Kathmandu Valley

• Earthquake (Severe earthquake of 25 April 2015)
• Housing (Uncontrolled urban development resulting in the loss of traditional urban fabric, in particular privately-owned houses)
• Management systems/management plan (Lack of a coordinated management mechanism)
• Ground transport infrastructure (Construction of a forest road)
• Underground transport infrastructure (Project for tunnel road in Pashupati Monument Zone)
• Air transport infrastructure (Project for the extension of the Kathmandu International Airport)

Total amount granted: USD 10 million (1979-2001) from the International Safeguarding Campaign; USD 45,000 (2005) and USD 20,000 (2011) from UNESCO/Netherlands Funds-in-Trust. Several UNESCO extra-budgetary projects have been approved in 2015-2016 for the emergency safeguarding, conservation and rehabilitation process of the Kathmandu Valley after the 2015 earthquake. They include USD 1 million from the Chinese Hainan Airlines Group (Cihang Foundation), USD 250,000 from the Hong Kong based Fok Foundation, USD 145,000 from the UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust, USD 100,000 from the Nepal Investment Bank, and USD 18,000 from voluntary contributions to the World Heritage Fund

A joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS/ICCROM Reactive Monitoring mission visited the property in October 2019 (mission report available at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/121/documents/). On 29 January 2020, the State Party submitted a report on the state of conservation and on 3 March 2021 additional information and an update on works completed within the seven Monument Zones were submitted. Both reports are available at the above-mentioned address. The following has been reported:

• The Government of Nepal are committed to the rehabilitation of the property and to the protection of its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV);
• A process has commenced to revise the Integrated Management Framework (IMF). Assessments by the Institution of Engineering and ICOMOS Nepal will inform the updating of the Recovery Master Plan (RMP) and the IMF. The IMF will address the long-term management of architectural and town-planning coherence. The RMP will also be reviewed and the previous six-year plan will be adjusted accordingly;
• The State Party has endeavoured to address issues raised by previous Reactive Monitoring missions and Committee decisions and progress has been made towards completion of repair of earthquake damaged monuments within the seven monument zones. The 2021 update includes a detailed table of works completed, together with a detailed photo inventory on progress with some 103 monuments affected by the earthquake, including those where conservation works have been completed. But the documentation has not been submitted in advance for review, as outlined in the 2019 Reactive Monitoring mission report;
• A ‘Cultural Heritage Information Management System (CHIMS)’, comprising a database and a documentation system, has been established within the Department of Archaeology;
• The socio-economic recovery of the Monument Zones will continue to be monitored. Further economic revitalization of the urban communities will be initiated;
• Recommendations from the April 2019 ICOMOS Technical Review of the Patan Durbar Square Monument Zone sewer project are being implemented;
• Capacity building training focused on earthquake recovery has been provided to Department of Archaeology officials, in collaboration with a range of international partners, including UNESCO, ICCROM and ICOMOS;
• Assistance will be provided to traditional artisans to pass on skills and knowledge, and master craftspeople will be honoured. Documentation and research will occur on traditional building technology and knowledge;
• The Public Procurement Act processes will be reviewed and provisions adopted to ensure the required expertise in traditional construction methods using traditional artisans to ensure the quality of conservation projects. Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) procedures will be established;
• Heritage management of the Monument Zones will be brought under a single authority to ensure the protection of the attributes conveying the OUV, following a single Master Plan adopted by the Department of Archaeology (DoA). The capacity and organization of the DoA will be reviewed;
• Community involvement will be promoted, particularly for site monitoring, maintenance, and safeguarding of intangible heritage.

The State Party proposes to establish a new International Scientific Committee to facilitate collaboration and the international community is requested to assist through workshops and research, focused on technical issues such as structural assessment of traditional load-bearing structures, and materials dating and testing.

The State Party remains committed to collaborating with the World Heritage Centre and Advisory Bodies to implement previous recommendations of the Committee and considers that it is not necessary to include this property on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Meanwhile, on 22 April 2020, the World Heritage Centre wrote to the State Party to request that the proposed rehabilitation project of Lal Baithak, located in the Bhaktapur Monument Zone of the property, be halted pending the submission of further documentation and a thorough technical review by the Advisory Bodies. On 12 August 2020, the World Heritage Centre wrote to the State Party, relaying concerns regarding the appropriateness of the proposed New Master Plan for the Pashupati Protected Monument Zone. The State Party confirmed, on 3 March 2021, that the proposed New Master Plan for the Pashupati Protected Monument Zone had been withdrawn. On 16 December 2020, the World Heritage Centre wrote to the State Party regarding the proposed ring roads expansion of Swayambunath in the vicinity of the site and potential impact on the Swayambunath Temple Complex. No formal response has been received by the World Heritage Centre to either of these requests, although the 2021 update states that the World Heritage Centre will be informed if the Ring Road causes any impacts.

The support expressed by the Government of Nepal for the conservation of the property is welcome, as is the establishment of the International Scientific Committee. The 2019 Reactive Monitoring mission acknowledged that there has been substantial progress towards the recovery of the property and its OUV. However, although many previously identified issues and Committee decisions have been addressed, others remain outstanding and continue to affect adversely the property’s state of conservation.

The integrity of the urban and religious ensembles is being recovered progressively through reconstruction, utilizing traditional materials, methods and skills. Proposed changes to the Public Procurement Act support this process. However, in some places, authenticity has been affected by the introduction of new materials (e.g. addition of lime to mud mortar) and the reconstruction of some buildings based on conjecture instead of sufficient supporting evidence. Concern remains about the poor condition of the Hanuman Dhoka Durbar and Bhaktapur Durbar Palaces, the Changunarayan complex and Vishwarupa Temple (Pashupati). Focus on particular monuments at the expense of other attributes continues to have adverse ramifications for traditional urban housing and ancient settlements. The reconstruction of these elements using flat-roofed, concrete framed structures (as per the new building codes) has resulted in buildings of very different forms, compared to their historic counterparts.

The advice from the State Party that the recommendations from the April 2019 ICOMOS Technical Review of the Patan Durbar Square Monument Zone sewer project are being implemented is welcome, but confirmation and documentation of the project has not been received. The Committee should re-iterate its previous request that the State Party prepare Heritage Impact Assessments (HIA) for proposed major new urban infrastructure projects within the Monument Zones and buffer zones, in accordance with the ICOMOS Guidance on HIAs for Cultural World Heritage Properties, and submit them to the World Heritage Centre, in conformity with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines, for review by the Advisory Bodies before any decision is made that would be difficult to reverse. For all rehabilitation, reconstruction and/or development projects, the State Party should be encouraged to use the approach outlined in the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), which should also be reflected in all relevant planning documents.

The RMP has been used to guide recovery from the effects of the 2015 earthquake, in conjunction with the adopted Conservation Guidelines and the six-year recovery programme coordinated by the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), but it does not provide specific guidance on the recovery of each of the seven individual Monument Zones, which are all very different in their attributes, values, uses, associated communities and intangible heritage. The State Party has proceeded apace with repair of many monuments across all seven monument zones, but is yet to develop and implement Recovery Master Plans for the seven Monument Zones, in accordance with previous decisions of the Committee. The review of the IMF remains outstanding and is now urgent, and the State Party’s commitment to allow for a comprehensive review with expert advice is welcome. The World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies consider that the Committee may wish to welcome the State Party’s confirmation that the proposed New Master Plan for the Pashupati Protected Monument Zone had been withdrawn. 

The term of the NRA expired in late 2020; to ensure the ongoing and successful recovery of elements, it is important that coordination between the Department of Archaeology, other government departments and authorities, site managers and community stakeholders, is maintained. Therefore, the decision to review the Department of Archaeology and bring heritage management of the Monument Zones under a single authority is appropriate.

The State Party has endeavoured to address issues raised by previous missions but is yet to comply with the Committee decisions requesting the submission of documentation for review and other measures, as outlined in the 2019 Reactive Monitoring mission report. Remaining threats to the property include the ongoing deterioration of structures that have yet to be repaired, a lack of attention to urban and ancient settlements, loss of traditional housing, unsympathetic new developments around Monument Zones, uncontrolled development within monument and buffer zones, the impacts of new urban infrastructure, the lack of master planning and values-based conservation management planning, the need for cyclical maintenance programmes and disaster risk management planning, the potential demolition and replacement of Lal Baithak, Bhaktapur, and implications of the proposed Swayambunath ring roads expansion.

These outstanding issues continue to threaten the property’s integrity, authenticity and other attributes bearing the OUV. As highlighted in previous reports to the Committee and in previous Reactive Monitoring mission reports, the dangers to the property continue to meet the conditions set out in Paragraph 179 (a) for inclusion of a property on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The 2017 and 2019 missions both note that the property meets the conditions for inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger and identify a ‘desired state of conservation’ for the property, along with proposed corrective measures. However, these have not yet been approved by the Committee, as the Committee has not to date inscribed the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The 2019 Reactive Monitoring mission confirmed that the recovery process remains inadequate to deal with the challenges that have arisen following the 2015 earthquake, and it is recommended that the Committee consider again the inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The Committee could also adopt the following Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) and the corrective measures identified and drafted with the State Party during the last two Reactive Monitoring missions, namely: