A Qualitative Case Study of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Resources after the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, Earthquake

Abstract

The 2015 Nepal earthquake destroyed over half a million buildings including the drinking water and sanitation infrastructures, causing the displacement of around 2.8 million people. However, knowledge of how individuals coped with water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) inadequacies following the earthquake remains incomplete. We conducted focus group discussions and detailed interviews with 30 participants in the affected areas of Kavrepalanchowk and a temporary settlement in Bhaktapur to assess their response and access to WASH after the earthquake. The data were analyzed based on the cultural empowerment domain of the PEN-3 cultural model. Results show that responses to WASH include the provision of water from public and private resources (positive response), the provision of chlorine tablets for treating drinking water (unique response), and limited water supply for household chores and limited sanitation and hygiene resources (negative response). These findings underscore the need to understand how individuals and households cope with WASH following an earthquake. It also highlights the need for targeted interventions focused on building community resilience in addition to providing critical relief efforts.

Natural Disaster and Households’ Access to Drinking Water: Evidence from Nepal’s Earthquake

“…Sekine and Roskosky (2018) documented the gaps and lessons learned for cholera prevention and control in post-earthquake in Nepal. A study by Uprety et al (2017) assessed how households cope with water, sanitation, and hygiene issues after the earthquake and shows that the provision of a water tank by the municipality and the use of chlorine tablets for treating water helped households to cope with WASH issues. A study by Khanal (2022) showed that earthquakes were associated with an increased prevalence of diarrhea, fever, and cough among children less than five years old in earthquake affected districts.…”

Characterizing Infrastructure Resilience in Disasters Using Dynamic Network Analysis of Consumers’ Service Disruption Patterns

“…Data in this paper has been collected from the Post-Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) by the government of Nepal, reports from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), in-person interviews with international, national, and local agencies, and interviews with the local residents in the city of Bhaktapur. Since the data was gathered proportional to the number of inhabitants from population statistics and severity of damage in the Bhaktapur, the disruption data shows electric power outage throughout the entire city [40][41][42].…”

Overview of the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, Earthquake and the Earthquake Spectra Special Issue

“…The methods most appropriate for studying them differ as well, with these intermittent systems benefitting especially from more qualitative research due to the lack of quantitative data and a desire to more fully capture the contextual factors affecting resilience. One of the lifelines papers in this special issue, Uprety et al (2017), uses focus groups and interviews in two communities to explore how individuals coped with water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interruptions—the negative, positive, and unique responses. Another paper, Zhu et al (2017), also relies on a systematic analysis of qualitative focus group and in-depth interview data as it assesses the resilience of the Kathmandu Valley electricity and water supply systems.…”