Treat them well

Amysterious disease has claimed over two thousand sheep and goats, badly affecting the income of poor farmers in the northwestern part of Humla district. This is not the first time disease has hit Humla hard. A few years ago, another mystery disease claimed more than one thousand human lives, besides economically crippling the rest of the local population. This apart, preventable diseases that kill off mostly women and children and hunger and poverty are regular phenomenon in the region. The government in Kathmandu has yet to do anything to improve the situation. It has not even come around to making a thorough investigation into how such disease breaks out in the district every summer.

The government allocates five percent of its annual budget for the public health sector and hardly uses any of this money for conducting research into perennial and seasonal diseases in the country. The entire health budget is spent on curative measures only and no resources are left for the prevention of any untoward epidemic. This budgetary neglect is the main reason why so many humans as well as animals die of preventable diseases every year in Humla and in surrounding districts. Some veterinary doctors from the National Control Program say the mystery disease that has so far killed two thousand plus sheep and goats may be Pestes des Petits Ruminants (PPR). This remains to be ascertained, however. The National Control Program is speculating on the basis of what it claims is an epidemiological pattern it has found in the Terai areas. It should pinpoint the disease only after investigating the matter thoroughly. Humla does not lie at the same altitude as Mahottari, Morang and Banke districts. The pattern may appear similar only to those who are not familiar with the regions at high altitude. For a disease outbreak that has already crippled the local economy, a doctor in the capital perhaps should not be making claims one way or another on the basis of an epidemic pattern.

Humla, the remotest district of Nepal, is still inaccessible by road. The local population is dependent mainly on rearing sheep and goats as their primary source of income. The herders move with their livestock from low to high altitude during summer and vice versa in winter. With the change of climate, the animals often suffer from various diseases and there is hardly anything for detecting their condition. The local people trek for days to buy daily essentials and a shortage of food-grain hits the district frequently. This has not only led the local population to migrate from the district but has also affected urban development as a result of massive influx of people from remote parts of the country. The government must recognize the fact that it has not taken the outbreak of new disease especially in remote parts of the country seriously. It cannot get away with this at a time when thousands of animals are dying of an unknown disease. It has to treat animals too.

What water resource development strategy is not

By Ramesh C Arya

Recently, the nation organised a big gathering of about 300 professionals including lawmakers and discussed a draft on Water Resources Strategy Formulation (WRSF). The Draft report is an outcome of more than four years of study conducted under the National Planning Commission, the highest planning body, and later under the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS), promoted as the think-tank on water and energy matters. For WECS, it was the most opportune moment to establish itself at par with the high expectations at a time when several water resources experts have questioned its usefulness given the existing mandate and composition.

During the three days of deliberations including the two half day sessions for inaugural and concluding formalities, the national workshop amply revealed the areas it has not dealt with to the extent it should have. This was hinted at between the lines by Dr Rameshanand Baidya, Member of the National Planning Commission, at the opening ceremony. He highlighted the need for due consideration of the agricultural benefits expected of water resources.

At the concluding ceremony, a representative of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) expressed concern for the agricultural utility and questioned the merit of overdependence on ground water. The neglect and under utilisation of surface water would benefit others downstream and we may end up losing our water rights. He also warned against the dreams encouraged by ambitious projects of sizes exceeding capacity limits the implementation of which the other parties with other priorities have shown little interest in, thereby delaying over all national development.

The issue of sustainability and affordability of ground water use is very important, as the country has hardly paid attention to developing the infrastructure for its recharge. It is important especially as most of the water quantity gets flooded outside the national boundary within a period of just three months. The teeming population will be facing this problem more severely in the following days. Our southern neighbour, with the second largest population in the world, has been very rapidly developing embankments on the rivers just across our national boundary. It has deliberately overlooked the international practice of maintaining a minimum distance from the national boundary and never consulted the neighbour upstream. The embankment has resulted in two distinct effects: damage to the people in the north through rise in flood level and enrichment in the groundwater recharge on the downstream side!

The draft was presented in Kathmandu after it was discussed at the five regional platforms within the country. The present draft is expected to have appeared in a refined form after incorporating the regional deliberations. Compared to all the other regions, the capital definitely possesses immense richness and quality in the participants. If the draft presented at the National Workshop is very near the final one, the comments that came out at the workshop definitely need serious review. It is also surprising how the regional deliberations overlooked the agricultural sensitivity of the problem and the lack of adequate provisions in the earlier drafts. Preparation of the draft in English, as pointed out at the National Water and Energy Consumers’ Federation, could be one of the reasons. Referring to a Supreme Court decision, the Federation even questioned the legality and constitutionality of the draft and alleged that the exercise was a deliberate attempt to distance itself from the people.

One would expect the Report to be more considerate towards a few sensitive issues on the use of the national water resource. The national workshop should be an intellectual exercise and open to suggestions and comments from the larger society. The working group, however large and multi-disciplinary, cannot be as rich as the 300 men together at the workshop.

In a normal context, a country comes up with its national policy followed by a strategy. With due respect to our high ambitions associated with the immense hydropower potential, we came up with our hydropower policy acts and rules first. And even now, before looking at water resource from a higher platform for a holistic perspective and developing water resource policy, we are going right ahead with the strategy. Perhaps we have moved too far to go back and include the deliberations required for policy.

Dr Mohan Man Sainju, ex-vice chairman of the National Planning Commission, made a great contribution to the workshop when he very clearly pointed out the prominent features which were but vaguely embedded in the draft. These are: the Nepalese water resource, however rich, is limited, it is a scarce commodity and demand side management has not been duly stressed. (Dr Sainju’s presentation once again reminded one of the wealth of knowledge and experience that younger scholars have yet to imbibe from their seniors.)

The strategy is the outcome of the second phase of the WRSF project. As announced, it will be further discussed after incorporating the comments and suggestions of the national workshop. WECS definitely has a responsibility to respect the deliberations at the national workshop. And unlike the passing of political bills in parliament through the use of party whips the draft is expected to accommodate the differing voices and also respect the utilisation of water resource in the context of the social, cultural and religious values embedded in the constitution. The National Strategy, though donor driven should retain essential national values.

We have lost many things that, until recently, we were proud of, due to our internal follies and poor diplomatic efforts. We have experienced bitterness in harnessing the water resources whether for energy, irrigation or, not the least, as a tourism resource.

Task of identifying Nepalis

By Hitesh Karki

Iam no sociologist or anthropologist nor for that matter have I any idea what Political Science is all about. Nevertheless I think I’m well capable of identifying a real Nepali. And that not only after confirming his citizenship card (there are many who don’t have any ). I do not need any such help. The relevant bill is still pending anyway. (I wonder why they call it a bill though it has not failed to create controversy just like any other bill tabled in the house).

To begin with here are just two barometers. Either the person is an out and out hypocrite or completely naive (a country yokel). That I guess is the first step in finding out whether a person is a real Nepali or is not.

Every other day as I turn the pages of some of the so-called popular dailies, I come across their so-called thought provoking articles where they state clearly the problem that the country is facing, what exactly has gone wrong and what should been done. Give them a single chance (read power!) and this ailing country of ours will come alive, and kicking! As if they have the magic wand in their hands but just need a nod from someone (the public via the so-called election process). And in no time we will all become "well-off". But then the irony of all this is that they are the same person who have held the highest of high posts in the nation in the past. And they did nothing but amass unaccounted for wealth. And now that they no longer enjoy the same benefits, here they are coming up with solutions one after the other. They are the ones, in my opinion, who make perfect examples of the hypocrite. So the bottom line is if you come across those who now claims that ‘things should be done this and that way’ but couldn’t care less when they were in power, have no doubts about having identified some of them. They are true Nepalese.

Then at the other end are the simpletons who believe every word their leader says, and treat him almost like a demigod. Think that they will be warmly welcomed by their elected representative with arms wide open when they land up here in Kathmandu, give them a government job, fulfil all the promises made. (The above mentioned are the promise sellers and the ones I am talking about happen to be their loyal customers!). For instance, they are the ones who think that it is a must to produce at least a dozen children so that at least two to three of them will emerge alive by the time they reach the age of 2-3. Those who think that Nepal is what lies within the valley of Kathmandu! They are the truest Nepali.

Having talked about all this, I have no doubt in my mind that You must be thinking something like "who are we then...?" We, who read the papers daily to keep abreast of what is happening in the country, can’t help saying all the time that the situation can’t get any worse than this. Who believe that the future lies not here but somewhere far off in the land of the US, who love to proclaim themselves the most patriotic of all but think that New Year is to be celebrated on January l and not on the 1st of Baisakh. Well I guess the identification problem gets most difficult when one comes across this segment of society. As for the rest, it’s very simple (the process!). Just check which category they fall in!

Needed : A better intelligence service

By Arjun Bhandari

Israel’s intelligence service Mossad is considered the best in the world. That’s why the Jewish state has been surviving Arab attacks ever since it came into being in 1948. Intelligence can be more powerful than troops with sophisticated arms. Such troops will become useless tools unless they are fed accurate information. This is even more apparent for a country like Nepal which is being crippled by a guerrilla insurgency.

Needless to explain that a large number of police personnel have been killed by Maoist rebels due to gross negligence on the part of the intelligence apparatus. To go by the Maoist attacks at Dunai, Rukumkot, Naumoole and other area police stations, the police simply did not have any knowledge about the Maoist strategy. Or if they had, they simply ignored it or there was a lack of coordination between the local and central levels of governance. If the police had had prior notice of the guerrilla tactics, they would have either counter-attacked or protected themselves from being killed in such a large number.

Before the Maoist insurgency emerged from the remote hill districts six years back, government intelligence was so naive that it even failed to predict what was going to happen in the near future. Had the intelligence service been effective, the government would have taken political or other measures to tackle this national crisis before it became too late.

No government paid serious attention to strengthening the intelligence service, the backbone of internal security. During the 30 years of partyless Panchayat system, the then Central Investigation Department (CID) was used mainly to keep watch on the activities of the banned political parties. The CID has been converted into the National Investigation Department (NID) which is nothing more than old wine in a new bottle. The NID, functioning under the Home Ministry, is highly politicised and incompetent vis-a-vis internal security matters. Whatever information it has been supplying the government is basically crude reports on the opposition functioning within the system. The NID is still dependent on the elected representatives or ruling party cadres as its major sources of intelligence. But fragmented information supplied by party loyalists is never helpful to the national interest in the long run.

When the Maoist rebels launched the bloody People’s War against the newly founded multiparty democracy, they first targetted the information network of the government at the grass root level.

Police informants were chased away from their villages or killed, paving the way for the Maoists setting up their bases unobstructed in the rural parts of the country. After a large number of spies were silenced by the rebels the police ceased to obtain any information from the Maoist strongholds.

Even if the locals did not support the Maoist armed struggle, they chose to remain tight-lipped for safety reasons.

After the insurrection completed six violent years, especially in the mid-western hill districts, the government has been trying to re-promulgate two ordinances - Armed Police Force and Regional Administrators - in the face of the opposition disrupting the entire 19th session of Parliament. The ordinances are ostensibly meant for quelling the insurgency that has already claimed more than 1,600 lives. There is no doubt that the proposed APF will be armed with sophisticated weaponry and rigorous training. But will it be able to suppress the politically inspired insurgency? Will the APF have its own intelligence resources or will it also have to depend on the old NID that has yet to prove its relevance during periods of crisis?

Without a competent intelligence network that is dedicated purely to internal security and has no partisan leanings, the APF will also face a menace similar to what the Nepal Police has been facing. There is no guarantee that the politically motivated insurgents will not snatch away the modern weaponry to be handled by the APF.

Herein lies the short-sightedness of the government, which has wasted valuable time and energy just on the physical strength of the APF. The government should not overlook the fact that without accurate information about the Maoist it cannot fight against them in a country full of difficult terrain.

Dr Stephan Micksell, an American anthropologist who closely studied Nepal’s leftist movement during the post-democracy era, had predicted the insurrection about one-and-a-half years before the Maoist party declared their people's war following their breakaway from the then Unity Centre or United people’s Front.

But the then unstable government and other political forces were indifferent towards Mikesell’s analytical prediction. What might be the role of the NID which has been functioning with taxpayers money is a matter of pure conjecture. Or the government simply ignored the facts supplied by intelligence. Given this background, it can be said that modern weapons will not solve the political violence. The government should first dwell on building a sophisticated intelligence apparatus rather than only on sophisticated arms and ammunition.