UN Habitat introduces three-year green homes project

The UN Habitat has started a three-year-long Green Homes Project with the financial support of the European Union (EU).
The project aims at promoting sustainable housing in Nepal and has emphasised on Green Homes building practice, as pollution as well as causes of climate change, have increased while constructing buildings in traditional way.
It is indispensible to implement the Green Homes Programme as it is eco-friendly and cheaper, according to UN Habitat.

Secretary at the Ministry of Urban Development Kishor Thapa, ambassador and head of European Union (EU) Delegation to Nepal Alexander Spachis, joint secretary at the Ministry Suresh Acharya, regional technical advisor of UN-Habitat Bhushan Tuladhar, director general of the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction Mahendra Subba, UN Habitat Programme Manager for Nepal Padma Sundar Joshi and coordinator of Urban Planning under Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Om Rajbhandari jointly inaugurated the project here today.

"The concept of green homes that comes up in the global level should be understood in the local level and campaigns should be run in the urban areas regarding the green homes,” Thapa said, during the inauguration.
EU has assured to help the government to address one of the important issues incorporated in the National Shelter Policy, 2012.
“We believe the effort will contribute to Nepal becoming a better and healthier place to live in, in line with the proposal for an internal EU Environment Action Programme 2020,” said Spachis, on the occasion.
According to Subba the government has made a compulsory provision that persons, who build houses as per the National Shelter Policy should plant at least one tree to promote Green Homes Project.
There are 5.4 million residential houses in Nepal and the country will need additional one million houses within 2020. Housing sector has significant contribution to urban economies and a total of 18 per cent urban employment in Nepal is contributed by construction industries.
The EU has provided around 1.015 million Euro for the implementation of the Green Homes Project.