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Kathmandu Saturday June 30, 2001 Ashadh 16, 2058.
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Numbering houses
Thanks to Kathmandu Valley Mapping Programme
(KVMP), the capital is ready to set its thousands of houses and streets in order. Funded
by the European Commission, a new house address system will come in vogue soon, thereby
ending the turmoil of identifying and locating houses in this concrete jungle. If
everything takes off as planned, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City will distribute new
house-numbers to over 130, 000 houses within a year. At a time when houses of different
shapes, sizes and colours are mushrooming, the new numbering project does promise relief.
But much hinges on how loyal is the KMC to the task it is entrusted with. Mayor of KMC
Keshav Sthapit launched the
project on Wednesday and reiterated his commitment to this new responsibility. Urbanites
have heard him make pledges innumerable times on various occasions, but most of them have
ended in disappointment. This certainly leaves room for doubt and suspicion. That KMC has
not been able to dump the capital’s burgeoning garbage in a safe and
non-controversial place is something else. Interestingly, it has fared badly on the
mapping and organising front too. Overburdened it may be, but the KMC has been turning a
blind eye to some problems, dismissing them as a petty matter. And the address system is
just one of them.
Based on a European model, and hailed as a
popular one among the French-speaking countries, the Metric Addressing System, part of the
KVMP, will be carried out in different phases. For this purpose, the city is divided into
six areas: West, North Core, South Core, Central, North and West. The 1.4 million rupee
project is expected to complete the task within one year. Promising it may sound, but it
does leave a gnawing doubt. What has worked properly in Europe may not produce the same
results in Nepal. Given our local habits, culture and tradition, and bureaucratic hassles,
it will not be a big surprise if the project turns out to be a fiasco. And the urbanites,
simply cannot afford and tolerate such experiments. They’ve had enough. In three
decades, the address system has been changed twice. Even if the project manages to put up
the number plates on houses, who will guarantee the sustainability of the new address
system? Will it survive only as long as the grants get pumped in? Making the address
system uniform and scientific yet easy and simple is another challenge. The numbering
campaign will also do the work of data collection, that will help the KMC in formulating
comprehensive policies, as well as in implementing them effectively. Moreover, the address
system has to be extended to other districts as well.
Faced with a plethora of problems, very much
akin to city life in all developing countries, just getting house numbers will hardly
bring complete relief to hundreds of thousands of urbanites. Unnamed gullies reeking with
stale garbage, narrow and bumpy motorable roads, not to mention open sewerage and
construction materials accumulated nearby are no less hazardous. Addressing these problems
are as important as numbering houses. Though belatedly, a programme has kicked off to
settle confusion over the house and street numbers. Hopefully, the KMC will deliver this
time.
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