Demolishing woes

Government in dilemma over demolition

Partially or fully damaged houses in the valley pose threat to city dwellers as government has no clear policy

Sujata Awale

Kathmandu

The house of Krishna Lal Kisi, a resident of Bhaktapur- 2 has been severely damaged during the earthquake on April 25. As aftershocks are frequent and his house is vulnerable, he has no option left other than demolition. The tilted house with the uppermost part damaged poses a threat to neighbours. For the demolition purpose, Kisi has visited the ward office many times only to meet uncertainty about the process. Since the process by the government is cumbersome and time consuming (it might take up to a year), he decided to demolish it himself with the help of the local community.

“The role of the government is seen very passive to cope with disaster. At a time when the government should be active and decide clearly, here it lacks any policy and plans regarding demolition and relief,” said Kisi. He further said that the process itself to get permission to pull down the damaged property takes time, which has hassled homeowners.

Demolition of a house is not an easy task. It takes over a hundred thousand rupees to demolish and manage the debris. “We have already lost our property and pulling down the property added woe in our live,” he said in disappointment. Kisi, who is living in a tent currently, said that the government should introduce a clear policy and implement it as soon as possible to decrease the risk. According to him, there are more than 400 houses, which need to demolished in ward-2 alone. He stressed the need to pull down these damaged properties before the monsoon.

The story of Rakesh Lal Shrestha is no different. A resident of Punyabahal-23, Basantapur, Shrestha frequently visits the ward office to fill applications to demolish his three houses which were severely damaged during the earthquake. “As the government will take a long time to demolish our property which poses continuous threat to local surroundings including Vidhyodaya Primary School, we decided to demolish it ourselves,” he informed, adding that there is still confusion about whether their expenditure to demolish the house will be reimbursed or not. According to him, it takes minimum Rs 10,000 to Rs 2.5 million to pull down the property as per the structure. In KMC ward-23, 560 houses need to be pull down immediately.

Kisi and Shrestha are just a few cases. There are thousands of houses damaged that pose a constant threat to neighbours, passerbys and vehicle movement. Krishna Bahadur Maharjan, Secretary of Ward-11, Lalitpur said, “There are around 200 houses in this ward to be pulled down. However, as there is no clear policy on how the government will assist homeowners who demolish it on their own, many people are hesitant even though it poses a risk to others.”

The government circular cites that houseowners will get relief as per the policy even if they demolish the structure themselves. However, the decision regarding reimbursement after demolishing has not been made at the central level.

“It is matter of shame that the government is passive about this,” marked Bhaikaji Tiwari, Deputy Commissioner at Kathmandu Valley Development Authority. Stating that the government lacks manpower and technology to demolish structures, he said, “The government owns two 22 tonnes and 12 tonnes cranes. There is no policy and plan to use mild explosion to demolish structures inside the alleys and stories above five.” According to him, there are approximately 3,000 houses to be pulled down immediately in the valley. “If the government is indifferent, there is a high chance of fatal accidents in the near future,” he said.

Shivahari Sharma, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Urban Development, said that obviously it is time consuming, while the government lacks resources, manpower and expertise. Citing that the government has no technology and equipment to demolish structures beyond five-storey buildings, Sharma said, “The ministry is asking for assistance from neighbouring countries.” He also stated that they are encouraging homeowners to demolish structures themselves as they can save and reuse construction materials. According to him, the government demolished 150 houses till date with assistance from the District Administration Office, Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Nepal Armed Force.

http://epaper.thehimalayantimes.com/epaperpdf/23052015/23052015-md-hr-14.pdf

Published on May 23, 2015 at THT Property Plus, The Himalayan Times on Satuday

How safe is your home?

Detail assessment of each building is compulsory to determine severity of damage to the structure


Sujata Awale

Kathmandu

As many as 72,217 houses in the Kathmandu valley alone were fully damaged by the devastating earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25 and its aftershocks. According to data maintained by Nepal Disaster Risk Reduction Portal, 65,694 houses were also partially damaged by the quake.

The frequent aftershocks have also made unseen cracks in the structure, which could be risky. To mark buildings safe, unsafe and usable after maintenance, the government has initiated the rapid visual damage team for assessment with green, red and yellow stickers. Buildings labelled with red stickers are marked unsafe while ones with green stickers are safe to reside in. Similarly, buildings leveled with yellow stickers need some retrofitting before being occupied again.

Engineers suggest not to hurry back to residing in houses that got a yellow sticker without having a detail assessment done. “There is a wrong concept going around that providing external support to walls makes the building habitable,” said Sanu Babu Dangol, Engineer at MinErgy. Citing that detailed assessment is compulsory to determine the severity of the damage, he said, “Only with the detail assessment, professionals can decide what techniques and methods have to be used for retrofitting. External support and filling cracks are just a temporary solution for preventing further possible damage to the building.”

According to Dangol, looking out for external cracks is not sufficient to term the building safe or unsafe. Structure should be inspected with engineering parametres. Citing that most buildings are found structurally weak, Dangol said, “Seventy per cent of buildings in core city areas like Patan have added floors to weak structures, which make them more vulnerable. In many cases there is no alternative than to dismante upper floors and retrofitting the building.”

Although retrofitting is not new to the world, experts state that it is very new technique to Nepal. “We don’t have sufficient manpower to conduct retrofitting techniques on a huge scale. There are many techniques to use such as grouting, injecting, banding, using carbon fiber et cetera which needs expertise,” he added, suggesting to keep inspecting cracks on regular basis as tremors have been frequent.

Damage varies according to the type of the house and the methods to inspect them also vary. “Houses made of bricks, stones with clay mortar not standing vertical, with horizontal, diagonal and vertical cracks means the house is damaged severely and needs retrofit," said Senior Structural Engineer Dr Rajan Suwal. He further said, “In case of RCC structure buildings, if pillars are damaged and have severe cracks on joints of beam and pillar then it is riskier to live in.” Citing that inspection of RCC frame structure should be done from basement (if there is) or ground floor, he said, “The base of the building should be safe to withstand the whole structure. If there are cracks and the structure of the building is not sound, it can collapse.”

According to Suwal, there is a need to inspect the foundation of the building, structures such as beams and columns, state of the building and wall partition to term the building safe or unsafe. "Retrofitting is viable only if it costs something between 10 to 30 per cent of constructing the new building," he said, adding that otherwise demolishing and constructing anew one would be a wise decision. He suggests using buildings carefully as aftershocks are still frequent and most buildings are not structurally sound, which adds vulnerability to city dwellers.

While engineers stated that retrofitting of buildings take time, Director of National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), Bijay Upadhyay said, “Resettlement and retrofitting should be done within mid-June if not it will be too late as the monsoon will start by then.” He said, “There should be proper assessment of the severity of the damage to the property at first. Then, data collection should be done whether to rebuild or retrofit the existing structure.”

Upadhyay further added that government assistance for retrofitting is crucial to encourage the general public. He opined that the government should not delay introducing the required policy and work plans for resettlement programmes and implement them as soon as possible. According to him, there are merely 100 trained experts in the country for retrofitting work and NSET plans to provide trainings on retrofitting.

Published on March 16, The Himalayan Times