Sea Lanes In Asia-Pacific
A General Background

By M. R. Josse

MOST inhabitants of a land-locked country may not consider it very important to be acquainted with the fundamentals of Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC). Hopefully, the following write-up which focuses on the dynamic Asia-Pacific region and is largely based on a monograph by Ji Guoxing, a Chinese scholar, will, in these days of globalisation, help alter that naive belief.

BASICS: To start; the oceans cover an estimated 70 per cent of the earth’s surface with the Pacific Ocean occupying about half of the world’s ocean surface.

In the Southeast Asia segment of the Asia-Pacific region, the major sea lanes pass through the South China Sea extending over 1,800 miles from Sumatra to Taiwan. The principal sea lanes in Northeast Asia run through the East China sea. the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk.

The two main sea lanes of Asia-Pacific pass through the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean and the Middle East and through the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan to the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada.

Asia-Pacific also possesses several straits of strategic importance. They are sometimes considered as "chokepoints" given their potential for closure.

They include the Straits of Malacca, Sunda, Lombok, in Southeast Asia and the Straits of Tsushima, Tsugaru, Osumi, and Soya (La Perouse) in Northeast Asia.

Notably, some regional countries have modified the width of their territorial sea passing through straits. Thus, although both Japan and South Korea have defined their territorial sea as being of 12 nautical miles (nm), they have modified that to 3 nm in the Korea Strait, thus providing a "corridor" through which ships may travel without entering the territorial seas of Japan or Korea. Japan has also declared its territorial sea as being just 3nm in the waters of the Tsugaru, Osumi, and Soya (La Perouse) straits.

According to Ji—director of the Institute of International Strategic Studies, Shanghai—the volume of the main sea-borne trade in the Asia-Pacific region has surpassed 1.5 billion tons, comprising over one-third of the world’s maritime volume. About 15 per cent of the total volume of world trade transits the Southeast Asian SLOC.

The major commodities brought on northbound East Asian SLOC include crude Middle East oil as also grain, coal and iron ore to fuel Northeast Asian industries. Southbound shipping on the East Asian SLOC consists primarily of manufactured products bound for Southeast Asia and Europe.

MOVEMENT EAST/INSECU-RITIES: With the economies of Asia-Pacific booming over the past decades, the centre of international navigation is moving east. Thus, today, South Korea. China, Singapore as also Taiwan are increasingly participation in ownership of the world shipping fleet, joining Japan and Hong Kong as major ship owners.

Notably, maritime transport is generally categorised, thus, dry bulk (principally iron ore, grain and coal); liquid bulk (dominated by crude oil and petroleum products); and general cargo (principally, containers).

Oil being the main source of energy for countries of Asia-Pacific, they are increasingly dependent on Middle East oil imports. No wonder keeping the sea lines of communication secure and unencumbered is an important economic and security interest for the US, the world’s only superpower today.

Indeed, the US affirms that "promoting stability in the Arabian Gulf, maintaining freedom of the seas, protecting sea lines of communication, particularly in the Strait of Malacca, and other efforts to safeguard energy supplies will become a challenges of increasing mutual interest."

Because iron mines are found only in a few countries, most of the iron ore trade is sea-borne. As East Asia is becoming a grain importing region, the increasing demand for grain is impacting profoundly on maritime transport trade, with Northeast Asian countries, for exampoe, being heavily dependent on the US, Canada, and Australia for grain import.

While the total volume of container trade in East Asia’s ports has increased by nearly 300 per cent between 1985-1995, it is anticipated that they will probably handle around; 5 per cent of total global container trade by 2005.

Understandably, there are many insecurities associated with present SLOC. Indeed, as sea lines in the region are proximate to the Asian land mass, and pass through narrow chokepoints, they are greatly vulnerable.

Among the obvious insecurities in that respect are those related to the unstable political relationship among regional countries, such as between the US, Japan and China.

As Ji puts it: "The attempt by some circles in the US to sow discord between US and China and to disrupt the ongoing bilateral relationship to strategic partnership would destabilise the region and threaten SLOC security. The suspicions and mistrust between China and Japan would also affect regional peace and development as well as regional SLOC security."

That apart, there is also the issue of disputes over sovereignty of various islands and overlapping maritime claims in the region.

Thirdly, the ongoing naval build-up by regional countries could be another threat to SLOC security. In order to assure sea-lane security many countries of the region are currently engaging in defence and maritime capability build-ups.

Fourthly, the transport of radioactive wastes from Europe and Japan through the Asia-Pacific region constitutes another obvious threat to SLOC security.

Finally, non-conventional actions such as piracy, maritime hijacking, drug trafficking, pollution and natural disasters such as floods, tropical storms, severe oceanic conditions can also threaten SLOC security.

Drug Abuse: Matter Of Grave Concern

By Mohan K.C.

THE problem of drug abuse has become a main area of concern in recent times. Though the government is aware of the situation its initiatives have not been able to control drug abuse and has not yielded the results it should. There are laws the enforcement of which much can be done to curb this deadly menace. But the fact remains that drug abuse is unlike the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Generally, the drug users are confined to their own well-knit groups and so to nab them proves a difficult task.

Very Few

The parents of the drug users are also unaware of the fact that their children have taken up the accursed habit but when they realise the fact it is often quite late. Taking the children for treatment entails much expense which an average Nepalese family cannot afford. The reason for most of the drug addicts not coming within the purview of health care is because such facilities are very limited in the country.

The facilities for the treatment of drug users are mostly concentrated in Kathmandu. The problem is further complicated because the facilities are very limited and can cater to only a small percentage of the patients. In fact, psychiatric treatment seems to be a recent development. And medical practitioners for the purpose are far from adequate. This is the reason why many drug addicts fail to get treatment.

At a recent workshop on Need Assessment of Intravenous Drug Users, the fact was disclosed that there are about 50,000 drug users in the country. The figure speaks that the problem is growing and urgent measures have to be initiated to curb the menace. The figure also may be a modest one as real study is still lacking. It may not come as a surprise that most of the drug users—numbering 15,000— are in Kathmandu while next in the list are Dharan and Pokhara.

A look at the statistics roughly suggests that affluent cities are experiencing the scourge. The use of psychotropic drugs is increasing in the schools and campuses of Kathmandu, as a recent report suggests. Such drugs cannot only be carried without detection but also can be consumed without anyone noticing. Unlike alcohol, these drugs do not give of any scent so it is not easy to detect. It is only when the user gets highly excited or is short of money to buy the drug that the symptoms can be seen. But as most of the users are young people, the general people tend to identify their excited behaviour as coming because of their age.

Timely help can come in the cities but the patients have to be identified. This is difficult and the cooperation of all is essential. As it has been observed that the youngsters are mostly affected, the schools and campuses must be the focal point to take steps in combating this dangerous malady. In this particular direction, the schools and campuses too have to keep a close watch on the situation. If the educational institutions take up their responsibility to keep a tab on their students, then the situation can change for the better.

It is true that for a school or campus to keep an eye on each and every student all the time is not possible but they can devise a strategy whereby an indirect method can be used. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the student population is on the increase and most of the schools and campuses can be said to be overcrowded. This results in a somewhat reduced amount of attention on the student as an individual.

Drug abuse as such was not observed in the country till the 1970s. The arrival of the hippies ushered in the problematic times as far as drug abuse is concerned. From hashish and ganja, the move was onto LSD, heroin, cocaine and the like. "Sleeping" tablets also became a vogue because of its availability from pushers and not much the drug stores. In this respect, the drug retailers too have a major role to play. The retailers are not allowed to sell psychotropic drugs without a valid prescription by a registered medical practitioners but some unscrupulous ones sell them at a highly inflated price.

As a Bir Hospital doctor has it, the psychotropic drugs including the ‘sleeping’ tablets are very cheap though they cannot be bought off the counter like buying paracetamol or aspirin. The price tag though inflated is still cheaper than taking the traditional forms of intoxicants like rum, whisky or beer. This calls for strict monitoring of the drug stores and action taken immediately if they are found to be selling such tablets without a valid prescription.

In fact, though the drug stores are to be blamed for only some of the cases, drug peddlars are the major source for the needy. With the open border with India, these drug traffickers have an easy time sneaking in with the contraband. And this, to any regular reader of newspaper, is plain simply by the fact that news items are regularly published regarding the seizure of such tablets and injections at Thankot or the other border posts.

Efforts

Consolidated and sustained efforts are required to check drug abuse. It must be a collective effort. Drug abuse must not be treated like any criminal case and the drug user sent behind bars. The approaches to deal with the users have to be different. To check drug abuse, the efforts of NGOs, local clubs and bodies and the people themselves is essential.

Monsoon Revives Life

By Yuba Nath Lamsal

PEOPLE in the Kathmandu valley become jubilant once monsoon begins. Their joy swells as taps run full of water. You may not see long queues of people with pitchers in the public spouts for water. Farmers engage in digging and transplanting rice in the patches of fields left out in the jungle of concrete. It may look unusual as very little land is left in Kathmandu for cultivation, thanks to rapid urbanisation.

So is with Kathmandu’s rivers. Bagmati and Bishnumati rivers, once lifeline of the Kathmandu valley, rejuvenate all of a sudden as the monsoon showers commence. They maintain their own cleanliness as the heaps of trash along the sides of rivers are swept away. Rivers are natural, their flow increased. Life returns to Kathmandu’s rivers.

But it is short lived. Once monsoon comes to an end. their joy recedes. The Kathmandu rivers again turn into filthy canals anable to maintain their cultural and religious charm.

Emerging from Bagdwar, a few kilometres north-east of Kathmandu, Bagmati flows down providing drainage to more than one million people of Kathmandu valley, if not water, It becomes even filthier when Bishnumati joins it in Teku. In other words, Bagmati is almost a sewage for eight months of the year except the monsoon.

Bagmati used to be the main source of water both for drinking purposes and irrigations in the Valley. Bagmati used to wash away the sins of both rich and poor, men and women, once they took a holy dip. Now, it only carries bacteria and no longer paves the way to heaven for devotees. Both physical as well as cultural status has been heavily threatened.

Shocked by the sorry state of holy Bagmati and its polluted water, one business an even challenged that he would take up the responsibility of cleaning Bagmati at least in the Pashupatinath area-one of the holiest sites of Hindus throughout the world, if government permitted.

The causes of the sorry state of Bagmati are both human and environmental. The depletion of vegetation in its watershed areas has diminished the flow of water in the river, which has made it feebler to wash away the human wrong that has been done to the river. The heavy fifth both solid and liquid that civilised population of the valley discharge in the holy river has virtually turned it into a sewrage canal. The discharge of industrial waste has further contributed to contaminating the sacred water of Bagmati River. Kathmandu Metropolitan City sometimes dumps the garbage of the city along the banks of rivers in Kathmandu, which often rings the alarm bell. As a result of heavy pollution , aquatic life is almost nit in the river.

Now the challenge lies in cleaning the river to revive its natural and religious status. The task is also to keep it safe from the city sewage being discharged into the river at present. And another important aspect would be to replenish the water volume and flow.

Under tremendous public pressure, the government formed a high powered committee with the responsibility of constructing separate sewage canals in the Pashupatinath area in order to keep Bagmati River clean and increase the flow of water in the river. Even after more than five years since the formation of the committee, very little has been achieved, which gives an impression that the ambitious project is mere perfunctory.

If sewage treatment plant was set up, it would give a face-lift to Bagmati and Bishnumati Rivers as well as provide water to the valley evidently proves the lethargic planning system and their execution.

As alarm bell is already ringing. Environment conscious and religious minded people are pressing the government to take immediate measures for cleaning Bagmati and other rivers of Kathmandu and maintaining water flow. It may appear an uphill task at present, but nothing is impossible. The only thing needed is the determination and commitment to translate the plans and visions into action. Otherwise Bagmati will continue to be filthy.