Simon and Judith with VSO, Nepal: Nepal's Earthquake Crisis

Belafi, Sindhupalchok, we try to find what was the cooperative milk chilling centre

Nepal’s earthquake is not the first disaster to strike our fragile planet, and nor will it be the last. Headed by organisations such as the UN, World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) there is a well- oiled system of needs assessment and emergency relief provision which kicked in within a few hours of the 7.9 Richter scale quake. The Government is involved at each stage but these global organisations are definitely the executive partners during the early phases of the disaster response.

As the earthquakes shockwave moved from the epicentre in Ghorka eastwards, it reeked its worst effects in the remote districts to the west, north and east of the Kathmandu valley, from Ghorka through Sindhapulchok to Dolakha. In the city valley, towns built on the earthquake susceptible clay soils were the worst affected.

A typical rural settlement in a badly affected area. Small metal shelters made in Kathmandu (Habitat for Humanity) replace
the destroyed houses as shelter for families and stored food.

Relief aid provision in Sindhupalchok. A high percentage of stored rice and pulses were destroyed as houses came down. These families were receiving rice and oil.

The basic management and coordination unit of the emergency response is the 'Cluster'. Each of the twelve clusters has a principle function such as ‘Early Response’ or ‘Camp Management’, for example, and any relief agency can register and attend the well timetabled and managed meetings which are hallmarked by clarity and brevity. Everyone has the single purpose of enhancing the coordination effort whilst at the same time avoiding duplication.

On behalf of VSO I have been tasked with attending the Food Security cluster which is chaired by a young Italian woman, Ellena, whilst her French assistant Astrid manages the vast amount of information. This cluster has an Agriculture sub-group that I also attend. In the remote very inaccessible badly affected districts, assessing the damage and needs is almost more difficult than moving the huge volumes of relief aid. The FAO, WFP and other agencies feedback multi-dimensional needs assessments. The reports are designed to direct not only the emergency relief efforts but also prepare for the rapidly arriving subsequent phases of Recovery and Rehabilitation which must dovetail with the long term development programmes. Even at this early stage I have the feeling that Ellena and her young colleagues in the disaster management industry, have one eye on the next crisis and will soon be speeding away to another humanitarian relief incident elsewhere in the world.

As you would expect VSO’s role in delivering emergency humanitarian aid is limited. Having said that Jessica, a volunteer from Derby, who’s original placement related to biogas engineering is spending the next three months coordinating relief activities in the badly affected district of Sindhupalchok. Back in Lamjung Jude has spent the last few weeks supporting damaged schools by creating temporary learning spaces. Lessons learnt during her Sisters for Sisters education programme are also being rolled out to more communities to help schools get up and running.

A new temporary farming community, with shelter for people and livestock. The hope is that they will be effective during the
monsoon rains, now only a month away

A woman feeds her animals ground maize flour next to her new tin house, which used to house the goats.

My role has also been to focus on the future response phases of recovery, rehabilitation and the longer term development pathway. Together with my work in the VSO Nepal's country office I have joined Sijan and Gungan in the livestock team of Samarth a market development project funded by the UK’s Dept. for International Development (DFID). I support the team as a dairy and milk processing specialist. We have just returned from a visit to Sindhapulchok where we assessed damage to the milk chilling and transportation infrastructure. This milk supply chain is dominated by hundreds of very small producers, who over the years have come together to form cooperatives which handle and chill their milk. Their two main markets are local towns on the Chinese border and the urban population of Kathmandu.

Krishna Bhakta stands where his home once stood, and where his six cows died
during the quake. His new home is a low tin shed in the middle distance. Despite
all this as cooperative leader he willingly set up a farmer focus group and revealed
plans to rebuild the milk collection center.

Unsurprisingly in a district where 95% of housing has been destroyed, we found milk collection and chilling facilities badly impacted but in most cases still carrying out the basic functions. Farmers had lost not only their houses and livestock shelters, but also 60% of their productive cattle had died under collapsed masonry. The supply of milk had unsurprisingly diminished to a fraction of the pre-quake amount and their local and more distant markets had suffered a catastrophic decline as people migrated away to safer areas. However, we also found that most farmers wanted to stay, and were carrying on with normal farming activities. Some had already replaced their lost cattle since their cooperatives had acted quickly to facilitate loans which enabled farmers to purchase cattle from neighbours not wishing to stay in the district.

Navraj Giri stands in front of a milk collection centre that was destroyed in just a few seconds.

He explains, with some emotion, that not only will the building need to be replaced but also a new market found for the milk
since the processor they were supplying was totally destroyed.

Sijan my colleague from Samarth, with a farmer focus group outside their temporary milk collection centre, now under canvas. From here they also supply food to their milk producing members.

Happier times for Krishna Bhakta as he shows us the cows he has managed to buy from a farmer who wanted to liquidise
his assets and leave the district. A loan from his cooperative allowed the restocking following the death of his entire herd.

We were able to conduct a focus group and discovered that these small holders, despite the most arduous of circumstances, were planning for the future and the recovery of their communities. The challenge for VSO, Samarth and the few other agencies working in this sector, is how best to support this fragile recovery. Fortunately our team at Samarth had carried out research with cooperatives like these immediately prior to the earthquake. The work had identified farmers development needs - information which will be a useful foundation for future planning. With the numbers of productive animals in these districts being so dramatically cut our interventions will focus on sustainable increasing output, improving quality and cutting production costs.

Bungamati six months ago.

Knowing that the Newari settlement of Bungamati, was built on clay soils I was keen to visit and assess the earthquakes impact on farmers. To get a full appreciation of damage I walked to the town which lies on the cities outskirts. Surprisingly some of the more modern concrete framed dwellings had survived but the traditionally built brick houses, which form the communities heart, were devastated.

Happier times. A Newari grandmother shows off her granddaughter from an upper room in these multistory houses.

The situation last summer with long garlands of chilli hanging to dry in the narrow streets.

During that stay in 2014 we had eaten with a family on the third floor of the house. Livestock live on the ground level, then the living area and finally the food preparation on the top floor.

The earthquake has cruelly wrecked that way of life.

More devastation but the few modern houses had less damage.

These statues once guarded the towns central Hindu temple, but not any more.

The temple site is now where people can get a meal.

This lovely artifact stands in a now lonely position, guarding two girls as they collect water from an emergency supply.

Everyone is helping in the cleanup process, and top priority is given to clearing the many drains ready for the monsoon rains.

The barrow and shovel often the only means of clearing rubble, so things will progress slowly.

A farmer returns from the field with some tools that escaped being buried.

Most families here are farmers, carrying out wood carving and other traditional crafts to supplement their subsistence way of life. As I clambered over the piles of rubble, which were once bustling streets, I was shocked at what lay beneath my feet. Here were the remains of lives and livelihoods. The small craft workshops were no more and buried along with them were tools and carvings that represent years of effort and valuable income. Livelihood loss is the hidden dimension of this sickening earthquake, which also erased the traditional marketplace where customers could find every kind of Newari cultural artwork from a carpet to a camphor elephant or Ganesh statue.

A wood carvers workshop displaying work which takes months to complete, now buried under brick rubble.

A Bungamati, Newari resident in happier times

Keen to discover how the farmers had weathered this horrific quake I pressed on to the collections of tents that were now home to these families. News from the cluster assessments was that the wheat harvest had faultered due to a change in priorities as shelters were hurriedly made. Happily I could see that the harvest had resumed. Wheat grain plus straw were being dried and stored and the all-important rice planting had begun. Some rice seed had survived the destruction of the stores and I was delighted to learn that other rice which had not yet been milled would be planted if seeds could not be found in the market place or from donors.

The new Bungamati community.

Thrashing wheat the traditional way.

Surja Muni, a local farmer, said that timing of the wheat harvest was still reasonably normal and the hope was that rice plantings would follow with the rains.

Planting a rice seedbed.

Bhim Raj and his wife Nani Chhori were happy that their rice transplanting would be normal. Their land was unharmed but their temporary home was a tent.

Whilst plodding home, reflecting on the positives of the visit, I marveled at the way in which these farming families where dealing with the situation in hand. For many the emergency phase was drawing to a close, despite the daily aftershocks, and an embryonic recovery is underway. Huge challenges lie ahead, the first being the arrival of the monsoon rains which will test the temporary shelters and peoples moral.

As the pendulum swings towards recovery and rehabilitation, the big donors such as USAID, DIFID, UN and the Asian Development Bank will fund the support through gifts and loans. However, the task is so huge that the main driving force will be the Nepali people themselves and their collective resolve to succeed. Certainly in my recent visits to damaged rural communities this essential element is present and about to emerge like a germinating seed. We as development agencies must nurture this desire to rebuild, and our programmes must not stop at the more tangible assets such as housing but must equally focus on the less structured, but essential, topic of Livelihood recovery.