JICA’s reconstruction project benefits 95,000 people

KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 26

JICA’s Emergency Housing Reconstruction Project has completed.

The Emergency Housing Reconstruction Project funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency was completed earlier than the originally targeted completion date.

On this occasion, a closing ceremony was held virtually yesterday. The ceremony was attended by NRA CEO Sushil Gyewali, NRA Secretary Suresh Acharya, Ambassador of Japan to Nepal Masamichi Saigo, JICA Chief Representative Yumiko Asakuma and several other high ranking officials.

EHRP is a Japanese loan project amounting JPY 12 billion yen equivalent to about NPR 12 billion. The main objective of EHRP was to restore and improve the living condition of the victims of the Nepal’s 2015 earthquakes, by reconstructing the destroyed and damaged houses using an adequate seismic standard of construction.

With the principle of Build Back Better, EHRP provided technical assistance to more than 95,000 housing reconstruction beneficiaries in the target areas of Gorkha and Sindhupalchowk. EHRP also provided financial aid to the government for providing housing grant.

The housing grant was provided to about 34,000 beneficiaries who successfully completed quake-resilient houses.

As of November 2020, almost 90 per cent of beneficiaries completed their house construction in JICA’s target area.

The Community Mobilisation Programme was one key factor for the success of housing reconstruction which optimised the power of the community and promoted mutual support.

It also created job opportunity for over 500 mobile masons, who were instrumental in assisting the house owners for reconstruction.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Ambassador Saigo recalled his field visit to EHRP area, where the mobile mason, house owner, technical support staff and the whole community were working together in a well-organised way and shared his observation on the reason behind of completing the project successfully before the original schedule.

 

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