recommended Nine Practical Priorities
For reconstruction, the authorities should consider nine immediate priorities:
First, complete multi-hazard land mapping before approving major reconstruction sites.
Second, establish clear no-build and restricted-development zones for high-risk areas.
Third, protect agricultural land but keep new settlements connected to livelihoods.
Fourth, make drainage and watershed management an integral part of settlement planning right from the beginning.
Fifth, require strict compliance with many relevant documents of Nepal's National Building Code series and strengthen municipal inspection.
Sixth, protect natural drainage channels, wetlands, forests, and other landscape features that contribute to resilience.
Seventh, encourage appropriate use of local materials supplemented by modern engineering.
Eighth, incorporate emergency access, evacuation routes, and safe public spaces into settlement plans.
Ninth, involve affected residents in decisions about relocation, planning, and reconstruction.
These measures mayinitially cost more money, but save big later.
These measures may initially cost more money, but they save much more in the long run.
A Chance We Should Not Waste
The Bhotekoshi-Trishuli flood disaster has left thousands of families facing loss and uncertainty. They need rapid aid and a firm commitment to rebuild safer communities, not merely replace what the flood destroyed. Nepal’s geography will not change, but we can change where and how we build.
Reconstruction is a national planning opportunity. Better hazard maps, enforced building standards, protected floodplains and drainage, safer infrastructure alignment, and livelihood access can turn today’s public investment into long-term resilience. We cannot prevent every disaster, but we can prevent many from becoming catastrophes.
(Dr. Ambika P. Adhikari is an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), Kathmandu, Nepal, and an Honorary Global Futures Scholar at Arizona State University, USA. Dr. Keshav Bhattarai is a Professor of Geography at the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO, USA. He researches and teaches topics in GIS, remote sensing, tourism, geography, and forest economics.)
