Nepal: 'Quake mitigation UK's top priority'

"We are going to increase development aid to Nepal. And quite a lot of money will go into disaster risk reduction," Alan Duncan, UK Minister of State for International Development told República after his visit to earthquake prone localities in Chhetrapati area of Kathmandu this week.

"If an earthquake hits Kathmandu it would be a total disaster. Because buildings are in very bad condition to withstand the earthquake," he further said. "We need to work very hard on two things -- one to prepare for the emergency relief and two to begin to start building good buildings and stop building bad ones."

The pledge comes in the wake of a meeting of donor communities organized by the World Bank to take place in April, in Washington DC in support of gearing up earthquake risk reduction efforts in Nepal.