KATHMANDU: The government on November 30 laid the foundation stone for the construction of basic hospitals at every local level.

The government has already announced to construct 396 local hospitals with 5-15 beds within two years.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, each local level will construct a hospital in coordination with the Ministry whereas the Department of Building Construction will monitor the construction activities.

The Ministry of Finance has ensured 58 billion rupees for the construction of the hospitals at the local level and accordingly it has allocated Rs 6.12 billion this year.

Considering the pace of development in this sector, it seems difficult to build basic health posts at every local level within the two years of the government’s announcement.

The latest construction statistics related to the reconstruction of the infrastructures damaged by the 2015 earthquake reveals that the renovation is too slow.

The catastrophic earthquake of April 25, 2015, had damaged 1197 health facilities across the country out of which 698 facilities have been reconstructed and 143 are under construction.

The fact that the reconstruction of 356 health facilities has not started even after five years of the mega-disaster, and its slow pace makes one skeptical over the government’s announcement that the construction of the hospital will be completed within two years from now.

However, Dr. Jageshwar Gautam, the Spokesperson at the Ministry of Health claims the reconstruction of the primary/basic hospitals will be completed within two years from now.

“A local level is to build a hospital with 5-15 beds, they will focus on it and make it go ahead with priority,” Dr Gautam told Khabarhub, “That can be completed within two years.”

It’s remarkable that 309 local levels had laid the foundation stone of the hospital on the day of government announcement.

“The local levels which do not start work within the next two months have to return the money, the money will be given to others,” the Spokesperson told ahead, “the budget has been dispatched to 396 local levels now, rest will get the budget according to the work progress and needs.”

The Status of Reconstruction 

The government had appointed Sushil Gyawali as the Chief Executive Officer of the reconstruction authority on 25 December 2015 and assigned the task of rebuilding the structures damaged by the devastating earthquake and the aftershocks.

The National Reconstruction Authority (NEA) that was established with the purpose of rehabilitating and relocating the displaced families has nearly completed its five years, however, the progress made in the reconstruction of the health facilities is merely 58 percent now.

It means 42% are not constructed yet. This shows that the government machinery is incapable of building as per the target.

The NEA set up to rebuild private houses, health, and educational facilities, and government buildings have got one more year extended.

The NEA data reveals that although 785,000 people took the first installment to rebuild the houses damaged and destroyed by the earthquake, only 555,000 people have built the houses. It means more than 200,000 houses have not been rebuilt yet.

Similarly out of 7563 educational institutions damaged by the earthquake, the re/construction of 6,058 has been completed so far. 1500 reconstruction projects are yet to be completed.

In addition to it, 377 archeological sites and 167 security buildings are yet to be reconstructed.

Manohar Ghimire, the co-spokesperson of NEA told Khabarhub that it has requested the disaster affected people to apply at the local level for the third installment at the local level by next April.