Speed and quality of recovery after the Gorkha Earthquake 2015 Nepal

The Nepal Gorkha earthquake sequence of April–May 2015 killed 8790 people injured 22,300, and damaged around a million buildings. This paper presents a critical review of the challenges and opportunities for building back safer and quicker and reports findings from a survey conducted in 2018 with people in the affected areas and professionals working on recovery are reported. The aim of the survey was, firstly, to measure the speed and quality of recovery, not only of the built environment but also of the society and economy, and secondly to identify opportunities that were taken or missed to improve resilience to future earthquakes. The results highlight that the economy recovered in three years, that 90% of people were back in their homes after four years and that infrastructure and non-domestic constructions took five years to rebuild and repair. Overall, respondents felt the quality of housing and earthquake safety were better. They also thought the public's awareness of earthquake risk had increased. But, in rural and remote areas moreneeds to be done in technical training on earthquake resistant construction and respondents believe that this should be a focus of government policy.