Infrastructure First

OF the numerous challenges facing a resource-poor Least Developed Country like Nepal, lack of infrastructure is a major one. Development does not even begin to crawl when the most crucial condition for it does not exist. When infrastructure is non-existent, other interventions, however intense, do not produce the intended results. Nepal has made some strides over the past 10 years in building infrastructure as was pointed out by Minister for Physical Planning and Works Chiranjibi Wagle in his address to a ministerial conference on infrastructure organised by UNESCAP in Seoul last week. For instance, the length of roads over the 1990s more than doubled from about 700 kilometres. Scores of planes now fly to many rural destinations in Nepal, thanks to the ‘open-sky’ policy adopted since mid-1990s and the expanding airport network. For another example, the total supply of electricity also increased by 100 per cent. The telecommunications services has also been one of the high-growth areas. The successive governments since 1990 have realised that public sector investment alone was not going to transform the infrastructural status of the country. In order to create favourable environment for the private sector to chip in its contribution, appropriate legal and regulatory framework has also been enacted. Thus we have over the past years seen a visible increase in the private sector participation in different infrastructural works. Hydro-power development certainly is one field where the private parties have come in with investment with good results.

As noticeable as the private sector’s participation has been in all these infrastructural fields, they add only to a modest contribution, set against the enormous needs that Nepal, particularly the rural areas, have for infrastructure. Despite, for example, the visible improvement in road network, the fact remains that the road in Nepal is less than 93 kilometres per 1000 square kilometres, which is among the lowest in the world. There are still many hilly rural settlements that are days’ walk away from the nearest road heads which often end at the district headquarters. The denial of quick and convenient access to markets because of lack of roads hamper income-generation activities in the hills. The budding private sector participation alone will not transform the infrastructure status of the country. On the other hand, for the public sector in Nepal to do what it wants, it needs external assistance. Mr. Wagle rightly emphasised that official development assistance must be increased to LDCs like Nepal for them to build infrastructure and thus help them to attain a sustainable growth and alleviate poverty. Multi-lateral and bilateral donors must realise that support to infrastructure must be considered as one of the first priorities.

Hot-Spring Spas

EACH year, come the month of Kartik, the people from various districts of the nation make it a point to throng the month-long mela (fair) held at Tatopani (or hot-spring in Nepali) of Sindhupalchowk district. Till date, no one seems to know exactly when this fair at Totopani started. And what draws the people to Tatopani in large numbers is the hot-spring’s lukewarm waters gushing out perennially from the side of a nearby hill. The general belief among the people is that the waters of the Tatopani hot-spring have curative as well as preventive powers. Especially for skin and internal organs-related aliments. As to how they came to hold this belief, that too long before the advent of modern sciences, is still a matter of conjecture. But how right they were! Modern sciences, by now, have proved that the waters of hot-springs do contain trace elements and minerals that, when ingested or used for bathing, can cure or prevent certain aliments. Interestingly enough, the Tatopani fair revelers, even before the conclusive findings of modern sciences, have been drinking large quantities of the hot-spring’s water or taking a thorough bath with it. To assist them in their quest for good health, Tatopani’s waters have been channelised into two separate bathing facilities for men and women. Some are so much attracted to the Tatopani’s hot-spring that they don’t even hesitate to stay for many days at end in that place. To cater to the accommodation and fooding needs of such health-seekers, lodges by the dozens have sprang up in Tatopani, thereby further enhancing this settlement’s attraction among the people.

By no means Sindhupalchowk district’s hot-spring is the only one in the entire nation. There are many hot-springs all over the country. If some, like the one located in the Annapurna trekking circuit and also called Tatopani, are famous among both the locals and trekkers alike, then others, for want of necessary publicity, are still tucked away in the hills and valleys of the country. At a time when the people from the developed nations are increasingly taking to nature cure therapies, it looks to reason for the concerned authorities to develop these hot-springs into spas and resorts to attract these nature cure seekers and tourists alike. By doing so, it would not only generate employment opportunities for the locals but also bring in foreign currencies for the nation’s coffers.