Nepal Earthquake 2015: Damages and losses in the Water and Sanitation sector

Pragya Lamsal

On Saturday, 25 April 2015 at 11:56 local time, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake as recorded by Nepal’s National Seismological Centre (NSC), struck Barpak, about 76 km northwest of Kathmandu. Government records said that there are over 8,790 casualties and 22,300 injuries. Further, the government has estimated that the lives of eight million people, almost one-third of the population of Nepal, have been impacted by these earthquakes.

National Planning Commission, an advisory body for formulating development plans and policies in Nepal, released Nepal Earthquake 2015: Post Disaster Needs Assessment Executive summary on Friday (June 19, 2015). Among others, the summary has calculated major damages and losses in Water and Sanitation sector.

It is estimated that the total value of disaster effects (damages and losses) in water and sanitation sector caused by the earthquakes is NPR 11,379 million (NPR 10,506 million of losses and NPR 873 million of damages)

The…