State aid has added speed to reconstruction of homes in Dolakha, but 80 per cent are unfit to live, a senior engineer said on Wednesday.Dolakha Building Construction and Urban Development Division Office Chief and engineer Ekraj Adhikari said, “Most of the reconstructed private homes are congested and not suitable for the health of people. The low zinc sheet roof and even use of zinc sheet as wall in the house are not climate friendly. Such houses are not strong enough for the future generation.”

According to District Co-ordination Office of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), reconstruction of around 44,000 homes of the 62,000 quake-affected families has started. Construction of approximately 20,000 houses  has been completed.

Many stakeholders complained that around 80 per cent reconstructed houses are not suitable to live. They cited health and security issues. Technicians involved in reconstruction said a majority of the reconstructed houses are not suitable to stay in the long-run. They said most of the families built their houses in haste just to avail government aid. 

Some victims complained that most of the designs given by the government were unsuitable for quake-affected people.

“I have built a small house as per the suggestion of the technicians. It is too small for my family. I hurriedly built to get housing aid and avoid harsh weather,” said Kumar Basnet, a resident of Katakuti in Shailungeshwor Rural Municipality.

“The two-room house is not enough for my seven-member family. I have to build another house,” he said.

Victims included in the housing reconstruction aid list complained of facing many difficulties to rebuild their houses. “We visited the district headquarters office repeatedly for the housing aid. There was black marketing of construction materials and shortage of workers to build houses,” said Krishna Bahadur Khatri, a resident of Sunkhani in Kalinchok Rural Municipality.

He said he took Rs 200,000 loan, as the government aid of Rs 300,000 was not sufficient to construct the house.