Nepal, Jan. 11 -- My recent field trip to the Doti district of Far Western Nepal was interrupted by a wave of panic unfurling on my social media newsfeed. A Times of India article with the headline, 'Study predicts 8.5 magnitude earthquake in Himalaya' was sporadically being shared, accompanied with messages of concern and consternation. Having only just examined textbook examples of vulnerable infrastructure, especially in private housing areas in the far west, I could not fathom the damage that an 8.5 magnitude earthquake would cause if it struck western Nepal.
Almost four years after the heart tremoring incident that took the lives of nearly 9,000 people, the government continues to make snail-inch progress in its painstaking reconstruc...