Setay Roka - Earthquake Survivor
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Authors
Laura Walker
Issue Date
2016-04
Type
Language
en
Keywords
Disasters
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Abstract
Setay Roka is 52 years old and lives in the village of Chapani. His wife is Sani Roka who is 48 years old. He has two daughters and two sons. He has 3 grandchildren (1 grandson and 2 granddaughters). Setay has no livelihood and he survives through the help of relatives and friends (who all work in agriculture). Setay was searching for firewood in the nearby community forest with his son and daughter in law on the morning of Saturday 25th April. They had just returned to the village when the earthquake hit at 12:30pm. Setay couldn’t remember all of the details as he had collapsed on the ground but he said both him and his son/daughter in law were unconscious. He wasn’t sure if he’d been hit by stones or the impact of the earthquake had thrown him and he’d hit himself. The rest of his family had found him by the end of the day but he had been unconscious all day. No members of his family had been injured. He said he was lucky he didn’t have any other injuries. The second storey of his house had collapsed and he didn’t dare to go inside to get any food or clothes. He was terrified about the aftershocks and was scared to move from one place to another. The aftershocks continued in Nepal for over three months. He now uses the unsafe lower storey for cooking. Setay said he took shelter by his latrine immediately after the earthquake and slept outside. He wasn’t completely sure but he said emergency relief reached him and his village 10 days after the earthquake. “I have lost everything. We have nothing left. We are completely powerless. Everything has been destroyed. We are totally blank.” It took Setay 4 months to go back in his house and has been living in an emergency shelter ever since (pictured in the shelter). He sleeps in the emergency shelter with four other members of his family. He used some rubble and wood from the local community forest along with Practical Action materials to build his shelter. The shelter is approx. 3 metres by 3 metres. The forest is maintained by the Village Development Committee (VDC) for firewood, fodder and timber for building. He is so scared of his house falling down again he said he would need a lot of reassurance from Practical Action that earthquake resistant houses are safe. Setay’s village’s water supply has also been affected by the earthquake. A local reservoir is the local water source, but the earthquake has affected this, there isn’t much water left and water pipes have been damaged. Access to water has been a priority since the earthquake. Practical Action has already repaired the main water pipes and is now working on connecting individual households.
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