KATHMANDU, Nepal– Millions of people residing in the capital Kathmandu are highly prone to natural disasters, mainly earthquake triggered by unplanned urbanization and crude building construction process that have accelerated in the recent days, thanks to the apathy of the government for not keeping up its promise of building up Kathmandu a model city.
Due to the lack of implementing the building code set by the government and monitoring agency to take action against lawbreakers, about 60 per cent of residential houses in the capital are highly vulnerable to natural disasters, putting millions of people’s life in risk, officials at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development complained.
Though, Nepal National Building Code 2008, the Building Act 1998 and the Local Self-Governance Act 1999 have stressed on to enforce the house construction code for prettiness, security and thoroughly management of the city, only two municipalities of the country– Lalitpur and Dharan are properly abided by the rules while 10 municipalities have partially followed the code while remaining are unwilling to follow up the rules, according to the Municipal Management Division under the Ministry.
Not only the owners of private residence and building but also public and government buildings, including schools, hospitals, and colleges among others have also breached building laws and the government has not penalized anyone yet.
To recall a recent government survey which states there are over 150,000 buildings under 68,085 government institutions, including 4,396 hospitals, 48,076 public schools and 2,744 campuses. Ninety percent of them have not adhered to building codes.