About Resettling Some People In The Terai

Map of the districts of Narayani Zone (wp-EN) in Nepal. Created by Rarelibra 19:33, 18 September 2006 (UTC) for public domain use, using MapInfo Professional v8.5 and various mapping resources. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most people, the overwhelming majority, want to stay put. Home is home. They don't want to move. And I expect enough relief work to be done over the next few weeks that staying put might make sense for over 90% of the earthquake victims. But relocating should be kept as an open option. That might impact about 5%. That might be somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 people.

Some of them could be resettled along the Pokhara-Kathmandu highway, some in Chitwan, some in some other parts of the Terai.

Resettling people is one of many options. It should be in the arsenal. I don't think anyone is suggesting that is the only option.

After all, resettling is not just about moving bodies. They will also need livelihoods. Finding land is challenging enough, building new houses is challenging. Finding them livelihoods is a challenge. Resettling is not easy to do. But that might be the only option for about 50,000 of the earthquake victims.

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