Nepal: Building Material Selection and Use An Environmental Guide

Two massive earthquakes that hit Nepal on 25 April and 12 May, 2015 caused far-reaching social, economic and environmental damage. Thirty-one of the country’s 75 districts were affected leaving over 8,790 deaths and 22,300 people injured. A total of 498,852 houses were categorized as fully collapsed or damaged beyond repair and 256,697 partly damaged. The earthquakes triggered thousands of landslides that destroyed 2.2% of forest cover in six affected districts (National Planning Commission 2015). Material demand to rebuild half a million destroyed houses and other infrastructure will put much additional pressure on Nepal’s already stressed natural resources. The aim of this publication is to provide general guidance for engineers, architects, project managers and technicians working in disaster reconstruction projects in Nepal to select, source (or procure) and use building materials in an environmentally responsible manner. It is assumed that users have a basic knowledge about building materials and the construction process, but not advanced technical training.