Municipal Earthquake Risk Management Project (MERMP)
Supporting Agency: Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of USAID through Asian Urban Disaster Mitigation Program (AUDMP) of Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)Country: Nepal
Location within Country: 4 municipalities of Nepal: Banepa, Vyas, Dharan and Pokhara
Project Period: January 2003 - October 2003
The Program:
As a replication process of the successes of the Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Risk Management Project (KVERMP), NSET implemented Municipal Earthquake Risk Management Project (MERMP) in four municipalities of Nepal: Banepa, Vyas, Dharan and Pokhara, during 2002-2003 under the Asian Urban Disaster Mitigation Program (AUDMP) of Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) with core funding from OFDA. Project activities consisted of developing earthquake damage scenarios of the cities including building inventory surveys, preparing an action plan for earthquake risk management, construction or retrofitting of school or other public structure as demonstration of feasible mitigation measures, awareness-raising, training, capacity building and institutionalization. The project was a grand success. Therefore, NSET has now plans to work with other municipalities of the country as a regular program and has targeted to cover all-58 municipalities of Nepal within next 5 years.
