UNDP: One woman’s drive to build stronger homes in Nepal

Source(s): United Nations Development Programme - Nepal

The man on the phone sounded frantic. His house had collapsed in the big earthquake that had hit Nepal, he said.

Now he was summoning Saritha Rai who had built his family home, to come and survey the destruction. And he was demanding his money back.

Rai, a mason, was trained to build earthquake resistant homes by a project run by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

She says, she was upset by the call, and rushed out to meet the home owner.

When she got there, the house was still standing. The home owner was beaming, she said. He had played a prank on her. He wanted to thank her in person for building his home well, and for helping keep his family safe.

The earthquake in Nepal, on April 25, and the tremors that followed brought tens of thousands of homes tumbling down, tens of thousands more were left severely damaged.

The scale of destruction has raised sharp questions about construction in Nepal and how building codes are routinely flouted. It has also raised demand for trained construction workers, especially masons, who are the backbone of the construction industry in Nepal.

“I see the earthquake as both a challenge, as well as an opportunity,” said Rai. Since the quake she has been receiving a stream of calls from homeowners who want her to supervise the construction or reconstruction of their homes.

They get her number from a database of masons trained by the UNDP project, which is maintained by the municipality of Kathmandu. The project is aimed at raising awareness of earthquake resistant construction techniques.

It takes a three-tiered approach to training: an advanced course for architects and designers; a basic course for architects, junior engineers and supervisors; and training in earthquake resistant construction techniques for masons. In particular, since its inception in 2011, the project has trained more than 900 masons.

A building contractor, who had employed Rai as a laborer, referred her to the project, as an opportunity to do more skilled work. She was told it would be more lucrative work. Demand for masons is high in Nepal, as many of them have left to work in the Middle East, and countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

At first, Rai says, she thought being a mason was just another low-paying job with no prestige, but now she feels differently, and adds that she wants to encourage others to become masons.

“I feel I have saved lives, and I feel good about it,” she says. “This is very important life-saving training that other masons should receive too.”

Rai says, most masons herself included, implement only about 90 percent of what they have learned in training. She believes that if they followed all the rules even an earthquake measuring over nine on the Richter scale would not bring down well-built homes.

More importantly she says: “You also have to train owners and landlords who pay for the construction of homes. They don’t want to spend a lot of money so they use cheaper masons and cheaper products.”

Now she knows better. Since her training four years ago, Rai says, she has helped construct seven homes and one building, a school. All of them are still standing and undamaged, except for a home built of mud, in a village on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

Her dream is to have her own construction company and to build homes in keeping with safety codes and standards that will withstand earthquakes.

Rai says she appreciates what the UNDP has done for her, and adds that the UN family been a key player in her life, from the time she was young.

She first came across the UN as a child, she says. A UN vehicle would come to her village in Khotang district, distributing a powder to combat malnutrition in children.

“I believe it was to help save our lives,” she says. “Now as an adult I see the UN is the one supporting people in need and crisis. When I saw UN vehicles during my training I felt really happy.”

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Hazards Earthquake
Country and region Nepal
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