Manual for post-earthquake rebuilding in Nepalese valleys

This pedagogic document, prepared by the French Association for Earthquake Engineering, aims at applying these simple but efficient earthquake resistant principles to traditional houses in Nepalese high valley villages using available materials in these isolated places.

This manual is designed specifically for people in high remote valleys who may not be eligible for reconstruction programs and have to resort to self-construction using readily available materials. With simple language and illustrations, it is didactic and easily accessible to most.

When the shaking from the Himalayan earthquake occurred just before noon on April 25, most of the victims were within buildings hastily constructed and poorly built.  Since it’s impossible to predict an earthquake with reliability, the most efficient preventive action is to (re) build with earthquake-resistant principles.