I am now preparing to leave after a month here in Nepal. Officially the immediate emergency phase of food distribution, seeds and tools, shelter , hygiene kits etc. is now coming to an end and we are in phase 2...recovery.
I took some time to stand on the balcony of my flat here in Kathmandu this afternoon. When I arrived back in mid May the open ground opposite was covered with tents, tarpaulins and makeshift shelters as everyone was fearful of another earthquake. No one wanted to sleep inside in case of a collapse during the aftershocks. Now I look again and there are no tents left, people have gradually made their way back into the houses, the schools have opened again and the notorious traffic is back on the streets, blocking the roads and causing a lot of pollution in the process. One could say that life has returned to normal, we even have electricity cuts i.e. load shedding again ( i.e. blackouts for 12 hours a day)
However it is not a return to normal, people still have to carry the fear that the cracks in the house may turn into a need to demolish it , that the cracks in the ground may turn into landslides and most of all there seems a resignation that this event will take years and years to recover from. I feel as if people, despite being exhausted and mourning, are now settling into the long haul of recovery. The grit and determination of this amazing group of people is a real inspiration.
Monday, June 08, 2015
Saturday, June 06, 2015
Cleaning up the debris
Just back from village visits, it is going to be along haul for Nepal to rebuild in the hills areas as nearly all houses are affected. The earthquake ( the first one, biggest one) took 56 seconds. I was in a friends house this week and he showed me on the ceiling where his pendant lamp fitting ( hanging from the ceiling) had impacted and damaged the ceiling above. Imagine the force to make it swing thorough at least 90 degrees! then count off 56 seconds , similar time to a minutes silence we often keep. The damage caused in that minute is going to take 5 maybe 10 years to repair.
In the villages I saw over the last few days some houses are completely destroyed, others look OK at a distance but when you walk past them you can see the walls are nearly always cracked from side to side or the gable ends are coming out or the roof is about to fall in. The construction of houses in the hills is a type of dry stone walling or wooden frame covered with mud and straw. Here it is called lipnu but in Devon we would say cob. Once that cracks and with the monsoon any day, there is little choice for them but to stay out in tents or makeshift shelters.
There is a particular smell as one walks through these villages, it is of dust and old fusty materials exposed to the air for the first time in years, mixed with smoke and soot ( many fallen buildings caught fire as everyone cooks on wood fires and the dry debris would have caught). Every now and again you can get the unmistakeable smell of decomposing bodies ( mainly livestock killed and not yet disposed of , but some human remains too). It is 37degrees C during the day in most areas, we now hope for the rains to wash away the debris but the next step is to ensure drinking water is kept clean.
In the villages I saw over the last few days some houses are completely destroyed, others look OK at a distance but when you walk past them you can see the walls are nearly always cracked from side to side or the gable ends are coming out or the roof is about to fall in. The construction of houses in the hills is a type of dry stone walling or wooden frame covered with mud and straw. Here it is called lipnu but in Devon we would say cob. Once that cracks and with the monsoon any day, there is little choice for them but to stay out in tents or makeshift shelters.
There is a particular smell as one walks through these villages, it is of dust and old fusty materials exposed to the air for the first time in years, mixed with smoke and soot ( many fallen buildings caught fire as everyone cooks on wood fires and the dry debris would have caught). Every now and again you can get the unmistakeable smell of decomposing bodies ( mainly livestock killed and not yet disposed of , but some human remains too). It is 37degrees C during the day in most areas, we now hope for the rains to wash away the debris but the next step is to ensure drinking water is kept clean.
Tuesday, June 02, 2015
Veggies
Sorry for the delay in writing since my last blog. It has been quite hectic, we had a huge aftershock on Saturday night at around 10.30pm. My bed was moving all over the place and in no time everyone was out on the street. However after some minutes the panic was over and we all trooped back again. It must have been around 5.5-6.0, as some of the neighbours were saying they don't bother getting out of bed for anything under a 5 nowadays!
Great news, the application I submitted a few weeks ago for around $200,000 for the first part of the seeds programme has come through. Rice seed has gone out and we have placed orders for 7500 vegetable seed packs today. Each pack contains 19 different veg seeds which we have crossed checked with the health team to make sure they have a good range of nutritive benefits. These are now going out with the cultivation tools and we will follow that with millet seed later.
We are now procuring waterproof grain bags so the existing wheat which is still being harvested can be safely stored before the monsoon as any remaining shelter is being used by the people.
There are very large cracks in many of the fields and terraces so the irrigation system is not working well. There is a fear that in the monsoon these cracks will allow more rain to percolate than normal and cause more landslides. Not much we can do at this stage but advise to cultivate away from the edges.
Great news, the application I submitted a few weeks ago for around $200,000 for the first part of the seeds programme has come through. Rice seed has gone out and we have placed orders for 7500 vegetable seed packs today. Each pack contains 19 different veg seeds which we have crossed checked with the health team to make sure they have a good range of nutritive benefits. These are now going out with the cultivation tools and we will follow that with millet seed later.
We are now procuring waterproof grain bags so the existing wheat which is still being harvested can be safely stored before the monsoon as any remaining shelter is being used by the people.
There are very large cracks in many of the fields and terraces so the irrigation system is not working well. There is a fear that in the monsoon these cracks will allow more rain to percolate than normal and cause more landslides. Not much we can do at this stage but advise to cultivate away from the edges.
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