Kathmandu’s mushrooming concrete houses: Harms are visible, but a solution is nowhere in sight

Nani Maiya Maharjan, an 80-year-old woman of Jhonchhe, Kathmandu, spent the first 50 years of her life in house made of wood, mud, stones and bricks. Around 30 years ago, her son built a new concrete house.

That shift from her old house to the new one has Maharjan realise many other changes she witnessed in her life. One of them was that number of the concrete buildings like her new residence was increasing around her. Consequently, it destroyed the paddy field in the area. She finds this quite surprising.