Poems through images

By Dhruba Karki and Prakash Thapa

The Pokhara Creative Artist Circle (PCA) exhibited paintings at Pokhara Metropolitan Hall in Mahendra Pool last month. There were 55 paintings in oil and water colours displayed to present images of life and literary themes from the myth and everyday reality.

This forum started working almost thirty years ago. Over the last three decades it changed its name from Lalit Kal Sansthan, Purano Silpi Samuha and toe Pokhara Creative Artist Circle. This exhibit has for its theme, love in the country setting, also included along with this theme are themes of suffering and conflict in the mundane everyday world. The depiction of Nepali rural life in many of the landscapes seem to reflect the canonical poetic descriptions of a provencal nature as found in the poems of Bhanubhakta. Laxmi Prasad Devkota and so many others.

In "Tapasya" the eldest of the artists. KP Shrestha recreates the theme of love and passion of the mythical Saint Biswamitra who succumbs to a young beautiful nymph’s voluptuous enticement. The sage who is infatuated by the dancing nymph Menaka, surrenders to her efforts as described in the narratives. In the painting, it is more the art, the dance, the movement of colours that impresses the sage than her physical charms. The interesting thing about the painting is that it speaks for itself and manifests art’s own power to attract the viewer with its analysis of the power of art through which the sage’s attraction is drawn more than Menaka’s bodily charms.

"Dhyanabhuti" reiterates the idea of cosmic centre and transcendence of human self into that centre.

Ramesh Shrestha presents a picture of a distorted girl in his "Jijbisha Bima," symbolizing a terror-stricken life by projecting the imbalance between the body and the soul. "Bhujung Gaon" is the young artist, Buddhi Gurung’s creations of gigantic mountains, highlight the beauty, grandeur and power of nature.

Beside a pet dog a school girl reads her book. This is Sanjaya Gurung’s creation in paper with water colour. Lok Gurung draws a beautiful landscape on a white setting, white symbolizing the immense space that imagination can create in the serene whiteness. The meeting of the women in the forest present two creative forces. Women and nature are placed side by side in Kiran Ranjit’s painting. Kedar Palikhe gives us a colourful depiction of the Himalayas in white with black being a metaphorizing colour to bring out

the beauty of Pokhara . Padma Ghale uses geometric shapes in his painting "Gai Jatra" revealing the typical Newari culture of the region. Younger generation artists like Neelam and Prakash present Mt. Everest in black and white combination and also a dancing girl beside a musical instrument.

These artists create a Pokhara of their impression with its mundane images, natural beauties and narrative realities. The exhibition metaphorizes Pokhara. Pokhareli art and literary creations of the place are like ‘Porvencal’ songs . The country- green, the songs, the sunburnt mirth, fullness of the warm west and the artists, poets and writers speak of the beauty and also the stark realities of this Nepali "Provence."

The exhibition even introduces provincial art and literature in a very collective way. What was significant in this exhibition was the use of themes and ideas from local settings as well as use of impressions from Nepali literary works. Landscape literature, for instance, finds its powerful artistic space in these paintings. It was, as if, an exhibition of Nepali natural beauties that are not accessible to non-Nepali readers as well to those who have least acquaintance with Nepali natural modes of existence were being presented. In these paintings nature speaks through artistic visual creativity as if they were poems or narratives speaking through the brushes of the artists.

Nepali culture and literature speak brilliantly through the visual arts. They are also an excellent example of speaking about the life through such images. Reading Nepali literature is viewing such images also: literature and the visual arts complement one another. But at the same time the exhibition was also an independent manifestation of the valley’s cultural and natural settings. In many of the western artistic traditions, poets and painters have used the same themes to express their ideas. For instance Brueghel’s famous painting Fall of the Icarus has been used in Landscape with the Fall of the Icarus by William Carlos Williams and in Musee des Beaux Arts by WH Auden. Poets on painters and painters on poets interact through such associations. The use of figurative language and devices like metaphor, simile, symbols, and the use of images are, after all, effort of poets to bring out the themes and contents in their works in pictorial language. The essence of a painter’s visual sensibility lies in the poets also when they want to express their ideas through words.

(The essay on Nepali literature appears in the first week of every month and is coordinated by Literary Association of Nepal)

Solid waste management in Kathmandu

By Neera (Shrestha) Pradhan

The integrated waste management strategy considers waste from its point of generation through a variety of handling, reduction, treatment and recovery option to its ultimate disposal. There are several ways to manage waste before it goes to the end of its cycle - landfill. They are:

1. Waste reduction

2. Recycling/re-use

3. Energy recovery

4. Composting

Previously, people in Kathmandu valley used to reduce waste at the household level by making compost in their backyard, which can be further, utilised as fertiliser. But due to the lack of open space in the main core area, now a days, all the household wastes go to the landfill site. People who come door to door to collect bottles, papers, jute bags, plastics etc and waste pickers at the landfill site and the places where skip services were provided, separate wastes from reusable and recyclable materials. Most of the separated materials go to Indian markets.

Efforts on recycling and reuse of waste have been initiated by community-based organisations by giving the message like "waste has a value". Waste reuse practice is gaining importance in selected urban areas in Nepal. As reported on the "State of the Environment Nepal 1998". Examples of reusing and recycling in Nepal are:

- Farmers are using the restaurant wastes to feed their pigs and cattle;

- Butchers are producing organic manure from the slaughter wastes including bones;

- The used papers are recycled by a number of industries; and

- Some of the factories have metal, glass, plastic and rubber recycling facilities.

Besides the materials collected by the waste pickers, production of the methane gas derived from Gokarna landfill site could have been utilised for commercial purpose like cooking. The chemical examination report prepared by IRDS (Pvt.) Ltd on 1998 showed that flow rate was 178.5 ml per second which gave 15.4 cubic meter per day. It was equivalent to 9.5 kg of liquid petroleum gas per day of gas flow. According to the survey, at least one hundred houses could be benefited by the project.

A study had also been conducted for a project to extract sanitary landfill gas to use in a brick making plant at Sanagaon, a village in Lalitpur district, which is about 4 km from the Ring Road. The gas produced was to be consumed by Kathmandu Brick Factory, hence there would have been no need to go for marketing. But the project could not be implemented because of the objection
from the airport authorities as the proposed site was on the landing and take off zone of airplanes.

When the compost plant at Teku started its operation, there were high demands for compost by the farmers in the valley. According of office records, the daily compost production was an average of 18 tons (22 days/month). This needed an input of 7-m3 raw waste per ton of compost out of which only 34 percent was transported to the landfill site as overflow.

Reduction of compost sales and production after 1988/89 was by the presence of glass particles in the compost product which is discarded by the farmers in Nepal who work bare foot and hands on their farm. Besides that, bad odour caused by the plant gave rise to public opposition leading to the closure of the plant since 1990.

Realising that Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3Rs) are the remedy to the disorganised garbage, recently, environmental conscious women have established NGOs and have started making recycled paper from wastepaper and organic composition from organic waste. They are producing useful things from waste papers like file, envelope, visiting card, invitation card, bags and special order with design. Besides that they were selling compost in NRs. 9 (US$ 0.13) per kg in the local market.

"Kathmandu Recycles" was a campaign by KMC to encourage the citizens to recycle their waste and use garbage as a raw material for the economic development. It had provided a service of buying different reusable and recyclable materials like plastic, paper, bottle and iron in a fixed rate from the people to encourage minimisation of the end product of waste.

A tariff system was designed by SWMRMC and approved by HMG in order to enable the population to involve in the sharing of cost of waste handling. Public container services were charged NRs. 5-30 (US $ 0.07-0.43) per month. Dump service for garment industries had to pay NRs. 300 (US$ 4.36) per month for weekly service. Hospital charges differ from NRs. 600 (US $ 8.72) to NRs. 4000 (US $ 58.14) according to number of beds and lift of container service according to the week. Likewise tourist hotel fee ranges from NRs. 800 (US $ 11.63) to NRs. 2400 (US$ 34.88) per week according to the status of the hotel.

Cost recovery of the services related to SWM, was the most difficult part to solve in Nepal. Though some NGOs and local/private contractors provide service in Kathmandu valley by charging household monthly fee of NRs. 50-200 per month depending on the type of service provided, the municipalities outside the valley were providing services almost free of charge.

According to a survey, people were ready to pay service fees if there would be effective delivery of services, efficient utilisation of funds and transparent budget allocation system. If Solid Waste Management (SWM) fee had been collected per household, it would have accounted for 3.6 percent of the total income for the poorest households and about 2 percent of total income for average household. Therefore, most households in Kathmandu were found to be capable of paying waste disposal service fee of NRs. 420 (US $ 6.1) per annum as per the calculations made. But, most of the people think that garbage collection and maintenance is government’s job. So, they do not want to pay for the household waste management.

The concept of introducing fee with electricity system failed as Nepal Electrical Authority decided to increase its tariff by 17 percent in May 1988. Without financial cost recovery, it is very difficult for project to be sustainable. Therefore, like the cost sharing system in electricity and water supply etc a system should be introduced in SWM by sharing some of the cost by the people who receive the benefit from the project. The total cost refers to the cost of the investment, running cost as well as measures taken to compensate the affected people in order to reduce the opposition.

The fund collected through octroi, transport tax, business tax, house and property tax, grants, loans, metro property etc are not sufficient enough even for collection and disposal of waste. Furthermore, with the approval of the Bill Made to Make Provisions on Local Self Governance (1997), the collection of octroi is no more valid. Therefore, of all the problems relating to SWM in Nepal, the most difficult problem to be solved is the issue of the financial cost recovery system of the services provided.

The garbage politics

By Bed Mani Dahal

Every activity of human produces solid waste. This is creating a big environmental problem. It aggravates the environmental condition of most urban areas of Nepal. Solid waste is not only a jumble of garbage and refuse; it’s also a source of valuable materials. Most countries are sorting and utilizing papers, aluminium and tin cans, glass and plastics and even organic materials leaving almost nothing to be called waste. But in Nepal, whatever is thrown from a first user is dumped and haphazard dumping is becoming not only technical problem but also a political one.

Gokarna can be considered the first dumping site of Nepal. People of Kathmandu produce 292500 kg of waste per day and the management of it is under the task of Kathmandu Metropolitan City. KMC is also adopting the concept of Separate collection, Sort and Sell (3S) but incapable to incorporate all the waste produced. The throw out behaviour of people is making mess of all the wastes in the streets. Sometimes the street mess is not collected or managed for weeks due to crises of dumping field. As a result, frequent fowl smell of whole city is common and it’s the example of mismanagement, ineffectiveness, and irresponsibility of the concern authorities. None of the concern authority is taking this seriously. But a few people play a nasty game with waste who are directly or indirectly influenced by political leaders. Usually politicians don’t play games but in Nepal, they are playing the game of garbage politics.

Since 1990, garbage has been a game among politicians who look for publicity. They raise to gain popularity. They didn’t know whether the solid waste management is a technical problem or a political one. That’s why even the management of solid waste has technically been a challenge for managers, environmentalists, and policy makers. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been a problem to dump at Gokarna for some years and for the long run Syuchatar or Okharpauwa would have used. Now, even the technicians who gave up this hope are advising to dump garbage at the bank of rivers which is inadvisable in other countries. Los Angeles City Council has prohibited the dumping of market refuse and rubbish in the riverbed since August 1910. This shows our solid waste management system is 90 years behind America system. To dispose or allow or permit disposal of solid waste at a place which is not an approved solid waste site, on other public or private property is considered as illegal dumping in America.

But in Nepal, the government is permitting and disposing in these areas so it cannot be stated whether it’s legal or illegal as there are no rules in this respect. Anyway, this type of dumping can cause a serious problem because it poses a threat to the health and safety of the public and the environment because birds, rodents, insects, and other vermin are attracted to dumping sites and it provides breeding ground for mosquitoes, which can multiply 100 times faster than normal.

Dumping at the bank of river is the worst decision made by the government. Environmental Conservation Regulations, 2054 has clearly mentioned about the need of EIA study before dumping which has not done yet to know positive and negative impacts of dumping at the bank of the Bagmati river. So, it’s against the environmental laws of Nepal. It will not be managed properly which can be generalized from previous cases. Even if road is constructed above the dumping area, that wouldn’t help to improve the environmental condition nor would it last long. Road construction is also done in other countries but we shouldn’t forget that the materials dumped there and here are different. Organic or decomposable materials are the main constituents in our waste and in other countries, the wastes from construction and demolition materials like rock, brick, concrete, asphalt, dirt, ceramic tile, and other similar materials are used. Therefore, the demolition or sinking of road will occur after the decomposition of waste in one hand and the leachate will definitely help further pollution of Bagmati. Once the riverbank lots its beauty it will be very expensive and difficult to recover. According to Veronica Odriozola, Green peace Campaigner, "It is possible to stop polluting rivers, but political will is required".

The disaster could occur anytime by the collision of birds flying above the waste site and aeroplanes flying in the international airport since the distance of current waste site is less than 200 meters. Some accidents were already experienced in the sky of Kathmandu while the dumping site was even farther than the present site.

To improve the management of solid waste, improvement in collection, transportation, processing, and disposal services is a must. There should be separate collection system for wastes because it is almost impossible to reuse and recycle from mixed wastes. Individuals have to think about the waste they produce and they must reduce the amount of waste then separate it for reuse and recycling processes. To prevent pollution, we have to find someone who may reuse or recycle the waste and this is being done in Kathmandu by scavengers and scrappers in a small scale and have to be promoted. The most effective way of managing waste is not to create it in the first place instead of worrying about its reuse, recycle, and seek for the alternatives. For example, instead of using new plastic bag, take your own bag during shopping.

Public participation is necessary to gather evidence in order to stop illegal dumping. Managers need full public participation in the implementation of reduce, reuse, and recycle plan with its goals of landfill abatement, coordination of waste management, and energy recovery. Unless and until politicians stop playing with waste, the problem of solid waste in Nepal will not be solved. They should just let the technicians do their job in their way and follow strictly or privatize the solid waste management system and see how 3S will generate billions of rupees from the same waste, which is hassling the government at present.

(The writer is lecturer at Kathmandu University)

Medical record and its importance

By Ram Kumar Karki

Records termed any information and documents kept in systematic, scientific and easy ways help to receive the required data at the time of necessity.

Similarly, medical record is also a systematised way of storing the required data, information and other relevant documents with the objective of making easy availability of necessary data at the time of its need.

Medical record consists of name of a patient, address, age, sex, occupation, disease, modes of diagnosis and recommendations made by the concerned doctor in course of undergoing treatment. It helps patients acquire the right and apt treatment. Moreover, it acts as a tool for the doctor who is examining the patient.

With the passage of time medical record has been a backbone for developing a new dimension in health sector.

It has been indispensable for countries conducting the research works, to deliver the appropriate health services, to create the skilled manpower and to enhance the goodwill of the nation. Considering its significance, no hospitals and health centres are opened without establishing a separate section of well-equipped medical record. Apart from this, provisions for imparting the required knowledge to persons working in medical record section have also been made. For this, some institutions that impart special training have also been setup. Such training centres seem to have been established even in India.

World Health Organisation (WHO) has introduced inter classifications of disease (ICD) in 1946 AD with the view of integrating the proper diagnosis systems and formulating the true and factual data on the basis of medical records kept by all the health entities.

Accordingly WHO has initiated ICD-10 which has laid emphasis on caring for patients and finding out the causes of disease. Moreover, it tries to explain ways to be resorted against nurses, doctors and other health workers who work under estimation and with carelessness. This helps to check errors committing either with intention or with ignorance. In addition to this, it has made provision for mentioning morbidity, mortality and cause of death. It gives more emphasis on the injuries owing to external accidents. It has made mandatory to explain about the cause of accident and effects it has created upon him. This provision has somewhat helped the country minimise the accidents of such kind.

If we talk of history of medical record in Nepal, no institutionalised development of medical record can be realised so far. It doesn’t mean that medical record is entirely neglected. In some hospitals, there are distinct medical record sections. But these sections have not been well-equipped and operated well to meet the entire satisfaction. Instead these are working as only name registration section.

Though no any concrete efforts are made by the government in this sector yet some hospitals are seen alert in this regard. They have developed their own ways for giving due importance on medical records but the efforts made have not been abundant. Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital and B P Koirala Lions for Ophthalmic Studies Centre can be taken as an example.

It would be a timely approach to establish a sound medical record department at government level which ought to be entrusted with all the powers for regulating, managing and operating all the necessary functions.

We cannot undermine the relationship between the doctors of concerned authority and the people requiring medical treatment. Medical record, no doubt, may be regarded as a supportive hand in such matters. It helps doctors as well as patients to get informed of the ailments and plans and procedures adopted in course of conducting treatment. Medical record can also be regarded as such a device that might help the governing body, health institution and person concerned in easily and timely availability of required information without any dilly-dally.

It acts as a means of providing necessary data in connection with the health of people and the brunt of specific diseases at the specific places to the health sectors including the nation.

On the basis of good management of medical record, one can easily obtain the ways of rendering services, standard of service, diagnosis pattern, style of treatment and managerial functioning pursued by the concerned health institutions.

Medical record plays a pivotal role in such organisations, which are specially involved in research-work as well as imparting health education to the people. With the help of it the standard and efficiency of the product there from can be appraised. Besides this, one can easily ascertain the quality of service being delivered by the expertise manpower and one can easily receive data pertaining to health of people in order to conduct research work.

A good arrangement of the medical record is instrumental for the concerned bodies in understanding the pressure/concentration of patients, nature of disease and all the personal details of patient. Due to easy access to these invaluable facts and figure, the organisation can make some alternations in its existing plans and policies and formulate some additional policies in case of urgency and directives so as to deliver better and more standardised service in the upcoming years.

Medical record is noteworthy for the country in several aspects. Since medical record contains various facts like-personal details of patient, illness, diagnosis, modus operandi used to find out the disease, seriousness of diseases, medicines being used by patients in the recommendation of his/her attending doctors and even the clear names and signature of attending doctors, the nation can attain the health relating information through thorough check up of such medical records. The government can avail of such records in the direction of making short as well as long term health strategies. An integrated study of medical records available in all the hospitals and health centres will contribute towards knowing the health condition of people, ailment stricken areas, cause and effects of disease, availability of health workers as well as physical facilities and resources in order of delivering the appropriate health service to the people.

Through the study of medical record, preventive measures are to be timely adopted in order to save people from being ill. The reason behind it is that the epidemics and other disease tending to spread can conveniently be well informed in time.

The proportion of doctors to patients, the nature of disease and its repercussions, the number of doctors associated with certain disease, urgency of specialised service and the number of beds available at certain place compared with its actual requirement and so on are some other prominent facts as can be easily obtained through this.

In conclusion systematic medical record plays a vital role in the field of delivering proper health services to the people.