Birgunj reels under heat and water crisis

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BIRGUNJ, April 23 - People of Birgunj are reeling under intense heat of 39 degree celsius on the one hand and acute shortage of water and electricity on the other.

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has enforced 6-hour long load-shedding and Nepal Drinking Water Corporation three hour load-shedding during the peak hours.

The Drinking Water Corporation used to supply water for 12 hours in the morning, day and evening after a few hours’ intervals to the relief of the people. But after the NEA announced load-shedding, people are facing double hardships from the same day including power cut in water.

As the water supply has been cut off during the day time, even thirsty travellers are deprived of drinking water during this hot season.

Housewives have also been adversely affected because it is the day time when they wash children’s clothes but they will be unable to do so as there is no water.

The corporation used to supply 8 million litres of water, but now it is unable to supply more than 5 million litres daily due to lack of electricity and malfunctioning of generators.

The corporation has four water collection centres, but there are generators only at three places and they too are not in order.

Although the manager of the corporation claims that all the generators are in proper order, employees of the same corporation say that they did not need to resort to load-shedding if they were all functioning.

In the past, people were habituated to use water drawn from hand-pumps installed on the compound in each home. However, once the corporation started supplying piped water, they shifted to the practice of using water without having to pull with the help of hand pump and removed all the hand pumps. Consequently, almost 75 percent of the hand pumps have disappeared from this area.

The piped water, which has been their main source, has failed very badly during this hot season. Locals say this season has proved like "hell" for them.

"There is neither water nor electricity. This has become just like experiencing hell" said Sunil Chand Varma, Chairman of Consumers’ Forum, Parsa. He said that this was all due to government’s weakness and the tendency to undermine the consumers who were also not so conscious. He also suggested that the supply hours in the morning and evening could be reduced and instead, water could be supplied for some time even during the day time.

Since the fans also do not operate due to load-shedding of electricity, children are suffering from harsh heat.

Relief assistance to fire-affected families

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DIKTEL, April 23 - Different government offices and agencies provided relief assistance to 13 families whose houses were destroyed by fire in Chhatiwan village of Mangaltar VDC-8, about 26 miles west of the district headquarters.

The District Administration gave away Rs 12,500 to the fire-affected families as relief assistance.

The 13 houses, which belonged to 12 Basnet families and one Majhi family, were gutted about two weeks ago. One buffalo was killed and property worth about 1.3 million rupees was destroyed.

The concerned VDC office provided assistance of Rs 1,000 and the DDC Rs 500 to each of the affected families while the District Administration also made available seven kilograms of rice to each of the 73 affected people.

Similarly, each of the families will receive three trees from Bhokteni Community Forest to construct their houses.

Locals face hardship due to delay in hospital hand over

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TULSIPUR, Dang, April 23 - How many years does it normally take to build a 10,000 square metres building? A couple of years or more than that? However, it took about 20 years to complete the construction of Rolpa District Hospital. And it has yet to be handed over to the concerned agency.

Why? It is because of the gross negligence on the part of concerned government agency - the Department of Health, elected representatives from this remote district said at a press conference.

A recently concluded joint meeting between the Rolpa District Development Committee and representatives from all district level political parties has given an ultimatum to the Health Ministry to initiate the hospital hand over procedure immediately.

At a press conference organised here today to make the DDC’s decision public, DDC Vice-Chairman Dal Bir Pun and party representatives demanded that the contractor indulging in irregularities should be taken legal actions and the hospital be handed over soon.

Construction of the 10,000 square metres hospital at Libang, the district headquarters, under the Swiss assistance began about 20 years ago. But it has not been handed over so far due to the negligence of both the contractor and the Department of Health.

The all-party meeting had earlier filed a complaint to the Local Administration against the irregularities committed by the contractor while constructing the hospital, DDC Vice-Chairman Pun said. He added that the District Administration took no action against the contractor for the delayed construction.

The district level all-party meeting on April 18 corresponded with the Health Ministry about the hospital’s hand over procedure and requested the ministry to present the state of the hospital still under construction.

DDC Vice-Chairman also told the reporters that district level leaders from all political parties, lawmakers from the district and the DDC officials would resort to fast-unto- death in front of the ministry if it failed to appraise them the present status of the hospital by the end of May 3.

Chief of the Primary Health Centre, Dr Bhawani Prasad Sharma, said that all the equipment donated to the hospital had been stored in a rented house due to the delay in the construction. The hospital is now in dilapidated condition and people from the district have to travel a long way to other districts even for a minor treatment.

Snail’s pace in refugee verification process flayed

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KATHMANDU, April 23 - Experts today discussed the verification of Bhutanese refugees which is currently underway in Jhapa, criticizing the slow pace in the verification process.

The participants were of the opinion that the verification process rate of 10 households per day is very slow and may take more than seven years to complete it.

"We are not against the verification system but we appeal to proceed it in a speedy manner by fixing time for the interrogation of the participants of the process," said Birendra Dhakal, executive director of Bhutanese Refugees Aiding the Victim of Violence(BRAVVE).

Today’s programme was organized by BRAVVE, refugee-initiated organization. Human Rights Commission member Kapil Shrestha released a report on the activities of the Year 2000 that highlights the achievement made by the organization.

The report also highlights the anxiety and depression of those people who have already spent ten years of frustrating lives. "The government has been distributing the land of refugees in Bhutan and till the time the refugees return home nothing will be left belonging to them," says Dhakal.

Speaking at the function, Shrestha said that Bhutanese government could not start categorization on grounds of morality and assertive diplomacy. The speakers also criticized the reported statement of King Jigme Sigme Wangchuk of Bhutan who had said the current process of verification was in fact the process of categorization of the refugees.

Pasang Lhamu remembered

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KATHMANDU, April 23 - The 8th anniversary of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa was observed in the valley today.

The first Nepali woman to scale the windblown, icy slopes of Everest summit, Pasang had some wishes, which will be fulfilled by the Pasang Lhamu Mountaineering Institute.

The institution aims to finish its work, the construction of the Pasang Lhamu Memorial Building soon if the government would provide the assistance of about 2.7 million.

The museum on mountaineering and the information centre to be housed in the new building are expected to contribute significantly to the tourism industry.

Community irrigation discussed

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KATHMANDU, April 23 - The community based irrigation systems in Nepal are found to be superior in protecting environment over the agency-managed irrigation systems.

This was disclosed at a discussion programme on Community Irrigation: Approaches to Improve Agricultural Output While Protecting Nepal’s Environment organised at the American Center on the occasion of the 31st Earth Day today.

Speaking at the programme Rishi Neupane, executive director Aptec Consultancy P Ltd presented a paper on Community Irrigation: Approaches to Improving Agricultural Output While Protecting Nepal’s Environment.

It was pointed out during the programme by journalists and author Aditya Man Shrestha that till today out of the total 2.5 dollars loan that Nepal had received from the community irrigation, 1.5 billion was for irrigation purposes. "Will in the future Nepal be able to pay off the loan by increasing its agricultural produce?" Shrestha questioned Neupane. To which Neupane gave a negative answer saying that he himself was not satisfied with the way the government was doing things in this sector.