Nepal ruin was waiting to happen: expert

Sydney

THE author of Nepal's little-heeded building code says the earthquake that killed more than 4,300 people and caused at least US$2 billion in economic losses could have been less destructive with better oversight.

"They didn't need this, but it was inevitable, absolutely inevitable," said Richard Sharpe, a New Zealand earthquake engineer who led a team that formulated Nepal's only set of building standards 20 years ago. Mr Sharpe lived in the capital, Kathmandu, from 1993 to 1994, with his young family.