Nepal could need $4 billion to $5 billion to rebuild after devastating floods this week, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle told Reuters on Saturday, August 28, putting the potential reconstruction bill at nearly a tenth of the country’s economy.
“The initial estimate is between $4-$5 billion. Just an estimate,” Wagle said. “We will require much less than what we needed for the 2015 earthquake. Loss and damage is being assessed.”
The disaster struck on Wednesday after a glacier collapse unleashed a torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris through river systems in the Himalayas. More than 600 people have been killed in Nepal and China’s Tibet, while more than 2,000 remain unaccounted for.
The floods devastated towns along the border, sweeping away bridges and roads and damaging major hydropower facilities.
Wagle did not explain why the reconstruction bill was expected to be lower than the roughly $9 billion spent after Nepal’s 2015 magnitude-7.8 earthquake, the country’s deadliest recorded disaster. That quake killed nearly 9,000 people, destroyed more than half a million homes and caused losses estimated at about one-third of Nepal’s economy.
The latest disaster is nevertheless expected to inflict a major economic blow on Nepal, whose economy relies heavily on remittances, tourism and hydropower. The floods damaged power projects accounting for more than 12% of the country’s total generating capacity.
By Tamilla Hasanova
