After Kathmandu Valley, the Department of Education (DoE) has decided to retrofit community school buildings in seven more districts across the country.

Four companies have been selected to carry out vulnerability assessment and detailed design and cost estimation for retrofitting in 350 schools in Jhapa, Morang, Dhanusha, Parsa, Rupendehi, Banke and Kailali apart from three districts in the Valley.

The DoE last year started retrofitting public schools in the Valley after an

earthquake measuring 6.8 on the

Richter scale quake on September 18, 2011, damage many school buildings in the Eastern Region.

Almost half of the total 2,000 structures damaged or destroyed in the quake in the east were school buildings. Similar was the case during the 1988 earthquake, where 6,000 schools were destroyed. “The initiative is to reduce vulnerability of school children to earthquakes as most of our community schools are in fragile condition,” said DoE Deputy Director Jhappar Singh Bishworkarma.

A survey carried out by the National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), an NGO working in the field of earthquake preparedness and awareness, in 2005 within Valley’s 643 public schools, nearly one-third of the total, showed that more than 66 percent of the schools were likely to collapse in an earthquake

with intensity IX on the modified

Mercalli Scale. A quake of that scale during school hours may kill more than 29,000 students and teachers (12 percent of the total number) and injure 43,000 (18 percent) in the Valley alone. Direct losses in terms of damaged buildings would amount to more than seven million dollars as per the estimation in 2005. The study also showed that just 10 percent of the community school buildings are earthquake resilient.

According to Bishwokarma, the retrofitting process will start once the companies will submit a detailed study report. “We are planning to start retrofitting within a month and can complete it within this fiscal year (by August),” he added. The total estimated cost for the modification process is Rs 90,000 per school or Rs 5,000 per square feet.

source: the kathmandu post,21 april 2013