Fuel crisis and border blockade stop the cement, and the building
- Published
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- 1 min
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- MRN
- Filed under
- Reconstruction
In September 2015 Nepal adopted a new constitution, protests followed in the Terai, and freight movement across the Indian border effectively stopped. Fuel and cement went first.
By mid-November the effect on the construction site was absolute. A hundred houses stood part-built. The organisation told its donors it could not finish them even in more than two months, and that it had decided to complete the unfinished hundred by buying cement at above-market prices from multiple sources, and then suspend the project indefinitely until the crisis passed.
Announcing a suspension to people who have already given money is not a comfortable thing to do. The organisation did it in plain terms, without blaming anyone, and asked for patience.
Eight days later it reported that enough cement for a hundred houses had been procured, at higher prices than usual, and that construction had resumed. The blockade lasted until February 2016.
