For Cleaner Kathmandu Air Some Suggestions

By P.Gopakumar

POLLUTED air, water and soil. This can be a suitable recipe for an environmental disaster. In addition to these ingredients, add noise pollution to the recipe perfect. But thousands of Kathmanduites live the disaster every day mostly oblivious to the serious dangers they combat. The ‘paradise’ of Kathmandu valley is poisoned. With air, water, soil and noise pollution to at an alarming level, knowing and combating these ills should not only be the concerned authority’s duty but also each and every resident’s. Whatever little action seems to be taking place to prevent Kathmandu valley from becoming a death trap can be safely attributed to the judicial intervention of the ministry. But Kathmandu valley’s malaise is deep-rooted and multifaceted, needing every bit of help from every possible quarter.

Increase

Lack of concern, ignorance and effort on the part of various government agencies had resulted in rapid increase in pollution levels. The quality of air is steadily decreasing. According to experts, the city’s air kills a person every day. What makes our air so bad? Katmandu’s air is contaminated with high levels of pollutants like sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, lead and benzene. The deadly respirable suspended particulate material (RSPM) levels are more than twice the permissible limit of 100 micrograms per cubic meter of air..

According to medical specialists, benzene is extremely carcinogenic in nature, while lead damages kidneys, nervous and reproductive systems. Among other ill effects, RSPM and sulphur dioxide aggravates heart troubles among cardiac patients. The oxides of nitrogen lead to burning sensation in the eyes, headaches, and increases the risk of viral infections.

According to a report published in the journal of American Medical Association, an increase of just ten microgram per cubic meter (MCM) of fine particles, increased the risk of lung cancer by eight per cent, cardio-pulmonary deaths by six per cent and all deaths by four per cent.

According to several eminent environmentalists, vehicular emissions account for 70 to 80 per cent of the air pollution. The rest comes from industries and other sources like burning leaf, tyre and garbage, etc. Studies conducted by World Health Organization suggest that diesel exhaust has a high fraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) and Suspended Particulate Materials, which cause cell mutations which ultimately lead to cancer. The particles emitted by these diesel engines can even harm the fetus inside the mother’s womb. While the elderly are afflicted with the chronic obstructive lung diseases – especially bronchitis and upper and lower respiratory tract infections, the young are plagued with high incidence of asthma. Such ailments are the highest when particulate matter levels peak during winter, especially asthma incidence increases by almost 900 per cent. Even Euro-IInd compliant low sulphur diesel, the favorite of diesel lobby, is thirty times more carcinogenic than liquefied petroleum gas. Particulate matter is responsible for premature deaths from respiratory illnesses and cardio-vascular diseases. Needless to say suspended particulate matters are already way above the permissible limit.

It is also very important to arrive at the source of pollutants. We, in Nepal, are not yet clear on the sources of pollution. This is another crucial problem which the government is trying to overcome. Concerted efforts are required to clean up Kathmandu’s air as the pollutants are much above the permitted levels and vehicular population is consistently growing.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas is a right step in the right direction. But it is applied only to the public transport system whereas private cars with diesel engines are plying still scot-free. Focusing attention on old vehicles plying, as they are widely believed to be causing maximum pollution, is very essential. Pollution tax for such vehicles will definitely yield some desired results.

Generally, to solve problems of vehicular pollution, we need to work from basic principles. The long –lasting solution would be if people travelled less. Homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, entertainment areas – all these need to be intermixed in localities. If everything is available in the neighborhoods it will eliminate thousands of motorcycle or car trips.

The second long-term solution is to encourage non-polluting modes of travel. The alternative is human-powered travel. Our streets should be designed appropriately so that walking, pedaling and the use of rickshaws become safer and much more pleasant. If it were so, many more people would be using these modes especially youngsters. City’s planning experience from Gandhinagar, India, suggests this is true. Street designs are available which show that segregated paths can be provided for bicycles and rickshaws on existing arterial roads in this city. When you do this in Kathmandu even the motorised traffic benefits, because friction reduces, flow becomes smoother and pollution reduces further. If walking and pedaling were safer, children would not need to go to school by motorable transports. That will not only reduce pollution level but also deaths and injuries due to traffic accidents.

The third solution is to make public transport safe, affordable and convenient. The city has not improved bus transport in the last 25 years. And more recently, trolley services have been suspended operations. Government should ensure optimum bus operations and customer-friendly bus operations at low cost.

Finally, checking the rampant fuel adulteration. There is no fool-proof method to detect adulteration. The difference in prices of fuel and adulterants leads to widespread adulteration. So unscrupulous businessmen make a fast buck without the fear of being caught. Fuel is adulterated with aromatic (benzene or related group compounds) substances and other cheaper things. Aromatic compounds are highly carcinogenic in nature. Stringent legal actions should be enforced to check fuel adulteration.

Measures

It is quite clear that cleaner air will come at a price, and only if we have carefully planned long-term policies. The concerned authority which deal with these issues would be well advised to consider all complex issues, consider the side effects of all the solutions and perform cost-effectiveness studies before issuing edicts. If we don’t do this, the air will never be cleaner and a lot of people will be affected adversely.

Provins In UNESCO’s List

By Raphelle Lucas

SINCE December 2001, the medieval town of Provins, located some 80 kilometres from Paris, has figured on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. The town, which has succeeded in maintaining its original urban fabric, attests to the earliest development of international trade fairs and economic and cultural exchanges in Europe. Every stone in the charming city generously tells the story of the past.

Historical

Many of the street names immediately conjure up the Middle Ages for anybody wandering around the small town of Province, with Rue de la Friperie (Clothes Street), Rue de la Foire-aux-chevaux (Horse-fair Street), Ruelle aux Foins (Hay Alley), Ruelle des Teinturiers (Dyer Alley), Rue Hollande (Holland Street), Tour aux engins (Device Street), and Grange aux dimes (Tithe Barn). All these places

now form part of the World Heritage, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, which met from 11th to 16th December 2001 in Helsinki in Finland, registered the medieval fair town of Provins on its prestigious World Heritage list which includes the legendary Samarkand in Uzbekistan, the historical centres of Vienna in Austria and Goias in Brazil, the Masada National Park in Israel and the Medina of Essaouira in Morocco as well as the prehistoric drawings of Tsodilo in Botswana sometimes known as the Louvre of the desert Today, 721 cultural or natural sites, in 124 countries, considered as being of exceptional universal value benefit from the protection UNESCO.

Province meets two of the six possible criteria of selection concernings cultural items, one of them being the fact of bearing witness to a considerable exchange of influence on the development of architecture or technology, monumental ats, town planning or landscape creation, and the other offering an eminent example of a type of building or an architectural or landscape grouping, illustrating one or several significant periods of human history, during or an architectural or landscape grouping, illustrating one or several significant periods of human history, during a given period or in a determined cultural area. Indeed, this medieval walled market town, located in the heart of the former region belonging to the powerful Counts of Champagne, which has successfully maintained its original urban fabric, bears witness to very important economic, commercial and cultural influences between the 11th and 13th centuries, as well as to the town planning of the time. The kinds of buildings found there illustrate the beginnings of economic and cultural exchanges in Europe.

Lying at the crossroads of some twenty roads, Provins, in the 11th century, could hardly be avoided when travelling between Flanders and Italy which, at the time, were the hubs of trade. The Counts of Champagne turned this fact to their advantage by holding fairs in May and September, which reached their heyday in the 12th and 13th centuries. In order to guarantee their success but also to enrich themselves, these nobles had organised protection for the merchants. In addition to escorting the merchandise of those wishing to go to the places where they could buy wholesale, they also ensured their security on the spot with court cases, settlement of disputes, wording of contracts and bringing offenders to justice all over Europe.

These privileges quickly made the reputation of the fairs and stimulated the activity of local craftsmen thanks to the volume of exchanges. This is how the cloth trade developed into a specially that was famous throughout Europe. Moreover, the historian Jean Favier explains in his Dictionary of Medieval France, ‘the coinage by the Provins mint, known as the provinois, enjoyed such a reputation throughout Europe that it was imitated as far as Italy’. These economic exchanges naturally went together with extremely rich cultural exchanges. However, with the 14th century and developments in European trade routes, and especially, with the wars of religion and eiidemics, the fairs in Champagne started to wane.

Because of its canals and streams, Provins was named ‘Little Venice’ by the Romantics. With its winding streets, it has managed to retain its authenticity and charm to which the great variety of its historical monuments contributes. Most of them date from between the 11th and 15th centuries. The town’s treasures include 150 vaulted cellars which were used to store goods, the inextricable network of underground passages dug in the limestone, and merchants’ houses and the inns where they ate. But Provins also has a rich military heritage with its ramparts and Caesar’s Tower, a splendid keep standing on a rocky spur from which the town developed in the 11th century. It also has a remarkable religious heritage with its Saint-Quiriace collegiate church and its Saint-Ayoul and Sainte-Croix churches.

Charm

The charm of Provins also comes from its having escaped the ravages of wars and the dreadful restoration operations of the 19th century as well as the disastrous effects of town planning and industrialisation. Moreover, its listing as part of the world heritage includes its whole area and not just its historical centre. Nevertheless, restoration work has been carried out in several sites over the last three decades. The town council has also undertaken a vast programme of touristic enhancement (with pageants and historical tournaments). As a result, every year more than 500,000 visitors stroll along the streets of this town which was already listed as a historical monument by the writer Prosper Merimee in 1975.

Actualite en France
HDI, Education And Poverty

By Dadhi Adhikari

POVERTY reduction main objective of any programme of economic development. The concept of poverty has changed from income poverty to capability poverty. Since UNDP published the first Human Development Report in 1990, the human development index (HDI) has been used to measure average achievement in basic human capabilities. It has three components; longevity, educational attainment and a decent standard of living.

Now a days countries prosperity is looked in the HDI value of that country. Nepal’s HDI value is low even by South Asian standard. According to Nepal Human Development Report 2001, HDI value for Nepal is 0.466 and according to Human Development in South Asia Report it is 0.48 which is the lowest in South Asia after Bhutan and Pakistan.

It should be pondered over why even with the planned development effort of last half-century why Nepal’s HDI is this much low? What should be done to improve the HDI value for paving the way of rapid economic growth of Nepal?

For Nepal’s HDI, among the three components, educational attainment index (0.4023) has the lowest value in comparison to life expectancy index (0.5750) and income inded (0.4198). Although none of the individual index is satisfactory, one way to increase the value of HDI is to increase the value of educational attainment index. A country’s economic development largely depends on the physical and human capital and the lack of physical capital can be compensated with the human capital. The concept of human capital is directly associated with education and training. As such improvement in the education status can also improve the income and health status of the people indirectly.

Even if we talks about the number of literate people, Nepal’s education attainment index clearly shows that most of the people of the country do not have access to education. Adult literacy rate for female is only 35.4 and for male 65.8. This data shows the low access to education. Similarly mean year of schooling for female is 2.2527 and that for male is 4.4522. The highest value of mean year of schooling to calculate educational attainment index is taken 15. Hence Nepal’s mean years of schooling is very low.

To make the education sector more productive and to improve the educational attainment index for improving HDI value both quality and quantity of education should be improved. Literacy rate can be improved if most of the people have access to school and mean year of schooling is increased. But major obstacles towards this direction are poverty and lack of government’s commitment.

According to mid term evaluation of ninth plan 38 per cent of Nepalese people are below poverty line. In such a situation education cannot have top priority for poor people. Hence, it is the government’s responsibility to take first initiation for increasing the literacy rate and quality of literate people. Government should launch such policy which guarantees education for each citizen. The question is: Is Nepal spending, enough on elementary and secondary education? Has the government provided sufficient financial resources for the expansion of school base? Should the allocations to education be raised in the central budget? Is the allocation of budget for education sector is pro-poor?

During 1990s government had invested about 12.8 per cent of its total budget in the education sector of which about 50 per cent was diverted towards primary education. The per cent of GDP spent on education is about 2.8 per cent. The percentage share of budget spent on education is not too small but what is important is how much of the allocations actually reach to the needy people. While there are available gross figures on what proportion is spent on education, the problem lies in the fact that education, is still a dream for poor and rural people. Still 30 per cent of children do not go to school and 70 per cent of total student enrolled in grade one drop out. Only 41 per cent of total student enrolled in grade six appear in SLC examination. Only 15 per cent of total SLC passed students take admission in certificate level or in class eleven. Only 5 per cent of 3-5 years age group go to pre-primary school. Those children who do not go to school or drop out belong to poor family. All these facts clearly show that whatever the government spent did not reach the targetted group.

If we review the educational programmes we find that they are not bad on themselves. But the fact is that there is poor implementation. Different programmes have been initiated to make education system pro-poor. In 2013 BS it has been suggested to levy education tax on rich people and provide free education to poor. In 2018 BS it has been suggested to make school compulsory for backward society and in 2055 BS compulsory and free education. All these suggestions were given by committees formed by government. But neither government levied educational tax nor did poor get free education. Vocational training did not reach to poor people. Recently government had decided to withdraw the decision about free education up to class 10. Hence, free education became only paper work. Hence we can say that Nepalese education system is not pro-poor.

To increase literacy rate and quality of literate people to compensate physical capital by human capital education system should be pro-poor. For this the government should allocate budget in such a way that it could reach the poor people. The government should increase number of schools along with numbers of teachers. To meet the required expenditure the government should levy tax on private schools.