Birgunj turns filthy for lack of dumping site

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BIRGUNJ, Jan 5 - Birgunj has turned out to be a stinking city with 30 to 40 tractorloads of garbages dumped daily in different parts of the Sub-metropolitan city due to lack of permanent dumping site.

Garbages have been dumped at dozens of places. Disputes have been arising in different localities from time to time due to the dumping of garbages. However, the Sub-metropolitan city office never thought about developing a permanent dumping site in the past.

The garbages disposed at different places also include the hazardous materials disposed from about half a dozen nursing homes and three hospitals in Birgunj. Therefore, such wastes of hazardous nature may invite majopr epidemic diseases at any time in this city.

Until eight months ago, there was plenty of fund with the Sub-metropolitan city office as it was known as the third richest municipality, but the leadership in the office never gave priority to finding a dumping site. They started decorating Ghadi Arwa pond at a cost of nearly Rs 50 million and construction of swimming pool at a cost of Rs 40 million but the provision of a permanent dumping site never figured in their agenda. After the Ministry of Local Development put a ban on spending the development budget eight months ago, the prospect for finding a permanent dumping site was altogether lost.

However, as the recent Supreme Court decision has revived the prospect for using development budget of the office, the issue of dumping site has again figured prominently among the local populace. They are determined that they must have a permanent dumping site this time.

"This is too much. A dumping site is the basic need for a town or city. We must have a dumping site this year. There is no dumping site here only because the leadership in the town did not think in the right direction. But this time, the town dwellers will not leave them as long as the dumping site is not found," Town Development Committee Chairman Shyam Pokhrel said.

"What is more important, dumping site or swimming pool? The swimming pool was constructed at a cost of Rs 40 million due to the temptation of commission, but they did not develop a dumping site which would cost merely 5 to 6 million rupees," District member of Sadbhawana party, Surendra Kurmi said.

President of the Nepali Congress Parsa constituency No 1 Ram Narayan Kurmi said construction of swimming pool is the responsibility of hotels and private individuals but not of the municipality. Making arrangement for a dumping site is the basic responsibility of a municipality, he added.

Students enjoy boating on their way to school

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HETAUDA, Jan 5 - Many people go boating occasionally for the sake of pleasure but some students of a local school are so lucky that they enjoy boating twice a day on their way to school and back home.

Students studying in Saraswoti Balbodhini Secondary School at Markhu Bazaar in Markhu VDC and living in Dalsinghpakha and Phaplung villages in Makwanpur district go to school and return home by boat.

They have to cross Indrasarobar under the Kulekhani Hydro-electricity project to reach their school. Local people also need to go to Markhu Bazaar frequently to buy various consumers goods, including kerosene, salt etc and use boats.

Initially, villagers used to go to Markhu Bazaar walking for hours through a roundabout way due to lack of boats and the students stopped going to the school when the project started collecting water in Indrasarobar, according to Sundar Lama, a local resident.

However, after Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) made arrangements for five boats at the lake to facilitate the local people to travel across the lake free of cost, both villagers and nearly 50 students of the school make use of the boats, NEA employees said.

Many elderly women are still afraid of travelling by boat and travel between the Bazaar and their homes through a lengthy route. Some women of Brahmin and Chhetri families do not travel by boat during the period of menses thinking that the boats may capsize if they travel by boats during such period.

People are no more afraid of boating here these days. Both men and women cross the lake independently operating the boat themselves. Even children aged 12 to 13 years cross the lake, which is 7 kilometres long and 300 metres wide, by operating the boats themselves.

Tempted that they will receive the opportunity of boating, small children in these villages also come to school now, according to teachers of the school.

Some students tell their parents that they were going to school. With books in their hand, they come to the lake and are seen busy in boating all day long without going to school, said resident of Markhu Bazaar, Nand Lal Lama.

Since about 200 people cross Indrasarobar daily through boats there is a plan to construct a bridge over the lake in the coming year, according to Makwanpur District Development Committee.

Jumla airport to open in winter

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JUMLA, Jan 5 - Keeping in mind the requests made by the locals, the Jumla airport will remain in operation during the winter until March, 2001, the Managing Director of Kalika Construction, Sujan Sharma, said.

The busiest airport among the mid-western airports is being black-topped with loan assistance of Rs 40.9 million from the Asian Development Bank.

A delegation of District Development Committee members led by Member of Parliament Devilal Thapa requested the contractor and the Executive Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to postpone the construction works on the airport until March.

Many people migrate to the Terai region and Indian cities as seasonal labourers or pilgrims during the winters to avoid extreme cold in this mountain region. The construction works on the airport is also not possible due to the snowfall and extreme cold, contractor Sharma said.

Earlier, the contractor and CAAN had decided to close down the airport, beginning January 8. Works on black-topping of the airport was started in July, 2000.

Indian Govt agrees for embankments on Bagmati

MALANGAWA, Jan 5 (PR)- The Indian Government has agreed to build embankments on both the banks of the Bagmati river in Sarlahi and Rautahat districts, Chief of District Irrigation Office in Sarlahi, Suman Sijapati, said here Thursday.

A joint meeting of technicians from both Nepal and India, to be held in Kathmandu Friday, would decide on the matter, Sijapati said. The irrigation office has estimated a cost of Rs 520 million for the construction of the embankments.

The Indian proposal for building the embankments comes ten years after the survey of the riverbank was done. An amount of Rs 320 million has been proposed to construct the 17-km long embankment starting from the Nepal-India border to Mahinathpur VDC on the Sarlahi side. Construction of the embankment on the Rautahat side has been completed in many places.

As many as 13 VDCs in the northern part of Sarlahi are affected by the river and more than ten VDCs in the southern belt are submerged by the Bagmati river every year, according to the District Irrigation Office.