Nine health facilities in Dhading, which had been providing healthcare services from tents since the devastating earthquake last year, have shifted to pre-fabricated buildings, much to the respite of the general public as well as service providers.

“The patients as well as the doctors were facing difficulties during treatment under makeshift shelters. It is such a relief that we have moved to these pre-fabricated buildings now,” said Shiva Hari Bhatta, chief of Mahadevesi Health Post.

The pre-fabricated buildings were constructed by the Nepal-German Recovery Programme and supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusa-mmenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The health facilities were handed over on Wednesday.

A total of 46 health facilities and 43 birthing centres were either partially damaged or destroyed in the district in the last year’s earthquake which left at least 680 people dead and 1,217 injured.

Many health facilities were forced to operate from flimsy structures, leaving thousands of residents without access to adequate healthcare.

“All these new health facilities meet government standards and have advanced facilities that include electricity, water supply, waste management and furniture,” reads a press release issued by

the GIZ.