KATHMANDU, March 28: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has decided to provide training to over 14,000 masons and engineers and deploy them to retrofit partially-damaged houses in all 31 earthquake-hit districts.
In lack of trained masons and technicians, a total of 24,991 households whose houses were partially damaged in the 2015 earthquakes have not been able to retrofit their houses and are still living in the damaged houses, risking their lives.
Failure to train masons on time slows reconstruction
The NRA has decided to organize retrofitting trainings in all the affected districts as a special campaign and train over 14,000 masons including 2,000 engineers. The authority has collaborated with three international donor organizations -- DFID, UNOPS and Build Change -- in order to organize large-scale trainings. The NRA provides a total of Rs 100,000 in two installments to the victims whose houses were partially damaged and need retrofitting.
“Apart from training masons, as many as 1,000 partially-damaged houses in various earthquake-hit districts will be retrofitted so that those houses can be a model for those masons and technicians seeking trainings,” said Yam Lal Bhusal, spokesperson of NRA.
He said that the three donor organizations have already developed a curriculum for the training. “Some paper works have yet to be completed. All the preparations will be completed within the next two weeks and we will start providing training,” he said, adding that the trainings will start from mid-April.
A large number of victims whose houses were partially-damaged are in Makwanpur, Kavrepalanchowk, Ramechhap, Okhaldhunga, Sindhuli, Gorkha and Dhading districts. In Makwanpur alone, as many as 4,152 houses need to be retrofitted, according to NRA.
