Media Digest | FAQ | Briefing Pack | Meeting & Events | 5W | Housing Progress | Housing Typologies "Flood in Manang district, Gandaki Province” The floods and landslides in Nepal are common phenomena due to its mountainous geographical landscape. This year, the annual Monsoon started earlier than expected as predicted by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) causing flash floods and landslides that have destroyed more than 400 houses and left many more at risk of inundation and being swept away. In Nepal, July-September is considered to be the monsoon season during which major agricultural activities are executed and at the same time flood and landslide disaster are recurrent in most parts of Nepal. HRRP Bulletin Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform, Nepal HIGHLIGHTS ● House Cost Calculator App launched ● Urban Recovery Strategy Study update: Progress review meeting held & ongoing KII with urban stakeholders and other data analysis ● Urban Sharing Session/Webinar organized on ‘Post-Earthquake Urban Housing Recovery in Nepal: Challenges & Recommendations, publication dissemination ● Bagmati Shelter Cluster Coordination update ● Gandaki Shelter Cluster Coordination update ● COVID-19 live updates from Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) FEATURED TECHNICAL STAFF STORY: Suraj Kumar Yadav, Focal Engineer, Makwanpurgadhi Rural Municipality, Makwanpur. Er. Suraj Kumar Yadav is currently working as Focal Engineer at Makwanpurgadhi Rural Municipality of Makwanpur district. He worked at DLPIU for four and half years. He informed that reconstruction progress has taken good shape and almost 85% of housing reconstruction has been completed in Makwanpurgadhi Rural Municipality. Though there were a lot of challenges during reconstruction, local governments, NGOs/INGOs, and DLPIU role was pivotal in addressing challenges faced at the ground level. Housing reconstruction of landless Suraj Kumar Yadav, beneficiaries and retrofitting are the main issues Focal Engineer that need long-term solutions. Makwanpurgadhi Rural Municipality, He said that proper design analysis training is Makwanpur required for retrofitting technicians as soon as possible. According to him, retrofitting is not a big issue, but convincing the beneficiaries on the importance and effectiveness of retrofitting is creating chaos. Community awareness on retrofitting’s importance and effectiveness should be improved. Day-to-day supervision of retrofitting by technicians is also highly 28 June 2021 Page 2 of 33 HRRP Bulletin Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform, Nepal recommended as compared to reconstruction of houses. NATIONAL UPDATES NRA, CLPIU- GMaLI and CLPIU-Building, Grant Disbursement Data, as of 28 June 2021 *N/A indicates that the information source was not accessible at the time of reporting Progress with the disbursement of the GoN housing reconstruction and retrofit grants based on NRA GMaLI CLPIU data as of 28 June 2021 28 June 2021 Page 3 of 33 HRRP Bulletin Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform, Nepal Join us to hear how UN Habitat, IFRC, the Australia Pacific Security College and IMMAP are operationalizing the Nexus and Localization agendas in cities, guided by the settlements and area-based approach.The Urban Settlement Working Group is inviting you to join the webinar scheduled for Wednesday, 30 June 2PM - 3:30 PM CET. Guest speakers from UN Habitat, IFRC, the Australia Pacific College and IMMAP will share their experiences on how the settlements approach can be applied in very different crisis situations. REGISTER HERE House Cost Calculator Application launched On 28 June, the House Cost Calculator (HCC), an application tool developed by the Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform (HRRP) in collaboration with Catholic Relief Services (CRS)-Nepal, National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET)-Nepal and UK-AID with support from Vulnerable Support Working Group (VSWG) Technical Committee Members organizations-Practical Action, Build Change, People In Need, Build Up Nepal, was launched on 28 June. The HCC is a simple and free web and mobile application to calculate the cost of house construction for various housing typologies of different shapes and sizes. This HCC application will print Bill of Quantity (BOQ), after choosing typology, dimensions and location for the user and inputting data in the app as required. The house designs covered by the calculator are residential buildings prepared on the basis of Nepal National Building Code (NBC) 202 and NBC 203. It is developed as a rapid cost calculation tool for estimating the cost based on the typology in the disaster affected areas, which can be beneficial for the households as well as stakeholders involved in the recovery and reconstruction process. It is useful for the engineers, technical staff, mason and other people with basic application use skills. The market rates of construction materials used for cost estimation in the app and the first phase launch is based on and targeted to the 2015 Gorkha 28 June 2021 Page 4 of 33 HRRP Bulletin Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform, Nepal earthquake affected districts of Nepal. During the launch of the App, HRRP made a presentation of the newly developed app specification and its usefulness by highlighting its adaptability, flexibility and its potential for future sustainability. The panelists and guest speakers including Dr. Ramesh Guragain from NSET, CRS Technical Advisor, Mr. Jamie Richardson from CRS and Mr. Loren Lockwood provided their feedback and comments including their interest in taking forward and promoting the application at the regional and global level. Urban Recovery Strategy Study update: Progress review meeting held & ongoing KII with urban stakeholders and other data analysis works HRRP is coordinating the ongoing urban recovery study (March-July) on urban issues, commissioned by NRA with technical support by NSET, CRS and HRRP. An independent consultant team with lead consultant, Surya Bhakta Sangachhe, Urban expert, is leading the study. The objective of the study is to collate learning elements and prepare ground for integration of evidence-based urban strategies into specific government Acts, Policies, Working procedures and Regulation. As part of the study various high-level events, such as the consultative meeting and validation team meetings were held in April organized by the NRA/CLPIU-Building and supported by CRS, NSET, UKAID and HRRP. On 31 May, a progress review meeting was organized by NRA which took stock of the progress made so far by the study in the past few months. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Chandra Bahadur Shrestha, NRA Executive Committee Member and participants included members of the validation team, consultant team and study team members. The meeting started with brief study progress by the consultant team followed by comments from the 5 expert members of the validation team. The presentation and comments followed the next steps and closing and guidance by Dr. Chandra for action points for next steps. The consultant team will aim to submit a draft report by June. After the final report is submitted to the NRA, a wider large-scale meeting will be held. The final report will be put in the NRA’s ICNR to be held in Dec 2021. The consultant/study team continues to collate information, data and drafting the report sections while holding Key informant Interviews (KIIs) with urban stakeholders, local governments, among others. As of the third week of June, of the planned KIIIs (of 15), 9 KIIs have been completed while others are in the pipeline for next few weeks and the KII 28 June 2021 Page 5 of 33 HRRP Bulletin Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform, Nepal schedule has been understandably impacted due to the COVID-19 2nd wave as well as local level FY budget preparation period. In addition to the previous six KIIs, 3 new KII were held this month, with the CEO of Nepal Microfinance Bankers’ Association (NMBA), Mayor of Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC) and Conservationist Rabindra Puri. Together with the KIIs, an analysis of issues coming out from these interviews is being done by the study team. Likewise, desk review of the NRA’s 22 policies and guidelines is also being carried out. For more information, please write to Bishan Wagle, Urban Coordination Officer; [email protected] Urban Sharing Session/Webinar organized on ‘Post-Earthquake Urban Housing Recovery in Nepal: Challenges & Recommendations, publication dissemination On 9 June, a sharing session on Post-Earthquake Urban Housing Research Study Publication: ‘Post-Earthquake Urban Housing Recovery in Nepal: Challenges & Recommendations’ was organized by HRRP together with Urban Reconstruction Technical Working Group (UR-TWG), CRS & UKAID on the above-mentioned theme. This webinar mainly focused as a dissemination of the new report and to inform about the publication and share in brief the identified issues of urban housing recovery and the proposed recommendations, among the stakeholders. The webinar session had a panel of 2 speakers and 3 expert commentators (national and international). The speakers were: Ms. Lajana Manandhar, Executive Director, LUMANTI, Ms. Bhubaneswari Parajuli, National Coordinator-Technical, HRRP. Likewise, the panel members/key Commentators included: Mr. Jhapper Singh Vishokarma, Deputy Project Director, NRA/CLPIU-Building; Ms. Sahdia Khan, Building Safe, Dignified Homes and Communities Platform Coordinator, CRS and Mr. Surya Bhakta Sangachhe, Urban Expert/Independent Consultant. The 2 speakers' presentations followed