Three months after the April Quake, the government has finally come up with a new set of construction guidelines. The document titled ‘Settlement Development, Urban Planning Building Construction 2015’, which has been prepared by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, has been forwarded to the Cabinet. If endorsed, all municipalities and Village Development Committees with more than 1,000 households will have to strictly implement the building codes. 

According to the new guideline,  the government will no longer permit construction of buildings on plots smaller than 80 square metres (approximately 2.5 annas). Roads in residential areas will now have to be at least six metres wide; houses cannot be built on plots filled with more than one-metre of soil; building owners will need prior approval to construct balconies, and boundary walls cannot be higher than four feet, though safety nets upto 0.5 metres on such walls is allowed. House owners will have to mandatorily carry out soil tests and seismic analysis if they plan to construct a building of more than five storeys. Another commendable aspect of the guideline is that it bars construction near riverbanks. Additionally, buildings under the new provision must be at least 30 metres away from rivers and houses cannot be built on hill slopes.

These rules, if implemented sincerely, would give a much needed semblance of planning in the currently haphazard urban settlements all over the country. However, many people continue to live in risky settlements alongside the riverbanks and houses perched precariously on hill slopes. Thus, there is an 

equal—if not greater—need to bring a plan for resettling people living in such areas too. Towards that end, the government should act on the plan recently submitted to the National Planning Commission by a team lead by Prem Dangal on unified settlements in mountain districts—Taplejung, Sankhuwasabha, Solukhumbu, Dolakha, Sindhupalchok, Rasuwa, Gorkha, Manang, Mustang, Dolpa, Mugu, Jumla, Kalikot, Humla, Bajhang, Darchula and Bajura. 

Furthermore, as the guidelines are only directed at future construction, this leaves ample room for foul play by house owners who had their faulty designs approved before the quakes. Many people have been found to be flouting building codes by adding extra storeys in the absence of monitoring as the government’s focus seems to have shifted from the earthquake back to constitution-writing. While this shift is understandable, Kathmandu Metropolitan City authorities, along with their counterparts across the 133 municipalities, must continue to strictly implement the guidelines. They should also judiciously monitor construction and make sure that builders incorporate basic features like ring-beams and wire meshes to hold the inner and outer part of the structures together to help withstand future tremors.