Quake costs 10th Plan

October 23: The September 21 earthquake has cost the government Nu 2.5 billion and could delay programmes in the 10th Plan, which is already short by Nu 4.8b for the second year (2009-2010) of the plan period.

The government needs Nu 2,192m for early recovery, reconstruction and disaster risk reduction, according to the final cost assessment report released yesterday. The amount is almost 70 percent of the annual net revenue of Tala, the country’s biggest hydropower project.

Prime Minister Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley said that the government is concerned that the earthquake would cost programmes in the 10th Plan, but “there has been a heartening response from the international community and developing partners, especially India, UN and Turkey to support the reconstruction”.

“Our developing partners have already pledged their support and we’re hopeful that most of the expenses would be met from these commitments,” he said. “Some of our partners were awaiting the final financial assessment report, which has now been sent to them.”

Houses worth Nu 1,118.8m were damaged and Nu 716m worth of education and health facilities were also affected, according to the latest report compiled by a team of government, World Bank and UN officials. Cultural and religious buildings worth Nu 650m were also damaged.

“The disaster will definitely have an impact on the 10th Plan programmes,” said GNH secretary, Karma Tshiteem. “The current activity will take priority over plan activities because we need to rebuild these infrastructures and build them better,” he said.

He said that, unless the entire cost of damage is covered by donor support, some of the existing plan commitments would have to be diverted for reconstruction of infrastructures.

“This diversion, however, would not impact the key programs of the Plan such as rural electrification, health and education sector,” he said.

Karma Tshiteem also said that the other impact would be on the existing capacity to carry out the rebuilding work, in addition to the plan activities. “Capacity displacement could impact the Plan, because we only have the same limited people and resources to carry out both works, which could delay some of the plan programmes,” he said.

UNDP and UNICEF have committed USD 400,000 and USD 140,000 respectively as immediate assistance. The government of Kuwait has also committed USD 2m and the government of Turkey has pledged USD 100,000 as immediate assistance. “These are initial contributions and we already received some funds,” said finance ministry’s director general, Nima Wangdi. “We ‘re still in the stage of mobilizing resources and we don’t know how much assistance we’re looking at because most of our developing partners are waiting for the complete final report.”

The cost of early recovery activities alone has been estimated at Nu 87m and Nu 50m for disaster risk reduction.

“We’re hopeful that more support will be forthcoming to meet all cost of the damages, so that the financial impact on the 10th Plan is reduced,” said GNH secretary Karma Tshiteem.

source: kuensel