Virtual Earthquake Reconnaissance Team (VERT) Summary by Sahar Derakhshan and Ezra Jampole.
The housing in Nepal has been classified into four categories on the basis of types of construction materials used in walls and roof of the residential house. These are permanent, Semi permanent, temporary and other types.
Permanent (Pakki) house (Kayastha and Shreshtha, 2005) refers to that with both walls and roof made of permanent construction material like cement, bonded brick, concrete, stone, slate, tile, galvanized sheet, etc. Semi Permanent (Ardha Pakki) house belongs to the category where either the wall or the roof is constructed with permanent materials and the other is constructed with temporary materials. In Temporary (Kachchi) house, non-durable materials like wooden flakes, bamboo, straw/thatch, mud, unbaked bricks, etc. are mainly used in both walls and roof. Other category of house includes a very temporary type of residential unit that is made with non-durable materials. This ‘Other’ type of housing unit is, generally, made with plastic sheet, bamboo, straw/thatch, etc. For example, hut/tent is included in this category of house. Following Figure and Table shows the distribution of housing stock in the ecological regions and development zones. It is observed that hill and Terai region is having larger housing stock than mountain region.
Table 1. Housing type percentage at country level (CBS, 2001).
The trend shows that the higher percentage of household is living in permanent type of house and it is followed by temporary (Kachchi) type house in 2001 (Kayastha and Shreshtha, 2005). The percentage of household living in permanent and semi -permanent house type has increased during 1991 – 2001 period. In the case of household living in temporary house, it is declining in the same period. In urban areas, many households are using permanent house as their residence and it is about two third of the total urban households. But there is still a large percentage of household living in temporary house type in rural area and it is about more than one third of the total rural household (36.9 %) in the last census.
Figure 1. House types and distribution (source: (CBS, 2001); (ICIMOD and CBS, 2003b)) (Source: Nepal Hazard Risk Assessment).
Curated topics from the April 25, 2015, Nepal Earthquake to help inform reconnaissance activities, identify impacted regions, and help document the timeline of earthquake response/recovery.
Information on housing impacts from the April 25, 2015, Nepal Earthquake.
