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Kathmandu Schools Overview
The project included a vulnerability assessment of the Kathmandu
Valley's public schools to serve as an example of how to conduct
earthquake risk mitigation projects in Nepal. The purpose of
this assessment is not to identify the vulnerability of individual
schools, but to quantify the risk faced by the entire system.
First, the project team created a questionnaire to be filled
out by school headmasters. The survey was comprised of questions
that included school building size, density of student population,
year(s) of construction, etc. Additionally, simple questions
were asked about structural characteristics presented through
illustrations and descriptions. The project conducted 16 seminars
to teach school masters from 65% of the 645 schools in the Valley
about earthquake risk and the necessity of planning for earthquake
disasters in their schools. It also gave them guidelines to
help them complete the questionnaire. Subsequently, the survey
was conducted by the headmasters and data on 430 schools were
returned to the project.
Following completion of the surveys by the headmasters, engineers
visited approximately 20% of all the schools in the survey sample
to assess reliability of the data collected and complete any
unfinished portions of the survey. Investigations into potential
methods for and costs of retrofitting these existing buildings
were made. Since 1999, several schools have been retrofitted
as a result of these measures, including Bhuwaneshwori, Kaavresthal,
Nateshowri and Himalaya Primary School. |
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