Dhading Detailed Needs Assessment

Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Nepal

June - July 2015 ACTED HQ 33, rue Godot de Mauroy 75009 Paris,France Tel: +33 1 42653333 [email protected]

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 Contents ...... 1 ACRONYMS ...... 5 INTRODUCTION ...... 6 METHODOLOGY...... 7 Tools...... 7 Sample size ...... 7 Data collection and analysis ...... 8 Limitations ...... 8 MAP ...... 10 Executive summary ...... 11 Main findings ...... 11 Recommendations ...... 18 MAIN FINDINGS ...... 27 Demographics ...... 27 Table 1. Population per VDC ...... 27 Table 2. Number of Households per Caste per VDC ...... 28 Contextual Background...... 28 Damages caused by the earthquakes ...... 28 Ward accessibility ...... 29 Market Accessibility ...... 30 Recommendations: ...... 31 Shelter ...... 32 Type of Housing...... 32 Figure 1: Housing types in Dhading ...... 32 Vulnerabilities of Type of Housing ...... 34 Assistance Received ...... 35 Figure 2. Shelter Assistance per VDC (multiple answer) ...... 36 Shelter Needs of the Communities ...... 36 Figure 3. Living arrangements in Dhading after the earthquakes ...... 36 Women’s Perspective on Shelter Needs ...... 37 Recommendations ...... 38 Non-Food Items ...... 39 Assistance Received ...... 39 Figure 4. Non Food Items Assistance per VDC (multiple answers) ...... 40 NFI Needs of the Communities ...... 40 Women’s Perspective on NFI Needs ...... 41

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 Recommendations ...... 42 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) ...... 43 Main Sources of Drinking Water ...... 43 Table 3. Number of households per Gravity Water Supply Scheme ...... 44 Damages to Water Sources ...... 44 Figure 5: Water availability per VDC ...... 45 Women’s Perspective on Damages to Water Sources ...... 46 WASH Needs of the Communities ...... 46 Latrines and Hygiene Practices ...... 47 Recommendations ...... 48 Food Security ...... 49 Assistance Received ...... 49 Figure 6.1: Food relief received per VDC ...... 50 Figure 6.2: Food relief received per VDC ...... 50 Figure 7: How long the food would last after completion of field assessment ...... 51 Food Needs of the Communities ...... 52 Women’s Perspective on Food Needs ...... 52 Recommendations ...... 53 Livelihoods...... 54 Main Livelihoods ...... 54 Figure 8: Main Livelihoods in Dhading ...... 54 Crop agriculture ...... 55 Plantation and harvesting time ...... 56 Livestock rearing...... 56 Women’s perspective on Livelihood ...... 57 Women in Katunje ward 8, FGD held on 12.06.15 ...... 57 Division of Labour ...... 58 Table 4. Division of Labour in Agriculture ...... 58 Table 5. Division of Labour in Livestock Rearing ...... 59 Women’s perspective on Division of Labour ...... 59 Assistance Received ...... 60 Livelihoods Needs of the Communities ...... 60 Women’s Perspective on Livelihoods Needs...... 61 Recommendations ...... 61 Infrastructures and Education ...... 63 Access to main roads...... 63 Access to education ...... 63

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 Table 6. Number of schools per VDC before the earthquakes ...... 63 Figure 9: Level of school destruction per VDC ...... 64 Women’s perspective on access to education ...... 64 Education Needs ...... 65 Recommendations ...... 65 Health ...... 66 Access to Health Facilities ...... 66 Figure 10: Location of health care provision ...... 66 Women’s perspective on access to health facilities ...... 67 Healthcare Needs ...... 67 Recommendations ...... 68 Coping Strategies ...... 68 Figure 11. Coping Strategies of Households ...... 69 Women’s perspective on Coping Strategies ...... 70 Recommendations ...... 70 Conclusion ...... 72 ANNEXES ...... 74 Annex 1 – Gravity Water Supply Schemes Damaged but Functioning ...... 74 Annex 2 – Gravity Water Supply Schemes Destroyed and Non-Functioning ...... 75

Table 1. Population per VDC ...... 27 Table 2. Number of Households per Caste per VDC ...... 28 Table 3. Number of households per Gravity Water Supply Scheme ...... 44 Table 4. Division of Labour in Agriculture ...... 58 Table 5. Division of Labour in Livestock Rearing ...... 59 Table 6. Number of schools per VDC before the earthquakes ...... 63

Figure 1: Housing types in Dhading ...... 32 Figure 2. Shelter Assistance per VDC (multiple answer) ...... 36 Figure 3. Living arrangements in Dhading after the earthquakes ...... 36 Figure 4. Non Food Items Assistance per VDC (multiple answers) ...... 40 Figure 5: Water availability per VDC ...... 45 Figure 6.1: Food relief received per VDC ...... 50 Figure 6.2: Food relief received per VDC ...... 50 Figure 7: How long the food would last after completion of field assessment ...... 51 Figure 8: Main Livelihoods in Dhading ...... 54 Figure 9: Level of school destruction per VDC ...... 64 Figure 10: Location of health care provision ...... 66 Figure 11. Coping Strategies of Households ...... 69

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

ACRONYMS

AMEU – Appraisal, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit FGD – Focus Group Discussion INGO – International Non-Governmental Organisation KII – Key Informant Interview NFI – Non-Food Items PDD – Project Development Department VDC – Village Development Committee WASH- Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

INTRODUCTION

On the 25th April 2015, Nepal was hit by a 7.8 earthquake, causing major damages to houses and infrastructures, killing over 8,800 people and injuring thousands more. Government has reported that 30 out of overall 75 districts were affected, including highly populated areas in Kathmandu Vally but mostly remote areas in the mountains, especially Sindhupalchowk, Kavre, Nuwakot, Rasuva, and Dolakha districts in the central region and in Kaski, Gorkha, Lamnjung districts in the Western region1.

A subsequent 7.3 earthquake hit the country on the 12th May 2015, with its epicentre in Sindhupalchowk. Multiple aftershocks have since been experienced, leading thousands of traumatized households to sleep outside in makeshift shelters in fear of further collapsing. As of 7th of July 2015, it is estimated that about 600,000 houses were fully damaged by both earthquakes, with an additional 280,000 houses being partially damaged, adding up to more than two thirds of the country’s buildings having been affected by the 2015 earthquakes2.

ACTED has established its Nepal mission two days after the first earthquake, engaging in relief distribution and conducting needs assessments in the field. ACTED has its capital office in Kathmandu and operates in three area bases in Sindhupalchowk, Dhading and Solukhumbu districts as well as in the sub-base of Dolakha District. ACTED is also implementing activities in Sankhu (Shankarpur municipality, Kathmandu district).

A month and half after the first earthquake, AMEU and the Coordination teams decided to conduct a detailed assessment on the vulnerabilities and needs of the affected communities in ACTED targeted areas. The main objective of this assessment is twofold: i) inform the Project Development Department (PDD) on the needs of the communities in order to design future proposals, and ii) inform coordination on the needs of communities in order to target the most vulnerable and overlooked communities.

1 OCHA in Nepal, “About the crisis”, http://www.unocha.org/nepal/about-ocha-nepal/about-crisis, accessed 12th of July 2015 2 OCHA in Nepal, “Nepal Earthquake, Humanitarian Snapshot – as 7th of July 2015”, http://reliefweb.int/report/nepal/nepal-earthquake-humanitarian- snapshot-07-july-2015, accessed 12th of July 2015

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

METHODOLOGY Tools

This assessment was based on both quantitative and qualitative tools. Two quantitative surveys with Key-Informant Interviews (KII) were used to collect quantitative data to provide ACTED with detailed findings and statistics on the needs and vulnerabilities of the targeted communities.

Considering Nepal’s ranking on the Gender Inequality Index3 and the significant level of discrimination towards women and girls, AMEU also developed two tools aiming at providing ACTED with comprehensive understanding of women’s perspective regarding the specific challenges they face and their priority needs that need to be covered.

The survey questionnaires were conducted at the ward level, with ward leaders (or, if not available, with an individual with good knowledge of the ward and respected authority, such as teachers) and with prominent female figures, including teachers, Women Committee leaders and Female Committee Health Volunteers. These tools aimed at understanding the needs and vulnerabilities of communities in ACTED targeted areas. Both questionnaires collected quantitative information on the needs of the communities in terms of shelter, non-food items (NFI), water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health and education, food security, livelihoods and coping strategies of households. The ward leaders questionnaires collected more detailed information on demographics of the ward, relief received, infrastructures present in the ward, damages (to houses and infrastructure) and markets available.

Qualitative data was collected through Focus-Group Discussions (FGDs) with women. FGDs aimed at better understanding the difficulties faced by women and girls and how their needs may vary from the general population in terms of shelter, non-food items, food, water, health facilities, latrines, security, livelihoods and distributions.

Sample size

Data was collected in five Village Development Committees (VDCs) in Dhading, namely Darkha, Gumdi, Katunje, Marpak and Semjong. Every nine wards in each VDC were assessed. In total, 45 ward leaders and 45 women leaders were interviewed, including 38 female Health Volunteers, 2 Women Committee Members and 5 teachers of 36 of age in average.

3 http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/gender-inequality-index-gii (accessed 26/07/15)

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 FGDs were conducted in random VDCs and wards, depending on accessibility. Random women were asked to gather to participate in an open group discussion. Two FGDs in Katunje and Semjong VDCs were conducted with a total of 24 women (18 in Katunje and 6 in Semjong).

Data collection and analysis

Data was collected from the 9th to 16th June 2015. Enumerators were newly hired ACTED Programme staff. FGDs were collected by the AME Manager assisted by a female translator. Forms were daily crosschecked to avoid any discrepancies in data by the Area Coordinator and/or Programme Manager. Quantitative analysis was done using Excel software by ACTED’s Database Officer in Kathmandu.

Limitations

AMEU identified four main limitations to this assessment.

1. Demographic data could only be collected on registered households. Indeed, AMEU discovered that only land and / or property owners could register their households in their respective wards. Local authorities do not recognize landless people as ward inhabitants. Lessees, for example, are not registered on official records. As per an informal conversation with the member of an unregistered household4, this very often leads to blunt discrimination towards unregistered households / landless people in terms of accessing relief. These households count therefore amongst the most highly vulnerable of all; however, INGOs, including ACTED, do not have authorization from national and local authorities to select them as beneficiaries.

2. Figures were sometimes conflicting between the data collected from ward leaders and women leaders. AMEU favoured information data collected from women’s questionnaires when conflicting numbers referred to women-related issues; it favoured data obtained from ward leaders when the question required solid knowledge about community structures and general organisation of the wards since the earthquakes. Yet both women leaders’ data and ward leaders’ data were always used for comparison.

3. Most figures, especially those related to demographics, distance to infrastructure/market and livelihoods, are based on rough estimations provided by our respondents who might not always have sufficient knowledge to give an accurate answer.

4 In Dolakha district.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 4. During Focus Group Discussions, women were asked about security threats such as Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and gender-related while accessing relief. These two questions did not yield much data, which might be explained by the choice of data collection tool. Indeed, Focus Group Discussions are not individual interviews ensuring confidentiality for all information shared and are usually conducted in open, public areas. As this cannot be considered as a safe place for women to share intimate concerns, it may be possible that women restrained themselves from revealing any security incident, threat or discrimination.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

MAP

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Executive summary

Main findings

Demographics & Contextual Background

 The total population for the seven targeted VDCs is approximately 37,191 for 6,673 households.  The average household size is 6 members across all VDCs, going up to 7 in Darkha.  There is a high proportion of women-headed households in all assessed VDCs, ranging from 10 to 29%.  Important to bear in mind is that the proportion of women-headed households in Marpak VDC almost goes up to one third of the VDC population.  12.4% of households are headed by an elderly member across all VDCs.  While 100% of assessed VDCs have been affected by the 25th of April earthquake, only 17.8% reported that the second earthquake on 12th of May caused damages in their VDCs, including in Gumdi, Darkha and Marpak.  In terms of accessibility, VDCs were asked about different means of transportation. No ward was accessible by car before the earthquakes; yet 91.1% were accessible by 4x4 and 95.6% were accessible by truck.  Darkha ward 3, Gumdi ward 7, Marpak 7 and 8 and Semtong wards 1 and 2 are completely inaccessible with these means of transportation after the earthquakes, implying that people have to use tractors or walk to reach those wards.  Wards 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8 reported a food market in their wards in Darkha  Wards 4, 5 and 6 reported a food market in their wards in Gumdi  All ward leaders reported a food market in their wards in Katunje  None of the ward leaders reported an accessible market in their ward in Marpak  All wards except for ward 8 in Semjong said that there was a food market there.

Shelter

 Most popular types of housing in Dhading District slightly differ from other districts as mud and stones houses are not the most common type reported. Indeed, 61.2% of houses are reported being made with stones and mud mortar; yet with CGI roofing. 27.2 of the houses are made with stones and mud mortar only though.  As per estimations of the ward leaders, 5,543 houses have been fully destroyed and 1,193 damaged beyond repair in Dhading, which represents 99.6% of all houses.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  Mud and stone houses are considered as one of the most vulnerable housing types to earthquakes, followed by mud, stone walls and CGI roofing houses.  Concrete stone walls with CGI roofing are not considered at risk during an earthquake by ward leaders.  91.1% of ward leaders reported that their wards did receive shelter assistance after the first earthquakes. Only Darkha ward 1, Gumdi ward 6 and Marpak wards 7 and 8 did not.  40% of the ward leaders reported that they did not receive any shelter assistance from the government in Dhading. This goes up to 67% in Gumdi.  Following the earthquakes and as a result of the damages and trauma, 45.6% were living in makeshift shelter with material salvaged from their former house at the time of the assessment and one out of five households were living in makeshift shelter made with tarpaulins. 18.4% were also living in tents.  All Ward leaders ranked CGI sheets as the most urgent material to be provided to people in Dhading.  All Women Leaders ranked CGI sheets as the most urgent material to be provided to people in Dhading, This result correlates with ward leaders’ answers, thus further highlighting the urgency to distribute CGI sheets to Dhading’s households.  As per ward leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of shelter are the following: CGI sheets, ropes and nails, toolkits, timber for frame and training on Build Back Safer techniques.  As per women leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of shelter are the following: CGI sheets, ropes and nails, toolkits, Steel wires, Insulation material.

Non Food Items

 While access to durable shelter may prevail over other priorities, non-food items (NFI) needs also remain dire, especially for women. Women participants in Focus Group Discussions held in Dhading shared that they did not have money to buy clothes, kitchen utensils or hygiene items such as menstrual sanitary pads.  When asked if people received any assistance other than shelter, ward leaders responded that 20.1% received hygiene kits, 10.9% solar lamps (but mainly in Darkha and only a few in Katunje as well) and 39.1% received bedding equipment. Almost no household (0.3%) received toolkits and only very few households in Darkha and Semjong (2.9%) received kitchen sets.  As per ward leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of non-food items are the following: bedding, toolkits, kitchen sets, hygiene kits, and solar lamps.  As per women leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of food are the following: Kitchen sets, solar lamps, hygiene kits, menstrual sanitary pads and bedding.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 WASH

 Gravity water supply schemes are the most common source of drinking water, with a total of 240 schemes reported to cover water needs of 6,606 households (99% of all population).  Across all VDCs, all ward leaders except for one reported that those gravity water supply schemes were made with plastic pipes (HDP). Only Katunje ward 3 reported to use galvanised iron pipes.  In average, one gravity water supply scheme provides water to 27 households.  Damages to water infrastructures have left 853 households (12.8% of the population) with no or limited access to drinking water. This goes up to 31.4% in Katunje VDC.  68.9% of women leaders affirmed that the main water source in their ward had been damaged by the earthquakes, which has affected women and girls’ access to water in the assessed wards according to 84.4% of the women leaders.  HDP pipes are the most urgent material needed to rehabilitate water points in Dhading followed by cement / concrete for water tanks and GI pipes.  Prior the earthquake, 85% of the households had septic tank latrines; yet 9.3% had no latrine at all and this proportion alarmingly goes up to 31.4% in Darkha VDC.  Ward leaders reported that those with no latrines practiced either open defecation, including defecating in pig sheds, and / or used shared or public latrines.  Following the earthquakes, access to latrines has been tremendously impacted, with 88.9% that have no access to latrines any more. Only 6% of the assessed ward leaders report that households in their ward still have access to functional septic tank latrines.  60% of the respondents said that people had to practice open defecation after the earthquakes due to lack of alternative solutions and 37.8% use temporary latrines. 15.6% also report that households have to share latrines.  93.3% of women leaders reported that women and girls used private latrines prior to the earthquakes. However, 17.8% reported that open defecation was sometimes practiced as well by women and girls.  Since the earthquakes, according to 46.7% of women leaders, women and girls have to practice open defecation due to lack of alternatives. Only 15.6% still had access to a private latrine and the same proportion was using shared latrines between several households. Women respondents also report using temporary latrines.  One other defecation practice reported is alarming, as women shared with ACTED staff that they were going to the pig sheds to defecate, which could provoke the transmission of communicable diseases through permanent physical contact between livestock and faeces.  In terms of hygiene practices, 20% of the ward leaders declared that households did not wash their hands after defecation or prior eating or cooking, including a high proportion of Darkha households (66.7%, wards 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8) and 11.1% in Gumdi (ward 2), Katunje (ward 7) and Marpak (ward 9). All ward leaders in Semjong assert that hand washing is common practice.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Food security

 All ward leaders reported that their community received some kind of food relief since the earthquakes. 99.9% (6,668 households across VDCs) received rice, 86.4% received lentils (5,769 households), 85% received sugar and salt (5,676 households) and 75.5% have received oil and fats (5,037 households).  Considering the time between the field assessment and the final reporting timeframe, it can be assumed that by the time of the publication of this report, food then distributed has been fully consumed; however, it indicates that Dhading has been well covered in terms of food assistance from the very beginning and that this was likely to be continued.  By the time of the field assessment beginning of June, ACTED was reported to have brought relief to 62% of the assessed wards already.  As per ward leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of food are the following: rice, lentils, sugar and salt, oils and fats, and vegetables.  As per women leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of food are the following: rice, lentils, sugar and salt, oils and fats and food for infant and young children.

Livelihood

 Households’ main livelihoods in Dhading revolve around subsistence agriculture, with most households combining more than one activity, especially crop farming and livestock rearing.  97.3% (6,493 households) cultivate crops.  89.4% (5,968 households) rear livestock.  19.3% are employed by the government.  As per ward leaders’ estimations, 6,493 households in Dhading have crop agriculture as a main source of income, which represents 97.3% of all assessed households in the district.  24.7% lost their agricultural land during the earthquakes.  16% have lost their harvest for this season due to the earthquakes.  79% have lost their agricultural inputs (e.g. tools, seeds, storage facilities) for this season due to the earthquakes.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  As per ward leaders’ estimations, 5,968 households in Dhading have livestock rearing as a main source of income, which represents 89.4% of Dhading households5.  15.3% have lost their livestock.  4.3% have lost access to grazing land due to the earthquakes.  Compared to other districts, negative impacts on livelihood activities have been relatively low; however, a noticeably high proportion of households have lost their livelihood inputs, leading ACTED to encourage distribution of seeds, tools and Harvest Storage Units to make sure that people have the practical means to restart their livelihood as soon as possible, especially considering that 88.9% declare themselves ready to do that.  By the time of assessment completion in June, 80% had not received any agriculture- related assistance.  Rice, millet / kodo, potatoes, maize, vegetables, legums and wheat are the most cultivated crops by households in Dhading. All these crops are mostly used for household’s consumption.  Chicken, goats and cows and buffaloes are reared by households in Dhading.  Compared to other assessed districts, women are quite well involved in both the conduct of the livelihood activities and in the decision-making process.  97.8% of women report to be ready to restart sustaining their livelihood, including agricultural activities and livestock rearing.  In summary, according to women leaders, women are always in charge of pre- harvest activities such as plantation, cultivation, irrigation and daily maintenance; responsibilities regarding harvesting and post-production activities such as selling products of their labour on the markets depend on the VDC. Similar results are found concerning livestock-related activities: while women from Darkha, Gumdi and Marpak are involved in crop harvesting and post-production activities such as sales of crops and livestock on the market, men seem to be generally in charge of those activities in Katunje and Semjong VDCs.  Livelihood assistance was very low in Dhading at the time of the assessment as only one fifth of the wards had obtained some livelihood-related assistance then.  As per ward leaders ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of livelihoods are the following: seeds, livestock, tools, storage units and shelter for livestock.  As per women leaders ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of livelihoods are the following: seeds, livestock, toolkits, shelter for livestock and storage units.

5 We observe that there is some double counting - many households have reported two different activities as their main source of income. These overlaps might be explained by the local context since in Nepal, it is very current to have both agricultural and livestock activities at the same time.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Infrastructures and Education

 57 schools were running in Dhading before the earthquakes, including 44 primary schools and 13 secondary schools.  Only seven are still standing after both earthquakes.  50 schools have been destroyed by the earthquakes.  90.5% of ward leaders mention that latrines in the schools have been damaged and would therefore require WASH rehabilitation in addition to re-construction of infrastructure.  Children are scared of going back to school because of the trauma suffered from the earthquakes.  Top three priority needs for educational infrastructures are: the reconstruction of the building, WASH assistance and rehabilitation (latrines and water access) and school supplies distributions.

Health

 All ward leaders said that their closest health facility was still open after the earthquakes; 95.6% said that they could access it.  However, 77.8% of ward leaders declared that activities are being run in tents or makeshift shelters.  Top three priority needs for health care are the following: reconstruction of the health facility, WASH assistance (latrines and water access) and medicines.

Coping strategies

 60% were planning on relying on humanitarian assistance, which reveals the degree of support that Dhading has already received. Indeed, this coping strategy is based on the belief, or even the certainty, that basic needs will be met and covered by humanitarian assistance provided in the district. This characteristic is very representative of Dhading since ward leaders in other districts did not mention potential reliance on humanitarian assistance and support.  Interestingly, 94.6% of the women leaders were counting on humanitarian assistance to cope with the losses due to the earthquakes.  A relatively high proportion of the ward leaders (half of the respondents) report that they will cut off their food expenses.  Reduction in food expenses is the second expected coping strategy for households after relying on external support and humanitarian assistance. Reduction in food

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 quantity and meal frequency could greatly endanger their health in terms of proper nutrition levels and quality diet.  As per ward leaders’ ranking, the 5 mostly used coping strategies have been / will be: relying on humanitarian assistance, reducing food expenses, use own savings, borrowing money from their closest friends and relatives and sharing their remaining possessions with other, less privileged households in their ward.  As per women leaders’ ranking, the 5 mostly used coping strategies have been / will be: relying on humanitarian assistance, using their own savings, taking a loan from family and friends, cutting off expenses for meals and selling their remaining productive assets.  Women respondents raising their concern about having to consider this as an option is a worrying fact given the already significant level of vulnerability of these households with the few possessions they still have.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Recommendations

Contextual Background

 The high level of ward inaccessibility by car, 4x4 or trucks is to be taken into account when planning future activities. Chosen means of transportation should be adapted at ward level, including 4x4s, trucks, tractors or walking depending on the selected location of a potential distribution point to enable delivery of items planned to be delivered.  Some areas still might only be accessible by foot, which requires including the necessary walking time in Programme and M&E activities timeframe as well as accommodation if required, appropriate equipment for physical security and the right amount of field allowance paid in advance for the staff.  The very large percentage of women-headed and elderly-headed households, especially in Marpak where women-headed households represent up to one third of the VDC population, should be taken into account when programming activities as these households may face more challenges in being economically self-sufficient as well as in accessing distribution sites and transporting heavy relief material. ACTED should provide cash grants to those beneficiaries or directly hire porters for door-to- door delivery to cover their transportation needs, especially if heavy material such as CGI sheets (approximately 55 kilos a bundle) are distributed.  Those vulnerable households should also be offered assistance in building their shelters. Cash for Work schemes or Cash Grants have already been implemented or envisaged by ACTED; however, AMEU would recommend bearing in mind that Cash Grants need higher budgeting than Cash for Work. The two activities are not interchangeable in terms of required funds as Cash for Work workers are given 80% of daily pay rate while labour employed with Cash grants would require full remuneration.  Market accessibility for food, hygiene items or shelter material is important to keep in mind while planning and implementing activities. Cash for Work schemes in VDCs or wards where market areas have been destroyed or damaged and where markets do not have the capacity to satisfy their consumers’ demands should be avoided. In those areas work against in-kind goods should be systematically preferred until markets re-open on full capacity, i.e. clients are able to purchase all basic goods there.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Shelter

Shelter assistance remains a priority for most households who have been living in damaged houses or makeshift shelters since the earthquakes. ACTED should prioritize shelter assistance over other relief provision to increase shelter quality, resistance to earthquakes and help people to live in conditions that respect their basic human dignity. AMEU would therefore recommend the following:

 Prioritise the distribution of winterized shelter kits that include CGI sheets and insulation material. As more than three months have passed since the first earthquake, ACTED should engage in the provision of sturdy and insulated shelter material before the winter season comes, especially since it has been reported as one of the five priority needs by women respondents in Dhading.  Shelter kits should absolutely include CGI sheets, ropes and nails, toolkits.  Many wards in Dhading have been provided with shelter assistance, be it from the government, INGOs or local NGOs. However, while immediate needs have been covered, it was clearly not sufficient to meet basic medium-term shelter needs of the population that remains in dire need of non-emergency, winterized shelter assistance.  As per ward leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of shelter are the following: CGI sheets, ropes and nails, toolkits, timber for frame and training on Build Back Safer techniques. These answers imply that households are willing to re-build their shelter autonomously; however, ACTED should ensure that they get the appropriate knowledge and practical means to complete this task. Skilled masons from each ward where ACTED operates could be extensively trained by ACTED engineer staff so they would be able to organize capacity-building sessions for the greater communities.  As per women leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of shelter are the following: CGI sheets, ropes and nails, toolkits, Steel wires, Insulation material.  Distribution of shelter material should be combined with Build Back Safer awareness sessions, enabling beneficiaries to be well informed about the risks of some shelter materials and the advantages of others, thus encouraging them to take ownership on their own accommodation by re-building it themselves.  Training on Build Back Safer techniques should inform beneficiaries very clearly that although mud and stone houses are by far the most common (and almost the only one) housing type in Nepal, they are at very high risk to be completely destroyed in case of an earthquake and hence should not be considered as a safe and sustainable shelter.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  Training on Build Back Safer should rely on ACTED’s Shelter Assessments for main findings and technical expertise and recommendations.  Other materials respecting local availability and shelter preferences should be provided to beneficiaries to enable them to build safer houses. Cf. ACTED Shelter assessment.

Non Food Items

While access to durable shelter may prevail over other priorities, non-food items (NFI) needs also remain dire, especially for women. Women participants in Focus Group Discussions held in Dhading shared that they did not have money to buy clothes, kitchen utensils or hygiene items such as menstrual sanitary pads. AMEU would therefore recommend the following:

 ACTED should increase NFI distributions in order to cover all households in each targeted ward in Dhading.  As per ward leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of non-food items are the following: bedding, toolkits, kitchen sets, hygiene kits, and solar lamps.  As per women leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of food are the following: Kitchen sets, solar lamps, hygiene kits, menstrual sanitary pads and bedding.  Recommendations for Non-Food Items based on needs reported by both ward leaders include to distribute kits composed of kitchen sets, solar lamps, hygiene kits with sanitary pads and bedding equipment. Toolkits could be distributed under a Shelter programme.  Kitchen sets have been highly ranked by both ward leaders and women, which is explained by the fact that households are often left with no choice but cooking in unsanitary conditions (e.g. outside, close to dust, mud or animals). Items in kitchen sets should include cooking pots / pans, pressure cookers, a grinding tool to prepare local food for infant and young children and recipients for food and boiled water.  Hygiene kits should directly include 6 sets of re-usable menstrual sanitary pads for women as well as 32 soaps, 7 shampoos, 6 - 7 toothbrush, 12 large size toothpastes per household and per month as well as and detergent / laundry soap. Hygiene kits should also include a waste disposal unit that women could use to dispose of their used sanitary pads in case distributed plastic ones.  Hygiene kits should be accompanied by hygiene promotion sessions where basic key messages would be transmitted to the communities and the use of each component item should be explained.  At least half of hygiene promoters should be female to allow women to talk more freely about menstruation and other intimate issues in case they feel the need.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  ACTED should involve potential beneficiaries and local population in the decision- making process on what items should be distributed to them based on helpfulness and capacity and willingness to use them.  Particular attention should be given to the content of hygiene kits; especially women should be involved in choosing what should be included in it.  Women beneficiaries have shared that most women use cloth pads but that some of them prefer using plastic pads.  ACTED should provide households with water filter and water containers / storage units for water collected for drinking purposes. This is especially crucial for women as they are generally in charge of collecting water; having water storage would decrease the frequency of walking with heavy burdens as they could purify non- drinking water available near their house. Furthermore, women have reported to have encountered difficulties in maintaining their personal hygiene during their menstruation period due to lack of water to wash the re-usable pads.

WASH

Drinking water and latrines, have been identified by communities as one of the main priorities in Dhading. AMEU would therefore recommend the following:

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  VDCs in Dhading were not completely Open Defecation Free before the earthquake. Moreover, the lack of latrines has led even more people to practice open defecation, which poses a serious threat to the health of communities and dignity of individuals. Women and girls, especially, face shame and a loss of personal dignity if they do not have toilets at home since they are mostly not willing to share latrines with men from the community. Furthermore, they also put their physical safety as well as they will often wait until night falls to relieve themselves in privacy, making sure that nobody could see them6. WASH programmes therefore should be considered a priority by ACTED that should rehabilitate septic tank latrines or build more resistant latrines.  Accent shall be put on rehabilitating or building household latrines with functioning hand-washing system.  ACTED should distribute material for rebuilding latrines. This would most likely include toilet pan, cement, bricks, pipes, CGI sheets or timber. Either cash could be provided to households to allow them to buy the material directly, or material could be provided should it be unavailable in the local markets. Cash for Work with local plumbers could also be implemented to rehabilitate damaged gravity water supply schemes or Cash Grants could be given to beneficiaries for them to directly hire local plumbers. It is important for ACTED to remember though that while Cash for Work participants are paid 80% of the minimum pay rate, the budget for Cash Grant should cover 100% of the minimum pay rate so that beneficiaries can employ plumbers for as many days as they need to build a latrine.  ACTED should distribute water tanks either at ward level or household level. This would likely contribute to decrease the burden of water collection for women (who are usually in charge of this task) as more water could be stored in the house.  As open defecation was common practice in certain VDCs before the earthquakes and that one out of five ward leaders declared that households did not wash their hands after defecation or prior eating or cooking, including 66.7% in Dharka (wards 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8), hygiene promotion should include not only basic key messages, rather should cover quite extensively certain subjects such as the risks posed by open defecation on human health and on the environment, the six steps to wash hands properly in order to eliminate all germs and bacteria and all critical times to wash hands (including before eating, cooking, feeding someone else such as a baby or a disabled person, after defecating, coughing and after changing a baby’s diaper.)

6 UNICEF, Eliminate Open Defecation, - See more at: http://unicef.in/Whatwedo/11/Eliminate- Open-Defecation#sthash.7p3rUmeh.dpuf

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Food Security

Food relief remains one of the top three priorities identified by communities. AMEU would therefore recommend the following:

 In the short term, in order to cover basic needs of the population affected by the earthquakes, ACTED should distribute food items. Indeed, although all communities have received some kind of food assistance by other organisations or by the Nepali government after the earthquakes, households were likely to have faced very rapid food shortages as the food distributed was not reported to last very long in the days and weeks following the distributions.  Dhading has been well covered in terms of food assistance from the very beginning and that this was likely to be continued. Thus AMEU recommends that food assistance should not be a top priority for ACTED in Dhading and rather advises to favour livelihood activities that would restore dignity and self-sufficiency of our beneficiaries.  However, if food distribution is offered, food packages should include rice, lentils/dhal, sugar and salt, oils and fats and food for young children and infant.  Vegetable seeds distributions should be organised by ACTED. As per the results of another assessment conducted by ACTED in Dhading, vegetable seeds should most likely include: cow peas (beans), broad leaf mustard, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, carrot, tomato, and chilli and onion seeds.  As per ward leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of food are the following: rice, lentils, sugar and salt, oils and fats, and vegetables.  As per women leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of food are the following: rice, lentils, sugar and salt, oils and fats and food for infant and young children.  While food aid seems, in general, to be an important immediate path to help people to keep proper levels of nutrition and food diversity in their diets, the risk of dependence on external aid should be taken into account when programming. It is acceptable to use food distributions to ensure short-term food security; however, means of growing their own food should be considered as a better alternative option in the medium and longer-term, for example in the form of livelihood inputs / agricultural kits.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Livelihood

Supporting households to rebuild a sustainable livelihood is an essential step in helping them recover the self-sufficiency level that they had before the earthquakes. Not only will it enable them to restart normal activities and provide for their households but it will also decrease the level of dependence on external aid on the medium and longer-term. AMEU would therefore recommend the following:

 Compared to other districts, negative impacts on livelihood activities have been relatively low; however, as a noticeably high proportion of households have lost their livelihood inputs (79% across VDCs), agricultural inputs such as seeds, tools and Harvest Storage Units should be ACTED priority in order to help reviving livelihood activities of its beneficiaries, especially considering that 88.9% declare themselves ready to do that.  Livelihood assistance was very low in Dhading at the time of the assessment as only one fifth of the wards had obtained some livelihood-related assistance then. ACTED should bring its solid expertise on livelihood programmes and focus on long-term food security, nutrition and livelihood activities.  As per ward leaders ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of livelihoods are the following: seeds, livestock, tools, storage units and shelter for livestock.  As per women leaders ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of livelihoods are the following: seeds, livestock, toolkits, shelter for livestock and storage units.  Specific seeds distributed should be assessed at VDC level, ensuring that they were planted by the population before the earthquakes and thus not disturbing diet habits of the population. In general, cereal seed packages should be composed of rice, millet / kodo, potatoes, maize, legums and wheat. Vegetable seeds should include cow peas (beans), broad leaf mustard, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, carrot, tomato, and chilli and onion seeds. Furthermore, agro-inputs alongside seed packages and training – toolkits including tools, working gloves and harvest storage units – should be provided to them so that, in addition to increased knowledge and capacities, beneficiaries receive the physical means to start, maintain and increase their production and productivity levels.  To provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for those engaged in livestock rearing activities, ACTED should distribute shelter for livestock – which could come in the form of timber for frame and tarps or CGI sheets for goats, chicken and cows and buffaloes.  To provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for those engaged in agricultural activities, ACTED could envisage the possibility to provide vocational training to both men and women to empower them in terms of planting and harvesting capacity and usage of tools. However, the needs should be assessed at household level since

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 vocational training has not been reported as one of the most five urgent needs of ward leaders and women leaders; hence vocational training might not be seen as necessary by beneficiaries if they already have the knowledge and practical experience of maintaining their livelihood at a self-sufficient level.

Infrastructures and education

Numerous schools in Dhading have been severely damaged or even fully destroyed by the earthquakes, which has negatively impacted the education of thousands of children. Drop- outs due to lack of alternative should be a tremendous concern for the aid community. Going back to school is a priority for children as it enables them to ‘go back to a normal life’ and build a brighter future for themselves. Furthermore, according to UNICEF7, the longer children are out of school after a disaster, the less likely it is for them to ever go back to the classroom. It is therefore crucial to ensure that schools are able to resume their activities as soon as possible. While providing free public education itself is the responsibility of the Nepalese government, ACTED could contribute to improve children’s possibilities by concentrating efforts on infrastructure rehabilitation. AMEU would therefore recommend the following:

 ACTED should engage in school infrastructure rehabilitation; especially WASH programmes such as rehabilitation of damaged latrines. Local masons and plumbers could be trained by ACTED technical staff and engineers. Cash Grants could be given to beneficiaries for them to directly hire local masons and plumbers. Cash Grants should cover 100% of the minimum wage so that beneficiaries do not have to add extra money from their own savings to ensure the task is properly completed.  ACTED should build gender-separated latrines in schools.  ACTED should distribute school supplies, including notebooks and other stationary to children as well as furniture to schools such as tables, chairs, blackboards and chalk sticks or whiteboards and markers.  While re-building schools is the priority in terms of education, ACTED should not overlook the fact that construction takes time. In the short-term period, provision of emergency material such as tents and tarps would be of immense help to school teachers.

7http://unicef.org.np/latest-updates/stories/2015/05/31/back-to-school-makes-back-to-normal-possible (accessed 28/07/15)

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Health

Considering the large number of casualties across Nepal following the earthquakes, providing healthcare services and improving health facilities infrastructures remains a priority in most VDCs. AMEU would therefore recommend the following:

 ACTED should rehabilitate health facilities infrastructures, including damaged latrines, especially since 77.8% of ward leaders declared that activities are being run in tents or makeshift shelters, hence greatly endangering greatly the staff and patients’ safety. Cash for Work activities could be implemented to rehabilitate health facilities. Hygiene promotion could also be provided to health staff, as basic hygiene practices may be overlooked when running activities in makeshift and unconventional shelters.  Considering ACTED’s lack of medical expertise, distributing medicines is not considered as a viable and fruitful option. However, AMEU would recommend exploring the option of partnering with a local medical NGO to establish a first aid kit - or getting it in kind from donors - that could be distributed to beneficiaries to minimize the risks of not being physically able to reach the closest health facility.

Coping strategies

 It is essential that the aid community assists people in rebuilding their old livelihood to reach former levels of self-reliance and resilience in order to avoid such coping strategies provoking a vicious circle of indebtedness, lack of capacity to reimburse and other consequences that would put the economic viability of the households and their health in danger.  While food aid seems to be an important immediate path to help people to keep proper levels of nutrition and food diversity in their diets, the risk of dependence on external aid should be taken into account when programming, especially considering the high expectations of Dhading’s population regarding upcoming humanitarian assistance. It is acceptable to use food distributions to ensure short-term Food security; however, means of growing their own food should be considered as a better alternative option in the medium and longer-term, for example in the form of livelihood inputs / agricultural kits. This is particularly crucial as women leaders have reported that they were considering selling their remaining productive assets to cope with the losses due to the earthquakes.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

MAIN FINDINGS

Demographics

The total population for the seven targeted VDCs is approximately 37,191 for 6,673 households (see Table 1). All demographic data have been checked against official records. The average household size is 6 members across all VDCs, going up to 7 in Darkha.

Table 1. Population per VDC

Number of Households Total Population Darkha 1361 9242 Gumdi 1378 7178 Katunje 1739 9523 Marpak 1053 5607 Semjong 1142 5641 Total 6673 37191

According to the ward leaders, a relatively proportion of households are headed by women (12.1%) across the five VDCs, predominantly in Marpak (18.6%), Gumdi (13%) and Katunje (12.8%). Women’s estimations, however, are substantially higher than those provided by the ward leaders. Indeed, women leaders reported an average of 15.7% of women-headed households in all VDCs, including:  10% in Darkha  18.8% in Gumdi  14.4% in Katunje  28.4% in Marpak  9.3% in Semjong.

As per AMEU guidelines, ACTED will take into deeper considerations women’s estimations on women-related issues, including on demographic aspects. We can conclude that there is a high proportion of women-headed households in all assessed VDCs, ranging from 10 to 29%.

Important to bear in mind is that the proportion of women-headed households in Marpak VDC almost goes up to one third of the VDC population.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

12.4% of households are headed by an elderly member across all VDCs, including 16.8% in Marpak, 16.6% in Semjong, 13.9% in Gumdi and 13.2% in Darkha.

Less than 2% of households assessed in all VDCs are headed by children while 3.1% are headed by disabled persons. Details on the number of households per caste can be found in Table 2.

Table 2. Number of Households per Caste per VDC

Dalit Chhetri Tamang Thami Newar Barhaman Sherpa Other (e.g. Gurung, Magar,Ghale…) Darkha 64 13 1146 0 4 9 0 125 Gumdi 108 176 407 0 49 103 40 495 Katunje 124 151 619 0 266 147 0 432 Marpak 111 343 258 3 7 25 0 306 Semjong 129 0 994 0 0 0 0 19 Total 536 683 3424 3 326 284 40 1377

Contextual Background

Damages caused by the earthquakes

While 100% of assessed VDCs have been affected by the 25th of April earthquake, only 17.8% reported that the second earthquake on 12th of May caused damages in their VDCs, including in Gumdi, Darkha and Marpak.

As a result, when asked which earthquake caused the most damages, 97.8% of the ward leaders said that the first earthquake caused the biggest damages to houses in their respective wards, including 100% in Darkha, Katunje, Marpak and Semjong. Only one ward leader in Gumdi (ward 8) said that both earthquakes were equally damaging.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 Ward accessibility

In terms of accessibility, VDCs were asked about different means of transportation. No ward was accessible by car before the earthquakes; yet 91.1% were accessible by 4x4 and 95.6% were accessible by truck. Darkha ward 7 and Gumdi ward 9 were already not accessible by car and Marpak wards 7 and 8 were not accessible at all with these means of transportation before the earthquakes.

After the earthquakes, only 82.2% remained accessible by 4x4, excluding Darkha wards 3 and 7, Gumdi wards 7 and 9, Marpak wards 7 and 8 and Semjong wards 1 and 2. 86.7% remained accessible by truck, excluding Darkha ward 3, Gumdi ward 7, Marpak 7 and 8 and Semtong 1 and 2.

Hence Darkha ward 3, Gumdi ward 7, Marpak 7 and 8 and Semtong wards 1 and 2 are completely inaccessible with these means of transportation after the earthquakes, implying that people have to use tractors or walk to reach those wards.

Blocked roads

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Market Accessibility

 55.6% of ward leaders reported a food market in their wards in Darkha (wards 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8).  33.3% of ward leaders reported a food market in their wards in Gumdi (wards 4, 5 and 6)  All ward leaders reported a food market in their wards in Katunje  None of the ward leaders reported an accessible market in their ward in Marpak  88.9% of ward leader in Semjong said that there was a food market there (all wards except for ward 8).

Respondents in Darkha mention Raute, Tongbate, Manegang shop, Kuhuri, Ghangsang, Chauki Tole and Brechet as the closest food markets from their wards. In Gumdi, all ward leaders mention Satdobato Bazar as the closest food market. In Katunje, answers included BHarang Bhurung, Bhokteni Guhti Bazar, Tharpu Bhanjyang, Katunje Bazar, Charange, Todke and Biratchowk. Ward leaders in Marpak mentioned Milan Bazar, Lapang and Kintang Phedi. Finally in Semjong, food markets included Gaira, Ningopanp, Mamba Tole and Tikadung.

40% report that food markets are accessible by road, yet it is not the case for 89% of ward leaders in Darkha and Katunje and 78% in Semjong.

In average, the closest food market is 1.3 kilometres away; Gumdi and Marpak ward leaders report that the distance can go up to 7 and 5 kilometres respectively. All of those food markets are accessible by foot.

While 93.3% of the ward leaders estimate that these markets have the capacity to fulfil the nutritional needs of their ward population, it is not the case for inhabitants of Darkha wards 1 and 5 and Katunje ward 3. In these three wards, people do not have access to all necessary food products to maintain a safe and healthy diet.

57.8% report that they have a market in their ward where they can buy hygiene items, including all in Katunje.

In average, the closest hygiene items market is 2.4 kilometres away from the village. 40% report that markets where hygiene items are available are not accessible by road. These are the same wards that reported that food markets were not accessible by road either.

All remain accessible by foot except for Gumdi ward 6 that reported Dhading Besi as the market with available hygiene items. However, Dhading Besi remains accessible by road.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 93.3% report that the closest market with hygiene items does have the necessary quantity to fulfil the needs of their population except for Darkha ward 5, Katunje ward 3 and Semjong ward 5.

Markets for hygiene items are the same than the markets previously mentioned when asked about available food supplies.

Regarding the purchase of building materials, however, 84.4% of the ward leaders assert that they do not have access to such a market in their ward. Furthermore, the closest market for shelter construction materials is, in average, 21 kilometres away. Maximum distances reported are immense, including 45 in Darkha, 53 in Gumdi, 29 in Katunje, 45 in Marpak and 40 in Semjong. 60% report Dhading Besi as the closest market where they can buy building materials; yet it is located far away from most of the assessed wards.

Recommendations:

 The high level of ward inaccessibility by car, 4x4 or trucks is to be taken into account when planning future activities. Chosen means of transportation should be adapted at ward level, including 4x4s, trucks, tractors or walking depending on the selected location of a potential distribution point to enable delivery of items planned to be delivered.  Some areas still might only be accessible by foot, which requires including the necessary walking time in Programme and M&E activities timeframe as well as accommodation if required, appropriate equipment for physical security and the right amount of field allowance paid in advance for the staff.  The very large percentage of women-headed and elderly-headed households, especially in Marpak where women-headed households represent up to one third of the VDC population, should be taken into account when programming activities as these households may face more challenges in being economically self-sufficient as well as in accessing distribution sites and transporting heavy relief material. ACTED should provide cash grants to those beneficiaries or directly hire porters for door-to-door delivery to cover their transportation needs, especially if heavy material such as CGI sheets (approximately 55 kilos a bundle) are distributed.  Those vulnerable households should also be offered assistance in building their shelters. Cash for Work schemes or Cash Grants have already been implemented or envisaged by ACTED; however, AMEU would recommend bearing in mind that Cash Grants need higher budgeting than Cash for Work. The two activities are not interchangeable in terms of required funds as Cash for Work workers are given 80% of daily pay rate while labour employed with Cash grants would require full remuneration.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  Market accessibility for food, hygiene items or shelter material is important to keep in mind while planning and implementing activities. Cash for Work schemes in VDCs or wards where market areas have been destroyed or damaged and where markets do not have the capacity to satisfy their consumers’ demands should be avoided. In those areas work against in-kind goods should be systematically preferred until markets re-open on full capacity, i.e. clients are able to purchase all basic goods there.

Shelter Type of Housing

Ward leaders reported a total of 6,673 houses before the earthquakes, which perfectly matches with the number of reported households registered in the assessed wards.

Most popular types of housing in Dhading District slightly differ from other districts as mud and stones houses are not the most common type reported. Indeed, 61.2% of houses are reported being made with stones and mud mortar; yet with CGI roofing. 27.2 of the houses are made with stones and mud mortar only though. 4.1% of houses are made of concrete stone walls with CGI roofing. The remaining 7.5% were made of other types of materials which were not always specified by respondents. (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Housing types in Dhading

7.50% 4.1%

Stone and mud houses with CGI roofing Stone and mud houses 27.2% 61.2% Concrete stone walls with CGI roofing Others

As per estimations of the ward leaders, 5,543 houses have been fully destroyed and 1,193 damaged beyond repair in Dhading, which represents 99.6% of all houses.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Destroyed houses in Dhading

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Temporary shelter under tents and tarps

Vulnerabilities of Type of Housing

Ward leaders were asked to rank the vulnerabilities of the different types of housing, from 1 – as being the most vulnerable – to 3.

 Mud and stone houses scored an average 1.17, and were ranked in all VDCs by 100% of the ward leaders. Mud and stone houses are therefore considered as one of the most vulnerable to earthquake.  Mud, stone walls and CGI roofing houses scored an average of 1.86, and were ranked in all VDCs by all ward leaders. Mud, stone walls and CGI roofing are therefore also considered as prone to destruction and damages during an earthquake.  Concrete stone walls and CGI roofing scored an average of 3 and were ranked in all VDCs by 82.2% of the ward leader. Therefore, concrete stone walls with CGI roofing are not considered at risk during an earthquake by ward leaders.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  Concrete blocks/bricks and CGI roofing scored an average of 3, although they were only mentioned by 4 ward leaders. This is explained by the fact that concrete blocks/bricks and CGI roofing are almost non-existent in all assessed VDCs.

Assistance Received

91.1% of ward leaders reported that their wards did receive shelter assistance after the first earthquake. Only Darkha ward 1, Gumdi ward 6 and Marpak wards 7 and 8 did not. Regarding Marpak wards, the lack of assistance provided might be explained by the fact that these wards were not accessible either by car, 4x4 or trucks.

80% reported that they received shelter assistance after the second earthquake, at the exception of Dharka wards 6 and 7, Gumdi wards 1 and 6, and Marpak wards 1, 3, 4, 5 and 9. Important to notice is that Gumdi ward 6 had not received any shelter assistance at all at the time of the field assessment in June.

As detailed in Figure 2, the large majority of households (91%) received only tarpaulins. Only 0.1% received tarps with ropes. NO household received an entire shelter kit of tarps, ropes and toolkits. 0.5% received CGI sheets with insulation material. 8.7% received tarps and CGI sheets. Although these 581 households answered that they received CGI sheets only, calling back the beneficiaries allowed ACTED to find out that this proportion received both tarps and CGI sheets.

It is important to note that a high proportion of ward leaders (60%) are dissatisfied about the quality of the tarpaulins received.

40% of the ward leaders reported that they did not receive any shelter assistance from the government in Dhading. This goes up to 67% in Gumdi.

Local and international NGOs having been mentioned as having distributed shelter assistance to the population include: Iten Nepal, Santi Nepal, Tuki Association, Face Nepal, Right for Children, ICDC (most wards from Katunje), Focus Nepal, the Red Cross and ACTED. Some also report that they got assistance from individual sources.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 Figure 2. Shelter Assistance per VDC (multiple answer)

120.00%

100.00%

Tarpaulins only 80.00%

Tarpaulins with ropes 60.00% Tarps and CGI sheets only 40.00% Tarps with CGI sheets and insulation material 20.00%

0.00% Darkha Gumdi Katunje Marpak Semjong

Shelter Needs of the Communities

Following the earthquakes and as a result of the damages and trauma, 45.6% were living in makeshift shelter with material salvaged from their former house at the time of the assessment and one out of five households were living in makeshift shelter made with tarpaulins. 18.4% were also living in tents. 14% reported another type of temporary housing but did not specify which one. Only 0.18% was still living in their undamaged house while 1.4% lived in a house that they constructed following both earthquakes.

Figure 3. Living arrangements in Dhading after the earthquakes

0.18% Makeshift shelter with salvaged material 1.40% 14% Makeshift shelter with tarps

18.40% 45.60% Tents

20.40% Own new house

Undamaged house

Others

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Ward leaders were asked to rank the most urgent shelter items that the population would need to receive, 1 being the most urgent and 5 the least.

 All Ward leaders ranked CGI sheets as the most urgent material to be provided to people in Dhading. Indeed, CGI sheets scored an average of 1.15.  Ropes and nails scored an average of 2.9 and were ranked in all VDCs by 82.2% f the ward leaders. Ropes and nails are the second priority need for shelter in Dhading.  Toolkits scored an average of 3.2 and were ranked in all VDCs by 97.8% of the ward leaders. Toolkits are the third priority item to be distributed by ACTED.  Timber for frame scored an average of 2.8 and was ranked in all VDCs, yet only by 40% of ward leaders. Timber for frame is thus considered as fourth priority.  Training on Build Back Safer techniques to learn how to build safe and more resistant to earthquakes shelters scored an average of 4 and was ranked in all VDCs by 44.4% of the ward leaders. Training on Build Back Safer techniques is the fifth priority according to Dhading’s respondent ward leaders.  Assistance with building shelter scored an average of 4.2 and was ranked in all VDCs by 42.2% of the ward leaders.  Steel wires scored an average of 4.4 and were ranked in all VDCs by 42.2% of the ward leaders.  Bamboos scored an average of 3.75 but were ranked only in three VDCs by four ward leaders.  Insulation material scored an average of 3.9 and was ranked in all VDCs by 24.4% of the ward leaders.  Tarpaulins scored an average of 5 and were ranked by one ward leader in Marpak only.

Women’s Perspective on Shelter Needs

Women leaders were asked to rank the needs in terms of shelter assistance, as per women and girls’ needs. They were given a list of items which they had to rank from 1 to 5 – with 1 as being the most urgent.

 All Women Leaders ranked CGI sheets as the most urgent material to be provided to people in Dhading. CGI sheets scored an average of 1, and were ranked by 100% of the women leaders. This result correlates with ward leaders’ answers, thus further highlighting the urgency to distribute CGI sheets to Dhading’s households.  Ropes and nails scored 2.9 and were mentioned in all VDCs by 88.9% of women leaders. Ropes and nails are the second priority in terms of shelter.  Tool kits scored an average of 3, and were ranked in all VDCs by 86.7% of the women leaders. Toolkits are the third priority.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  GI / Steel wires scored 3.5 and were ranked in all VDCs by 55.5% of women leaders in total. Steel wires are the fourth priority.  Insulation material scored 3.4 and was ranked in all VDCs except for Gumdi by 26.7% of the women leaders. Insulation material is the fifth priority.  Timber for frame scored 3.8 and was ranked in all VDCs by 35.5% of the women leaders.  Training for safer building scored an average of 4.4, and were ranked in all VDCs by 73.3% of the women leaders.  Bamboos scored 4 and were only ranked in Gumdi VDC by two women leaders.  Assistance with building shelter scored an average of 4.9, and was ranked in all VDCs except in Marpak by 20% of the women.  Tarpaulins scored an average of 2 but were only mentioned by two women leaders. However, the woman leader in Marpak ward 3 ranked tarps as first priority.

“Before the earthquakes, we lived in houses, now we live under tarps, some people live under CGI sheets.”

Women from Katunje ward 8, FGD held on 12.06.15

Recommendations

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  As per ward leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of shelter are the following: CGI sheets, ropes and nails, toolkits, timber for frame and training on Build Back Safer techniques. These answers imply that households are willing to rebuild their shelter autonomously; however, ACTED should ensure that they get the appropriate knowledge and practical means to complete this task. Skilled masons from each ward where ACTED operates could be extensively trained by ACTED engineer staff so they would be able to organize capacity-building sessions for the greater communities.  As per women leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of shelter are the following: CGI sheets, ropes and nails, toolkits, Steel wires, Insulation material.  Distribution of shelter material should be combined with Build Back Safer awareness sessions, enabling beneficiaries to be well informed about the risks of some shelter materials and the advantages of others, thus encouraging them to take ownership on their own accommodation by re-building it themselves.  Training on Build Back Safer techniques should inform beneficiaries very clearly that although mud and stone houses are by far the most common (and almost the only one) housing type in Nepal, they are at very high risk to be completely destroyed in case of an earthquake and hence should not be considered as a safe and sustainable shelter.  Training on Build Back Safer should rely on ACTED’s Shelter Assessments for main findings and technical expertise and recommendations.  Other materials respecting local availability and shelter preferences should be provided to beneficiaries to enable them to build safer houses. Cf. ACTED Shelter assessment.  Another suggestion given by the ward leaders would be to include cement as a component of the shelter kits. ACTED should explore this option if coupled with training sessions on the proper use of cement mortar while building a shelter.

Non-Food Items

Assistance Received

When asked if people received any assistance other than shelter, ward leaders responded that 20.1% received hygiene kits, 10.9% solar lamps (but mainly in Darkha and only a few in Katunje as well) and 39.1% received bedding equipment. Almost no household (0.3%) received toolkits and only very few households in Darkha and Semjong (2.9%) received kitchen sets. (see Figure 4).

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Figure 4. Non Food Items Assistance per VDC (multiple answers)

100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% Bedding 40.00% Hygiene kits 30.00% Kitchen sets 20.00% Solar lamps 10.00% Toolkits 0.00% Darkha Gumdi Katunje Marpak Semjong

Out of 45 wards, 34 received NFI assistance. Among those, 85.3% respondent that they did not receive these items from the government; few local NGOs and INGOs were mentioned in some wards, such as Darkhali Samaj UK, Shanti Nepal, FACE Nepal, Himalayan Health, ICDC, the Red Cross, WFP and NRN as well as an unknown Belgian NGO. Dhading’s ward leaders also mentioned that some wards got support from individual sources.

23.5% were not satisfied about the content and quality of items received in the hygiene kits; 34.5% said that they were also not satisfied about the quality of other items received, implying that needs and preferences of beneficiaries and local culture had not been correctly assessed before the distributions of items and kits.

NFI Needs of the Communities

Ward leaders were also given a list of Non-food items and asked to rank the most urgent Non Food Items that the population would need to receive, 1 being the most urgent and 5 the least.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

 Bedding scored 1.5 and was ranked in all VDCs by 44.4% of ward leaders. Bedding is the first priority in Dhading.  Toolkits scored 1.7 and were ranked in all VDCs by 51% of ward leaders. Toolkits thus are the second priority.  Kitchen sets scored 2.2 and were ranked in all VDCs by 80% of ward leaders). Kitchen sets are the third priority.  Hygiene kits scored 2.3 and were ranked in all VDCs by 77.8% of ward leaders )  Solar lamps scored 1.9 and were ranked in all VDCs by 35.5% of ward leaders). Although solar lamps scored a higher average than kitchen sets and hygiene kits, the two latter were mentioned by many more ward leaders; hence solar lamps come in last position.

Women’s Perspective on NFI Needs

Women leaders were asked to rank the needs in terms of NFI assistance, as per women and girls’ needs. They were given a list of items which they had to rank from 1 to 5 – with 1 as being the most urgent.

 Kitchen sets scored an average of 2.3, and were mentioned in all VDCs by 77.8% of the women leaders. Kitchen sets are thus the first priority according to women leaders for women and girls to receive as Non-Food items.  Solar lamps scored an average of 2.6 and were mentioned in all VDCs by 71.1% of the women leaders. Solar lamps can then be considered as the second priority as per women leaders recommendations.  Hygiene kits scored an average of 2.8 and were mentioned in all VDCs by 93.3% of women leaders. Hygiene kits are third priority.  Menstrual sanitary pads and related items scored an average of 3.4, and were mentioned in all VDCs by 55.5% of the women leaders. Menstrual sanitary pads are fourth priority.  Bedding scored an average of 3.5 and was mentioned in all VDCs by 28.9% of women leaders. Bedding is the fifth priority.  Toolkits score 3.9 and were ranked in all VDCs by 75.5% of the women leaders. However, toolkits were highly ranked as part of items needed to be included as components of distributed shelter kits.  Water storage scored an average 2.7 and was mentioned in all VDCs by 91.1% of women leaders.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 During Focus Group Discussions, women shared their expectations and needs in terms of components of what would be an ideal hygiene kit to them:

 7 / 8 pieces of soap are reported to be used per week and per household, adding up to 32 a month.  12 large size toothpastes per month per household.  Toothbrush for each household member (6 or 7)  6 / 7 shampoos a month  6 packs of washable sanitary pads per month and per household.

Women also shared their need for pressure cookers and grinding tools. Indeed, some traditional grinding tools (called Jhanto) that were locally available before the earthquakes have been buried during the disaster; hence women are unable to prepare the regular infant food, “Lito”, made from maize, soybeans, wheat and other grains.

Recommendations

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  Hygiene kits should directly include 6 sets of re-usable menstrual sanitary pads for women as well as 32 soaps, 7 shampoos, 6 - 7 toothbrush, 12 large size toothpastes per household and per month as well as and detergent / laundry soap. Hygiene kits should also include a waste disposal unit that women could use to dispose of their used sanitary pads in case distributed plastic ones.  Hygiene kits should be accompanied by hygiene promotion sessions where basic key messages would be transmitted to the communities and the use of each component item should be explained.  At least half of hygiene promoters should be female to allow women to talk more freely about menstruation and other intimate issues in case they feel the need.  ACTED should involve potential beneficiaries and local population in the decision- making process on what items should be distributed to them based on helpfulness and capacity and willingness to use them.  Particular attention should be given to the content of hygiene kits; especially women should be involved in choosing what should be included in it.  Women beneficiaries have shared that most women use cloth pads but that some of them prefer using plastic pads.  ACTED should provide households with water filter and water containers / storage units for water collected for drinking purposes. This is especially crucial for women as they are generally in charge of collecting water; having water storage would decrease the frequency of walking with heavy burdens as they could purify non- drinking water available near their house. Furthermore, women have reported to have encountered difficulties in maintaining their personal hygiene during their menstruation period due to lack of water to wash the re-usable pads.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Main Sources of Drinking Water

Gravity water supply schemes are the most common source of drinking water, with a total of 240 schemes reported to cover water needs of 6,606 households (99% of all population). Across all VDCs, all ward leaders except for one reported that those gravity water supply schemes were made with plastic pipes (HDP). Only Katunje ward 3 reported to use galvanised iron pipes. In average, one gravity water supply scheme provides water to 27 households. Semjong’s population’s needs are the least covered by the scheme as it is reported that 71 households in average have to use the same one. Darkha’s population’s water needs are also poorly covered since one gravity water supply scheme covers the needs of 47 households. Marpak VDC, however, is relatively well covered with 18 consumer households per gravity water supply scheme. Details per VDC are shown in Table 3.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Table 3. Number of households per Gravity Water Supply Scheme

VDCs Number of Households per Gravity Water Supply Scheme Darkha 1 scheme/ 47 households Gumdi 1 scheme/ 24 households Katunje 1 scheme/ 20 households Marpak 1 scheme/ 18 households Semjong 1 scheme/ 71 households

Neither hand pumps nor springs/streams are used in the assessed VDCs. Only 112 households are receiving water from 5 springs / streams.

Damages to Water Sources8

157 gravity water supply schemes have been reported damaged by the ward leaders, adding up to 65.4% of total gravity water supply schemes, yet they are still functional. 57 water supply schemes have been fully destroyed by the earthquakes. Only 1 spring / stream was reported destroyed (in Darkha ward 2).

Damages to water infrastructures have left 853 households (12.8% of the population) with no or limited access to drinking water. This goes up to 31.4% in Katunje VDC (see Figure 4).

 12 households in Darkha (0.9%)  99 in Gumdi (7.1%)  547 in Katunje (31.4%)  182 in Marpak (17.3%)  13 in Semjong (1.1%).

8 See Annexes 2 and 3

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Figure 5: Water availability per VDC

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

Darkha

Gumdi

Katunje

Marpak

Semjong

53.3% of ward leaders interviewed said that the most common types of damages were because water tanks had been damaged or destroyed and 48.9% of ward leaders reported that pipes had been made dysfunctional because of landslides. 22.2% reported that their water source had depleted since the earthquakes. Some water sources had also been shifted to another place after the earthquakes – as reported by 4.4% of the ward leaders.

Damaged water point

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 Women’s Perspective on Damages to Water Sources

When asked about the person in charge of water collection for domestic purposes in their wards, 86.7% of women leaders responded that collecting water was adult women’s responsibility, including 100% in Darkha, Marpak and Semjong, 77.8% in Katunje and 55.6% in Gumdi.

68.9% of women leaders affirmed that the main water source in their ward had been damaged by the earthquakes, which has affected women and girls’ access to water in the assessed wards according to 84.4% of the women leaders.

15.6% reported that they cannot access water at all since the earthquakes, including an alarming proportion of 55.6% in Katunje. 28.9% of the women leaders reported using water only for drinking or bathing since the earthquakes, including 55.6% of women respondents in Katunje.

Half of the women leaders reported increased distance to access the water source, 64.4% reported increased time to collect the water and 53.3% increased domestic workload for women and girls. In average, the closest water source is approximately 2.9 kilometres away from their households.

Women in Semjong have also reported the trigger and spread of water-borne diseases in their district due to the lack of access to drinking water.

WASH Needs of the Communities

Ward leaders were asked to rank the needs of their community in terms of WASH assistance. They were given a list of items which they had to rank from 1 to 3 – with 1 as being the most urgent.

 HDP pipes are the most urgent material needed to rehabilitate their water points. They scored an average of 1.7 and were reported in all VDCs by 95.5% of the ward leaders.  Cement/ concrete for tanks scored an average of 1.9 and was ranked in all VDCs by 97.8% of the ward leaders. Hence cement/concrete for water tanks are the second priority need of people in Dhading.  GI pipes scored an average of 2.07 and were ranked in all VDCs by 31.1% of ward leaders. GI pipes are thus the third priority.  Source protection scored an average of 2.6 and was ranked in all VDCs by 62.2% of the ward leaders.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 Latrines and Hygiene Practices

Prior the earthquake, 85% of the households had septic tank latrines; yet 9.3% had no latrine at all and this proportion alarmingly goes up to 31.4% in Darkha VDC. 4% had pit latrines; only 1.7% had flush latrines. Ward leaders reported that those with no latrines practiced either open defecation, including defecating in pig sheds, and / or used shared or public latrines.

Following the earthquakes, access to latrines has been tremendously impacted, with 88.9% that have no access to latrines any more. Only 6% of the assessed ward leaders report that households in their ward still have access to functional septic tank latrines. 60% of the respondents said that people had to practice open defecation after the earthquakes due to lack of alternative solutions and 37.8% use temporary latrines. 15.6% also report that households have to share latrines.

93.3% of women leaders reported that women and girls used private latrines prior to the earthquakes. However, 17.8% reported that open defecation was sometimes practiced as well by women and girls.

Since the earthquakes, according to 46.7% of women leaders, women and girls have to practice open defecation due to lack of alternatives. Only 15.6% still had access to a private latrine and the same proportion was using shared latrines between several households. Women respondents also report using temporary latrines. One other defecation practice reported is alarming, as women shared with ACTED staff that they were going to the pig sheds to defecate, which could provoke the transmission of communicable diseases through permanent physical contact between livestock and faeces. Women and girls, especially, face shame and a loss of personal dignity if they do not have toilets at home since they are mostly not willing to share latrines with men from the community. Furthermore, they also put their physical safety as well as they will often wait until night falls to relieve themselves in privacy, ensuring that nobody sees them9. During a Focus Group Discussion held in Semjong VDC - ward 3, women shared that due to lack of private space, they were encountering numerous difficulties to change their sanitary pads during their menstruation cycle. The lack of latrines also entails the lack of disposal units for pads, a vicious circle hindering both women’s personal hygiene and the general environment.

In terms of hygiene practices, 20% ward leaders declared that households did not wash their hands after defecation or prior eating or cooking, including a high proportion of Darkha households (66.7%, wards 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8) and 11.1% in Gumdi (ward 2), Katunje (ward 7) and Marpak (ward 9). All ward leaders in Semjong assert that hand washing is common practice.

9 UNICEF, Eliminate Open Defecation, - See more at: http://unicef.in/Whatwedo/11/Eliminate- Open-Defecation#sthash.7p3rUmeh.dpuf

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 Recommendations

Drinking water and latrines, along with shelter and food, have been identified by communities as one of the main priorities in Dhading. AMEU would therefore recommend the following:

 Since Gravity Water Supply Schemes are the most common sources of drinking water, with a total of 240 schemes reported to cover water needs of 6,606 households (99% of all population), damages need to be repaired promptly. Thus ACTED should prioritize the distribution of material for rebuilding / rehabilitating water points, especially in Katunje VDC which has been the most affected VDC in terms of access to drinking water. However, other VDCs could benefit from not only water point rehabilitation but also water point construction as the coverage of the water needs of the population in some VDCs was already very low before the earthquakes, especially in Semjong (71 households sharing a water point) and Darkha (47 households sharing a water point). Materials needed would most likely include HDP pipes, cement / concrete for tanks, GI pipes and source protection to ensure sustainability of repairs. Either cash could be provided to households to allow them to buy the material directly, or material could be provided should it be unavailable in the local markets. Cash for Work with local plumbers could also be implemented to rehabilitate damaged gravity water supply schemes or Cash Grants could be given to beneficiaries for them to directly hire local plumbers. It is important for ACTED to remember though that while Cash for Work participants are paid 80% of the minimum pay rate, the budget for Cash Grant should cover 100% of the minimum pay rate so that beneficiaries can employ plumbers for as many days as they need to complete the task.  VDCs in Dhading were not completely Open Defecation Free before the earthquake. Moreover, the lack of latrines has led even more people to practice open defecation, which poses a serious threat to the health of communities and dignity of individuals. Women and girls, especially, face shame and a loss of personal dignity if they do not have toilets at home since they are mostly not willing to share latrines with men from the community. Furthermore, they also put their physical safety as well as they will often wait until night falls to relieve themselves in privacy, making sure that nobody could see them10. WASH programmes therefore should be considered a priority by ACTED that should rehabilitate septic tank latrines or build more resistant latrines.

10 UNICEF, Eliminate Open Defecation, - See more at: http://unicef.in/Whatwedo/11/Eliminate- Open-Defecation#sthash.7p3rUmeh.dpuf

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  Accent shall be put on rehabilitating or building household latrines with functioning hand-washing system.  ACTED should distribute material for rebuilding latrines. This would most likely include toilet pan, cement, pipes, CGI sheets or timber. Either cash could be provided to households to allow them to buy the material directly, or material could be provided should it be unavailable in the local markets. Cash for Work with local plumbers could also be implemented to rehabilitate damaged gravity water supply schemes or Cash Grants could be given to beneficiaries for them to directly hire local plumbers. It is important for ACTED to remember though that while Cash for Work participants are paid 80% of the minimum pay rate, the budget for Cash Grant should cover 100% of the minimum pay rate so that beneficiaries can employ plumbers for as many days as they need to build a latrine.  ACTED should distribute water tanks either at ward level or household level. This would likely contribute to decrease the burden of water collection for women (who are usually in charge of this task) as more water could be stored in the house.  As open defecation was common practice in certain VDCs before the earthquakes and that one out of five ward leaders declared that households did not wash their hands after defecation or prior eating or cooking, including 66.7% in Dharka (wards 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8), hygiene promotion should include not only basic key messages, rather should cover quite extensively certain subjects such as the risks posed by open defecation on human health and on the environment, the six steps to wash hands properly in order to eliminate all germs and bacteria and all critical times to wash hands (including before eating, cooking, feeding someone else such as a baby or a disabled person, after defecating, coughing and after changing a baby’s diaper.)

Food Security Assistance Received

All ward leaders reported that their community received some kind of food relief since the earthquakes. 99.9% (6,668 households across VDCs) received rice, 86.4% received lentils (5,769 households), 85% received sugar and salt (5,676 households) and 75.5% have received oil and fats (5,037 households). 32.6% also received vegetables (2,179 households) and 23.2% received tea and spices (1,549 households). 4.8% only received food for young children and infant (316 households in Marpak and only 2 Katunje, none in the other VDCs). 3% received meat and fish (203 households, all in Gumdi, which represents 14.7% of the assessed population in this VDC).

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

No ward received eggs or fruit at all.

Details on food relief received per VDC can be found in Figure 6.

Figure 6.1: Food relief received per VDC

100%

90%

80%

70%

60% Rice

50% Lentils

40% Vegetables Meat / Fish 30%

20%

10%

0% Darkha Gumdi Katunje Marpak Semjong

Figure 6.2: Food relief received per VDC

100.00% 90.00% Oil / fats 80.00% 70.00% Tea and spices 60.00% 50.00% Sugar and salt 40.00% 30.00% Food for young children / infant 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Darkha Gumdi Katunje Marpak Semjong

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 15.6% of ward leaders reported that households in their wards had already consumed the food relief distributed and 8.9% said that it would last less than a week. However, food needs were better covered than in other districts at the time of this assessment. 13.3% reported that it would last one week, 24.4% two weeks, 13.3% three weeks and 22.2% four weeks.

Considering the time between the field assessment and the final reporting timeframe, it can be assumed that by the time of the publication of this report, food then distributed has been fully consumed; however, it indicates that Dhading has been well covered in terms of food assistance from the very beginning and that this was likely to be continued.

Figure 7: How long the food would last after completion of field assessment

2.22% 16%

11.9% 22.22% Already consumed Less than a week A week Two weeks Three weeks 3.5% 25% Four weeks More than four weeks

15%

Only half of the ward leaders (51.1%) reported that the food relief effort had been made by the government itself.

Active NGOs and INGOs in Dhading for food assistance were reported as following: Milijuli Samaj Manamaiju, Rural Isahai, Chemeki Isahi, Shanti Nepal, Iten Nepal Karuna Foundation, ICDC, Kalyani, Norweli Team, Indian Reliance, Focus Nepal, Red Cross, WFP and ACTED.

By the time of the field assessment beginning of June, ACTED was reported to have brought relief to 62% of the assessed wards already.

Some ward leaders also reported that they obtained food assistance from individual sources.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

The rice we eat was mixed with dust and stones in the broken houses.

Women in Katunje ward 8, FGD held on 12.06.15

Food Needs of the Communities

Ward leaders were asked to rank the needs of their community in terms of food relief. They were given a list of items which they had to rank from 1 to 5 – with 1 as being the most urgent.

 Rice scored an average of 1.15, and was ranked in all VDCs by 100% of the ward leaders. Rice was ranked as the most urgent food need by all respondents.  Lentils (dhal) ranked an average of 2.4, and were ranked in all VDCs by 95.5% of the ward leaders. Lentils can thus be considered as second priority.  Sugar and salt scored an average of 3.5, and were ranked in all VDCs by 95.5% of the ward leaders. Sugar and salt are third priority.  Oils/fats scored an average of 3.6, and were ranked in all VDCs by 84.4% of the ward leaders. Oils and fats are fourth priority.  Vegetables scored an average of 3.4, and were ranked in all VDCs except in Katunje by one third of the ward leaders. Vegetables come in fifth position as a food priority for households in Dhading.  Meat and fish scored 4 and were ranked only 2 ward leaders.  Tea and spices scored an average of 4.45, and were ranked in all VDCs by 44.4% of the ward leaders.  Food for young children and infant scored an average of 4.5, and was ranked in all VDCs by 35.5% of the ward leaders.  Fruit and eggs were not mentioned by any of the ward leaders.

Women’s Perspective on Food Needs

Women leaders were asked to rank the needs in terms of food relief, as per women and girls’ needs. They were given a list of items which they had to rank from 1 to 5 – with 1 as being the most urgent.

 Rice scored an average of 1.4, and was ranked in all VDCs by 100% of the women leaders. Rice is the first priority for women.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  Lentils/dhal scored an average of 2.3, and were ranked in all VDCs by 84.4% of the women leaders. Lentils are thus the second priority for women.  Sugar and salt scored an average of 3.5, and were ranked in all VDCs by 95.5% of the women leaders. Sugar and salt are third priority for women.  Oils/fats scored an average of 3.8, and were ranked in all VDCs by 86.7% of the women leaders. Oils and fats are thus fourth priority for women.  Food for young children and infant scored an average of 3.1, and was ranked in all VDCs except Marpak by 57.8% of the women leaders. Food for infant and young children is fifth priority.  Vegetables scored an average of 3, and were ranked in all VDCs except Darkha by 17.8% of the women leaders. Tea and spices scored an average of 4, and were ranked in all VDCs by 46.7% of the women leaders.  Eggs scored 5 and were only mentioned by one woman leader.  Fruit were not mentioned by women leaders.

Recommendations

Food relief remains one of the top three priorities identified by communities. AMEU would therefore recommend the following:

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  As per women leaders’ ranking, the 5 most urgent needs in terms of food are the following: rice, lentils, sugar and salt, oils and fats and food for infant and young children.  While food aid seems, in general, to be an important immediate path to help people to keep proper levels of nutrition and food diversity in their diets, the risk of dependence on external aid should be taken into account when programming. It is acceptable to use food distributions to ensure short-term food security; however, means of growing their own food should be considered as a better alternative option in the medium and longer-term, for example in the form of livelihood inputs / agricultural kits.

Livelihoods Main Livelihoods

Households’ main livelihoods in Dhading revolve around subsistence agriculture, with most households combining more than one activity, especially crop farming and livestock rearing.

 97.3% (6,493 households) cultivate crops.  89.4% (5,968 households) rear livestock.  19.3% are employed by the government.  Only a minority runs businesses or is employed in private businesses (see Figure 8).

Figure 8: Main Livelihoods in Dhading

100.00%

80.00%

60.00% 89.4% 97.3% 40.00% 19.3%

20.00% 7.25%

0.00% Crop agriculture Livestock rearing Governmental job Others

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 As per ward leaders’ estimations, 6,493 households in Dhading have crop agriculture as a main source of income, which represents 97.3% of all assessed households in the district.  24.7% lost their agricultural land during the earthquakes.  16% have lost their harvest for this season due to the earthquakes.  79% have lost their agricultural inputs (e.g. tools, seeds, storage facilities) for this season due to the earthquakes.

As per ward leaders’ estimations, 5,968 households in Dhading have livestock rearing as a main source of income, which represents 89.4% of Dhading households11.  15.3% have lost their livestock.  4.3% have lost access to grazing land due to the earthquakes.

Compared to other districts, negative impacts on livelihood activities have been relatively low; however, a noticeably high proportion of households have lost their livelihood inputs, leading ACTED to encourage distribution of seeds, tools and Harvest Storage Units to make sure that people have the practical means to restart their livelihood as soon as possible, especially considering that 88.9% declare themselves ready to do that.

Crop agriculture

 All ward leaders reported that rice was cultivated by household in their ward for personal consumption; for 8.9%, it also adds a source of income to the household.  Millet / kodo is cultivated in all wards, including 93.3% for household consumption only.  All ward leaders report that potatoes are cultivated in their ward for household consumption; however, only 4.4% report that they also sell the surpluses on the market.  All ward leaders report that households cultivate maize, including 97.8% only for household consumption.  Vegetables are cultivated in all wards, yet only for household consumption.  Legums such as lentils and peas are cultivated for household consumption by 73.3% of the population, including all wards in Semjong.  Wheat is cultivated by less than half of the population, mostly in Semjong (77.8%), Marpak (66.7%) and Gumdi (55.6%).  40% cultivate oil crops; yet it does not count as a source of income.  Spices are cultivated by less than a third of the population in the assessed wards.  Grain amaranth is cultivated ony by 15.6% of the wards.

11 We observe that there is some double counting - many households have reported two different activities as their main source of income. These overlaps might be explained by the local context since in Nepal, it is very current to have both agricultural and livestock activities at the same time.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  Only 8.9% cultivate barley in the assessed wards.  Tea, cotton, jute, tobacco, sugarcane are not cultivated in Dhading.

Rice, millet/kodo, potatoes, maize, vegetables, legums and wheat are the most cultivated crops by households in Dhading. All these crops are mostly used for household’s consumption.

Plantation and harvesting time

 Rice is planted in June - July - August and harvested in October – November – December.  Potatoes are planted in October – November – December and harvested in March, April, May.  Maize is planted in February – March and harvested in June – July – August.  Vegetables are planted and harvested in all seasons, depending on the type of vegetable.  Wheat is planted in February – March or November – December and harvested in March – April – May.  Barley is planted in August – September and harvested in April – May – June.  Millet / kodo is planted in June – July – August and harvested in October – November – December.  Grain amaranth is planted in June – July – August and harvested in November – December – January.  Legums are mostly reported to be planted in March and June and harvested in November – December.  Oil crops are planted in October – November – December and harvested in February – March – April.  Spices are planted in February – March and harvested in June – July – August.

Livestock rearing

 Chicken were cultivated in all wards, including in 55.6% for both household consumption and income generation.  In all wards, goats were reared before the earthquakes, including 51.1% for both household consumption and income generation.  Cows and buffaloes were also reared in all wards, yet only in one fifth of the wards.  22.2% reported to rear sheeps for household consumption.  46.7% reported to rear pigs for household consumption and 22% also sell them on the market.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 Women’s perspective on Livelihood

95.6% of women have crop agriculture as a main livelihood.  92% of women in Darkha  86.9% in Gumdi  99% in Katunje  100% in Marpak  100% in Semjong.

75% also report that they have livestock rearing as a main livelihood, which includes double counting – some households consider both crop agriculture and livestock rearing as their main livelihood without distinction).

 72% of women in Darkha  70% in Gumdi  67.8% in Katunje  66.2% in Marpak  98% in Semjong.

5% are holding a governmental job.

Other livelihood types represent a small margin of women respondents’ answers.

We are scared because we are staying outside in the field, in temporary shelter; we have not decided what we will do in terms of crops/livelihoods. The land is cracked and we are scared to go there.

Women in Katunje ward 8, FGD held on 12.06.15

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Division of Labour

86,7% of ward leaders said that adult women were in charge of conducting Pre-harvest activities (including plantation, cultivation, irrigation and daily maintenance) and harvests. 82.2% also said that women were involved in post-production activities such as packaging and selling the products on the markets.

Decisions about pre-harvest activities and harvests are taken by both adult men and women in 66.7% of the wards; decisions are taken by both for 68.9% regarding post-production activities.

Compared to other assessed districts, women are quite well involved in both the conduct of the livelihood activities and in the decision-making process.

Table 4. Division of Labour in Agriculture

In charge of (conducting) In charge of decision-making Pre-Harvest

Harvest

Post-production activities

93.3% of the ward leaders said that adult women were in charge of livestock care. 64.4% report that men and women take decisions together regarding livestock care.

66.7% of the ward leaders consider that selling the livestock products is the women’s responsibility in their wards and are equally involved in the decision-making process.

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Table 5. Division of Labour in Livestock Rearing

In charge of (conducting) In charge of decision-making Livestock care Livestock care

Selling livestock Selling livestock produce produce

Women’s perspective on Division of Labour

While 86.7% of women leaders reported that adult males were the main providers in their wards, 6.7% reported that both were equally contributing to the household’s income and 6.7% reported that adult women were the main providers for their family.

In average, women contribute to 23% of the household’s income. This goes up to 40% in Semjong.

71% reported that men are in charge of running businesses, including 100% in Katunje, 89% in Gumdi and Semjong; however, one quarter of the respondents said that both men and women ran businesses together as equal partners, including 77.8% in Darkha and 44.4% in Marpak.

Regarding decision-making on business activities, 46.7% reported that adult men are in charge, yet the same proportion reported that both men and women made such decisions in collaboration. Only 6.6% assert than only adult men are in charge of the decision-making process.

According to all women leaders in all wards, women are in charge of pre-harvest activities, including deciding on how to lead them.

Responsibilities in harvesting activities vary quite substantially depending on the VDCs; all women leaders reported that women were in charge in Darkha and Marpak and 89% in Gumdi whereas all women leaders in Katunje and Semjong asserted that women were not involved in harvests. Quite similarly, 89% of women respondents in Darkha and 67% in Gumdi and Marpak reported that women took the lead on post-production activities such as sales of products on the local market; however, 100% of women leaders in Katunje and Semjong declared that women were not involved in such activities, implying that it is solely the responsibility of the men in those VDCs.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 Yet, 95.6% reported that women were involved in making decisions on these activities, even though they do not always conduct them.

While 89% in Darkha, 67% in Marpak and 44% in Gumdi reported that women sold their livestock on the market, all women leaders from Katunje and Semjong said that women were not the ones conducting the sales of the final products. However, all of them across VDCs reported to be the ones in charge of daily livestock care.

As a result, they all participate in making decisions related to livestock care; furthermore, 80% also take part in the decision-making process on livestock sales.

97.8% of women report to be ready to restart sustaining their livelihood, including agricultural activities and livestock rearing.

In summary, according to women leaders, women are always in charge of pre-harvest activities such as plantation, cultivation, irrigation and daily maintenance; responsibilities regarding harvesting and post-production activities such as selling products of their labour on the markets depend on the VDC. Similar results are found concerning livestock-related activities: while women from Darkha, Gumdi and Marpak are involved in crop harvesting and post-production activities such as sales of crops and livestock on the market, men seem to be generally in charge of those activities in Katunje and Semjong VDCs.

Assistance Received

Livelihood assistance was very low in Dhading at the time of the assessment as only 15.6% of the wards had obtained some livelihood-related assistance then. Out of the 7 wards that did receive agriculture-related assistance, all of them reported that the government provided them with it.

Livelihoods Needs of the Communities

Ward leaders were asked to rank the needs of their community in terms of livelihoods assistance. They were given a list of items which they had to rank from 1 to 5 – with 1 as being the most urgent.

 Seeds scored an average of 1.6, and were ranked in all VDCs by 97.8% of the ward leaders. Seeds are the first priority in terms of livelihood assistance to be provided in Dhading.  Livestock scored an average of 2.55, and was ranked in all VDCs by 44.4% of the ward leaders. Livestock is the second priority.  Tools scored an average of 3.1 and were ranked in all VDCs by 91.1% of the ward leaders. Tools are the third priority.  Storage units scored an average of 3.2, and were ranked in all VDCs by 64.4% of the ward leaders. Storage units are the fourth priority.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  Vocational training scored 3.4 and was ranked in all VDCs by 80% of the ward leaders.  Shelter for livestock scored an average of 3.5, and was ranked in all VDCs by 84.4% of the ward leaders. Shelter for livestock are fifth priority.  Animal feed scored an average of 3.2, and was ranked in all VDCs except Katunje by 13.3% of the ward leaders.

Seeds, livestock and tools are seen as the 3 top priorities for resuming livelihood activities based upon crop agriculture or livestock rearing.

Women’s Perspective on Livelihoods Needs

Women leaders were asked to rank the needs in terms of livelihood relief, as per women and girls’ needs. They were given a list of items which they had to rank from 1 to 5 – with 1 as being the most urgent.

 Seeds scored an average of 2, and were ranked in all VDCs by 95.5% of the women leaders. Seeds is the first priority for women.  Livestock scored an average of 2.6, and was ranked in all VDCs except Semjong by 71% of the women leaders. Livestock is thus second priority for women.  Tools scored an average of 2.9 and were ranked in all VDCs by 75.5% of the women leaders. Toolkits are third priority for women.  Shelter for livestock scored an average of 3.3 and was ranked in all VDCs by 93.3% of the women leaders. Shelter for livestock is fourth priority for women.  Storage units scored an average of 3.3, and were ranked in all VDCs except Marpak by 55.8% of the women leaders. Storage units are fifth priority for women.  Vocational training scored an average of 3.5, and was ranked in all VDCs by 68.9% of the women leaders.  Animal feed scored an average of 4.2 and was ranked in Darkha, Gumdi and Marpak by 31.1% of women leaders.

Recommendations

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Infrastructures and Education

Access to main roads

Additionally to 95.5% of the wards reported to have either access to the main road through a link road or already being located on the main road, 93.3% report that the link roads are still functional after the earthquakes. The two wards that reported that their access had been jeopardized (Semjong wards 1 and 2) yet reported that the roads would be reparable by manpower.

Access to education

57 schools were running in Dhading before the earthquakes, including 44 primary schools and 13 secondary schools. See details per VDC in Table 6.

Table 6. Number of schools per VDC before the earthquakes

Primary schools Secondary schools Total Darkha 6 4 10 Gumdi 12 2 14 Katunje 11 2 13 Marpak 8 3 11 Semjong 7 2 9 Total 44 13 57

Only seven are still standing after both earthquakes. 50 schools have been destroyed by the earthquakes, including:  80% (8 out of 10) in Darkha  78.5% (11 out of 14) in Gumdi  84.6% (11 out of 13) in Katunje  100% (11 out of 11) in Marpak  100% (9 out of 9) in Semjong.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Figure 9: Level of school destruction per VDC

100.00%

80.00%

60.00%

40.00%

20.00%

0.00% Darkha Gumdi Katunje Marpak Semjong

All schools have been destroyed in Marpak and Semjong.

Out of the 40 ward leaders that reported an open school, 92.5% said that the school was being run in tents, in the makeshift shelter or in the open air.

90.5% of ward leaders mention that latrines in the schools have been damaged and would therefore require WASH rehabilitation in addition to re-construction of infrastructure.

As per ward leaders’ estimations, there are approximately 9,676 students in Dhading, which would represent 26% of the total population. This gives us an indication about the large proportion of minors in the district as one in four people would be below 18 years old.  2,241 students in Darkha: 249 students per school  1,505 in Gumdi: 167 students per school  2,030 in Katunje: 253 students per school  1,677 in Marpak: 209 students per school  2,223 in Semjong: 277 students per school.

On average, there are 230 students per school.

Women’s perspective on access to education

93.3% of women leaders report that the former closest school has been affected by the earthquakes. Consequences include lack of access to the school, damaged buildings, classes being taught in tents, lack of financial means to pay the school fees and the fear of the children to go back to school because of the trauma suffered from the earthquakes.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

Education Needs

Ward leaders were asked to rank the needs of the school facilities. They were given a list of items which they had to rank from 1 to 3 – with 1 as being the most urgent.

 The reconstruction of the building is considered as a first priority by ward leaders. It scored an average 1.1, and was ranked in all VDCs by 93.3% of the ward leaders.  WASH (latrines and water access) rehabilitation is the second priority in schools. It scored an average of 2.2, and was ranked in all VDCs by 86.7% of the ward leaders.  School supplies scored an average of 2.7, and were ranked in all VDCs by 80% of the ward leaders. School supplies are thus ranked as third priority.

Recommendations

Numerous schools in Dhading have been severely damaged or even fully destroyed by the earthquakes, which has negatively impacted the education of thousands of children. Drop- outs due to lack of alternative should be a tremendous concern for the aid community. Going back to school is a priority for children as it enables them to ‘go back to a normal life’ and build a brighter future for themselves. Furthermore, according to UNICEF12, the longer children are out of school after a disaster, the less likely it is for them to ever go back to the classroom. It is therefore crucial to ensure that schools are able to resume their activities as soon as possible. While providing free public education itself is the responsibility of the Nepalese government, ACTED could contribute to improve children’s possibilities by concentrating efforts on infrastructure rehabilitation. AMEU would therefore recommend the following:

12http://unicef.org.np/latest-updates/stories/2015/05/31/back-to-school-makes-back-to-normal-possible (accessed 28/07/15)

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  While re-building schools is the priority in terms of education, ACTED should not overlook the fact that construction takes time. In the short-term period, provision of emergency material such as tents and tarps would be of immense help to school teachers.

Health

Access to Health Facilities

In average, government health facilities are 3 kilometres away from households. While the distance is quite short in Darkha (less than 2 kilometres), the distance goes up to 4 kilometres in Gumdi. In Katunje, the ward leader in ward 1 reports that the distance between the villages and the nearest health facility is 15 kilometres.

All said that their closest health facility was still open after the earthquakes; 95.6% said that they could access it. Only two wards do not seem to have access to a public health facility, namely Gumdi wards 7 and 8.

However, 77.8% of ward leaders declared that activities are being run in tents or makeshift shelters. 22.2% of the ward leaders reported that activities are being run from the undamaged building of the health facility. This includes all Marpak wards; ward 4 in Katunje but no ward in other VDCs (see Figure 9).

Figure 10: Location of health care provision

22%

In tents

In makeshift shelters 76% 2% In undamaged health care centres

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015

82.2% of latrines in health facilities in all VDCs were reported being damaged, including 100% in Darkha, Gumdi and Katunje, and 89% in Semjong. However, 67% in Marpak reported that latrines in their health facilities had not been damaged.

In terms of caseload, the number of patient admissions per day increased by 1.6 with 471 patients coming daily compared to 295 in average before the earthquakes.

Private health facilities are more available to communities in Dhading than public health care centres; 84.4% reported that they have access to a private health facility. In average, people have to walk 2.27 kilometres only to reach the closest private health facility; furthermore, the longest distance reported in each ward is substantially lower than the maximum distance needed to reach a public facility.

Women’s perspective on access to health facilities

According to women leaders, the closest heath facility is 3.9 kilometres away. 80% of women leaders assert that the former closest public health facility had been damaged during the earthquake, including all women leaders from Darkha, Gumdi, Katunje and Semjong. Only Marpak’s health facilities seem not to have been affected by the earthquakes. Problems include difficulties encountered in reaching the facility, operations being run in tents and lack of health services available in the centre.

Healthcare Needs

When asked about the challenges faced by government health facilities and what would be the most urgent material to allow them to be fully functional, ward leaders ranked priorities from 1 (the most urgent) to 5 (the least urgent).

 Reconstruction of building scores 1.3 and was reported in all VDCs by 84.4% of the ward leaders. Reconstruction of the health facility is thus the first priority in Dadhing.  Latrines and drinking water accessibility scored 2.2 and were ranked in all VDCs by 73.3% of the ward leaders. WASH assistance is the second priority in health care centres.  Medicines scored 2.4 and were reported as a priority in all VDCs by 86.7% of ward leaders. Medicines are the third direst need for health care in Dhading.

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015  Staff scored 2.6 and was ranked in all VDCs except Semjong by 37.8% of ward leaders.  Accessibility through rubble clearance activities scored 1, yet was ranked only in Gumdi ward 9 and Katunje ward 1. It is important to note that it is ranked as the first priority in these two VDCs though.  Tents scored an average of 1.3, yet were ranked only in Darkha ward 9, Gumdi ward 7 and Marpak ward 4.

Recommendations

Coping Strategies

Women and ward leaders were asked about how households would cope with losses due to both earthquakes. A relatively high proportion of the ward leaders (half of the respondents) report that they will cut off their food expenses, hence decreasing the quantity and quality of their diets. Semjong (100%) and Katunje (89%) are particularly at risk of relying on this extremely negative coping strategy. Reduction in food expenses is the second expected coping strategy for households after relying on external support and humanitarian assistance (see Figure 10).

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 The large majority of households will, according to leaders, cope by:  Relying on humanitarian assistance (60%)  Reducing their food expenses (55.6%)  Use their own savings (55.6%).

60% were planning on relying on humanitarian assistance, which reveals the degree of support that Dhading has already received. Indeed, this coping strategy is based on the belief, or even the certainty, that basic needs will be met and covered by humanitarian assistance provided in the district. This characteristic is very representative of Dhading since ward leaders in other districts did not mention potential reliance on humanitarian assistance and support.

55.6% were planning on reducing their food expenses and also using their own savings. A significant proportion also reported that they would rely on community solidarity mechanisms by borrowing money from their closest friends and relatives (48.9%) and by sharing their remaining possessions with other, less privileged households in their ward (17.8%).

Labour migration, selling productive or non-productive assets or taking a loan from a formal or informal institution such as a bank or a money lender were generally not envisaged by households in Dhading. Reduction of education and health expenses are not either.

Figure 11. Coping Strategies of Households

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Rely on humanitarian assistance

Eat less / Buy less food

Use own savings

Take loan from friends and family

Share possessions with other households

Labour migration of the whole household

Reduce health expenses

Take a loan from an informal institution

Take a loan from a formal institution

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Women’s perspective on Coping Strategies

Interestingly, 94.6% of the women leaders were counting on humanitarian assistance to cope with the losses due to the earthquakes.

40% would take a loan from family and friends, adding up to 67% in Semjong.

35.6% report that women are planning on cutting off expenses for meals. This alarmingly adds up to 77.8% in Katunje.

It is estimated by 24.4% of all women leaders that households will use their own savings to cope with losses of financial means and productive assets due to the earthquakes.

17.8% were planning on selling their remaining productive assets such as seeds, tools, livestock and land. Women respondents raising their concern about having to consider this as an option is a worrying fact given the already significant level of vulnerability of these households with the few possessions they still have.

6.7% of women leaders reported that labour migration would be an option for the head of household, most likely the male adult member of the household.

Only 4.4% and 2.2% reported that they would take a loan from a formal or an informal institution.

Only 4.4% report that they would reduce their health expenses as well.

No woman leader reported that households will reduce their expenses for educational purposes or that they would sell non-productive assets.

Recommendations

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 term Food security; however, means of growing their own food should be considered as a better alternative option in the medium and longer-term, for example in the form of livelihood inputs / agricultural kits. This is particularly crucial as women leaders have reported that they were considering selling their remaining productive assets to cope with the losses due to the earthquakes.

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Conclusion

The earthquakes have impacted households on multiple levels, affecting not only their shelter but also their daily life, their access to and use of basic necessities such as cooking or hygiene items, their access to latrines and drinking water, their food supplies and their capacity to provide for themselves and their family.

1. Shelter kits remain the most crucial priority for all households, including Non-Food Items to help them relive their lives in dignity. Shelter kits should be winterized in anticipation of the cold season. No emergency kits should be distributed anymore. 2. Access to WASH / latrines is the second priority as it has usually been destroyed or damaged at the same time as houses. Non-Food items should not only include housing equipment; hygiene kits are an absolute priority to allow women to maintain their personal hygiene and prevent the communities to resort to open defecation. Hygiene promotion trainings should be held by ACTED and be organized in a gender- segregated manner to ensure that women feel free and safe to share problems encountered in the intimacy of their home. 3. Food security and sustainable livelihood assistance, i.e. reaching back a certain level of food stock for households and for them to have the practical and financial means to maintain this level of self-sufficiency, is the third priority. Many households in Dhading have lost their agricultural tools, hence cannot complete harvesting activities even though the large majority reports to be willing to do that. To avoid a severely negative impact on households’ food security as most of them usually use their harvest for internal consumption, it is essential to to implement livelihood recovery activities in order to build households’ resilience, to mitigate displacement and migration, and to reduce the risk of communities relying on external aid for survival.

A crucial point is that a large proportion of the assessed population in Dhading has shared that they were expecting to rely on humanitarian assistance for survival and coverage of their basic needs. Humanitarian aid seems to have reached a quite high number of affected people, as opposed to other districts; many NGOs are operating in Dhading. ACTED should hence focus on activities that do not deepen this dependency on external aid, and rather develop activities fostering self-sufficiency and autonomous recovery of its beneficiaries in order to find a sustainable end to the crisis caused by the earthquakes. ACTED should strive to implicate the affected populations in the management of the aid provided to them, i.e. by providing them the physical means and the practical knowledge to resume the activities they were conducting before the disasters. Trainings should be organized at community-level on

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Detailed Needs Assessments- Dhading June-July 2015 best use of livelihood items distributed and Community Committees could be implemented to further help the most vulnerable households through community solidarity mechanisms. ACTED could award a lump-sum to Community Committees members or leaders which could be used as a temporary Cash Grant for households that struggle to restart their basic livelihood activities, even with humanitarian assistance; these households could use the Cash to buy some fertilizers, establish better irrigation systems or buy animal feed depending on their immediate and medium-term needs to improve their production; in the long term, they could reimburse the amount with low interest rate to the Committee with the product of their sales on the markets.

An everlasting assistance in the form of food distributions can indeed be detrimental to the locals’ know-how and self-reliance.

In order to assist households to resume their daily lives, ACTED should also take into consideration the relevance of providing psycho-social support to targeted communities, especially women and children. Indeed, the fear of aftershocks and the permanent anxiety reported by interviewed women is very worrisome and will prevent them to feel able to restart the life that disappeared with the earthquakes. Furthermore, as women have also reported children to be scared of going back to school, the establishment of a Child Protection Unit providing psycho-social support to children would be highly beneficial. Therefore, AMEU strongly recommends providing psycho-socio counseling to targeted communities, especially women and children.

In terms of overall organisation, distributions should start as early as possible in the morning since household members are free at that time – around 6 or 7 am.

Finally, ACTED should remain aware of discrimination during distributions, as vulnerable households (e.g. elderly, ‘uneducated’ or particularly landless people) tend to face challenges in accessing relief from local authorities (e.g. VDC leaders) or relief committee members.

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ANNEXES

Annex 1 – Gravity Water Supply Schemes Damaged but Functioning

NB: Ward numbers are not in mathematical order.

District VDC Ward Name of source number Dhading Darkha 1 Dharapani, Khakai Khola, Sirubari Khola Dhading Darkha 2 Thorjhung Dhading Darkha 3 Thargung, Ungala, Miplit, Ungle Dhading Darkha 4 Jhigal, Telchat Dhading Darkha 5 N/A Dhading Darkha 8 Maruwa/ Sanen/Sanglyu Dhading Darkha 7 Churlung, Darkha Dhading Darkha 9 Darkha Khola Dhading Darkha 6 DDC/EX-Army Dhading Gumdi 9 Bhumithan, Devisthan, Kakchet Dhading Gumdi 6 Timur Drinking water and B.K. Drinting water Dhading Gumdi 7 Tam Tam Saiwajom Dhading Gumdi 8 Timbure, Phalange Dhading Gumdi 2 Hangba Khola, Syang Bhir Dhading Gumdi Mathhilo Chholang, Khalyat, Marmai, Bhumithan, 3 Simkhada tole, Mamai tole Dhading Gumdi 4 Klyur, Kurma devi, Manmang Khola, pokhara Dhading Gumdi 1 Kumukhola, Gimbol, Chaul Dhading Gumdi 5 N/A Dhading Katunje 1 N/A Dhading Katunje 2 Wadikhola, Dhap, Chepang khola, Arutcarka, Duighare Dhading Katunje 3 N/A Dhading Katunje 4 N/A Dhading Katunje 5 Kareliban, Ghale padhero, Gurung dhara Dhading Katunje 6 N/A Dhading Katunje 7 N/A Dhading Katunje 8 N/A Dhading Katunje 9 N/A Dhading Marpak 1 Lapang Drinking Water Dhading Marpak 9 N/A Dhading Marpak 2 Cooktek Kuten, Katekute Dhading Marpak 3 Pnidhare Dhading Marpak 4 Khirraghare Dhading Marpak 5 Kaduri, Khiraghare, chappari

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Dhading Marpak 6 N/A Dhading Marpak 7 N/A Dhading Marpak 8 Kupende Khola, Guje Khola Dhading Semjong 1 Simpani Khola Dhading Semjong 2 N/A Dhading Semjong 3 Chimchong Khola Dhading Semjong 4 N/A Dhading Semjong 5 Lieun Khola, Saune Khola Dhading Semjong 6 Lusuka, Chuml Dhading Semjong 7 N/A Dhading Semjong 8 Birtung Khola, Chhume Dhading Semjong 9 Songmochhume

Annex 2 – Gravity Water Supply Schemes Destroyed and Non-Functioning

NB: Ward numbers are not in mathematical order.

District VDC Ward Name of source number Dhading Darkha 1 N/A Dhading Darkha 2 Thorjhung Dhading Darkha 3 N/A Dhading Darkha 4 N/A Dhading Darkha 5 N/A Dhading Darkha 8 N/A Dhading Darkha 7 N/A Dhading Darkha 9 Sakharsayarn Dhading Darkha 6 N/A Dhading Gumdi 9 N/A Dhading Gumdi 6 N/A Dhading Gumdi 7 Sarwajom Dhading Gumdi 8 N/A Dhading Gumdi 2 N/A Dhading Gumdi 3 N/A Dhading Gumdi 4 Keyur Kuwa, Manmang Dhading Gumdi 1 N/A Dhading Gumdi 5 N/A Dhading Katunje 1 Gravity water supply Dhading Katunje 2 N/A Dhading Katunje 3 N/A Dhading Katunje 4 N/A

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Dhading Katunje 5 Kauliban dhara, Ghale dhara, Gurung padhero, Sarkikhola Dhading Katunje 6 N/A Dhading Katunje 7 N/A Dhading Katunje 8 N/A Dhading Katunje 9 N/A Dhading Marpak 1 N/A Dhading Marpak 9 Plumayam Khola Dhading Marpak 2 N/A Dhading Marpak 3 N/A Dhading Marpak 4 N/A Dhading Marpak 5 N/A Dhading Marpak 6 N/A Dhading Marpak 7 Chuwa danda, Kera Ghari, Sapaton, Kupande Dhading Marpak 8 Kupende Khola Dhading Semjong 1 N/A Dhading Semjong 2 Simpani Khola Dhading Semjong 3 N/A Dhading Semjong 4 N/A Dhading Semjong 5 Chimkhola Drinking Water Dhading Semjong 6 N/A Dhading Semjong 7 Marchang Dhading Semjong 8 Manekhola Dhading Semjong 9 Disyoung

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