The 2015 Nepal Earthquake: From Rescue to Reconstruction

Abstract

Nepal is confronted by an increasing number of natural- and human-induced disasters, making it the most disaster-prone country in the world. Landslides, floods, droughts, fires, thunderbolts, blockades, and earthquakes, among others, occur frequently. All these disasters take a high toll on people and cause heavy damage to physical properties worth billions of dollars every year. One of the recent examples in the history of disasters was the devastating earthquakes that struck Nepal in 2015 taking away human lives, destroying physical infrastructures, altering cultures, challenging institutions, and devastating the hope and ambitions of people. Thirty-three of the Nepal’s 75 districts were affected, at different degrees, and 14 out of 33 were badly damaged by the two major earthquakes on the 26th of April and the 12th of May 2015. This chapter provides a reflective dialogue on the current state of the disaster-recovery process with a focus on the delivery of recovery services aiming to (1) understand how key actors are responding to disaster-recovery works in Nepal and (2) identify knowledge gaps in the disaster response policy and research arenas in managing future disasters in Nepal.

Citation

Pandey, C.L. (2017), "The 2015 Nepal Earthquake: From Rescue to Reconstruction", Recovering from Catastrophic Disaster in Asia (Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management, Vol. 18), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 161-176. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2040-726220160000018008