The country has made almost no progress in rebuilding hundreds of thousands of homes, schools and government buildings, as well as some 600 historical structures, including ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples, monuments and palaces.
Nearly a million children still have no school to attend. Millions of villagers were forced to winter in flimsy pop-up tents and corrugated tin shacks, erected haphazardly at high altitudes and across the rolling plains.
The government's reconstruction agency has so far approved zero projects. Some citizens have started rebuilding on their own, but most are still waiting either because they are afraid of running afoul of new, promised building regulations, or because they still hope to receive government grants.
"This has been home for all of us for the past year and it looks like we are going to be here for a long time. All we hear is the government is going to give us money to rebuild our homes, but when is that going to happen? Our kids are getting sick and we have no money, job or a government that is going to come to our rescue," said Keshar Narayan, a farmer living with eight family members in a tin shed on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
As they wait for help, even prayer can be dangerous. Many in the deeply spiritual Himalayan nation seek comfort in now-ramshackle stone temples left standing askew, sometimes held up just by wooden beams.
The lack of progress isn't for want of money. Nepal, facing an estimated USD 6.6 billion reconstruction bill, has received USD 4.1 billion in pledged donations so far.
The problem, officials and aid workers say, is tangled bureaucracy and government malaise. Some frustrated donors have simply given up.
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