Briefs (Spotlight Weekly)

JAPAN HAS AGREED TO PROVIDE emergency food supply for the insurgency-hit people. An agreement to this effect was signed last week by the Japanese Charge díAffaires Kazumi Suzuki and Umesh Prasad Mainali, joint secretary at the Home Ministry. According to the agreement the government of Nepal will receive 36.68 metric tons of food donated by local governments of Japan at the initiative of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Diplomacy. Japan will bear the cost of maritime and land transport cost of bringing the food to Nepal, which will later be distributed by the Home Ministry. The food is of pre-cooked, dried and instantly consumable type. The food assistance will cover people in nine most affected districts including Rukum, Rolpa, Salyan, Pyuthan, Jajarkot, Humla, Jumla, Kalikot and Bardiya. The quantity of food assistance is equivalent to 362,750 meals and costs approximately Rs 6.5 million.

RISING SELLING PRESSURE in the stock trading dragged down the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index for yet another week - a downfall for four straight weeks. The decline during the last week was by 1.96 point. The Nepse index, a barometer to gauge investors' confidence, slipped to 207.23 point on the closing day, last Friday (March7), against 209.19 point recorded on the opening day of the week. The index had slipped by 2.73 point in the last week and by 0.24 point and about 4 points during the previous weeks. Except for the hotels groups, none of the groups enlisted at the Nepse succeeded in retaining the market value of their shares. The commercial bank group also recorded a downfall in its index by about 3 points.

THE WORLD WATER development report, made public here last week, has ranked Nepal 78th in a global water quality assessment study. The United Nations' report ranks 122 countries according to the quality of their water as well as their ability and commitment to improve the situation. The report warns that water resources will steadily decline because of population growth, pollution and expected climate change. "The poor continue to be the worst affected, with 50 per cent of the population in developing countries exposed to polluted water sources," says the report. Asian rivers are the most polluted in the world, with three times as many bacteria from human waste as the global average. Moreover, Asian rivers have 20 times more lead than that of industrialized countries. The report entitled - Water for People, Water for Life - was released on the eve of the Third World Water Forum due to take place in Kyoto, Japan later this month. "Of all the social and natural crises we humans face, the water crisis is the one that lies at the heart of our survival and that of our planet Earth," said UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura. By the middle of this century, two to seven billion people in 48-60 countries will be faced with water scarcity, depending on factors like population growth and policy-making. Climate change will account for an estimated 20 per cent of this increase in global water scarcity, according to the report.

THE MEETING OF THE Power Exchange Committee (PEC) between Nepal and India kicked off in New Delhi on March 8. The meeting is to discuss the construction of three 132 KV transmission lines between the two countries as agreed upon earlier, a newspaper report said quoting official sources. Both the countries had agreed to upgrade the capacity of transmission lines to transmit up to 150 MW of power, from the present 50 MW of power, five years ago, but there have been extreme delays on the Indian side to construct necessary infrastructure, Nepali officials said. Nepal had procured 180 million units of power from India last year while it had sold 140 million units of power. With the completion of the Kali Gandaki A project, Nepal will be able to sell as much as 200 million units of power to India even during the dry season, officials said.

THE MAOIST LEADERSHIP has reacted strongly to the statement made by a senior US State Department official linking them to the Khmer Rouge guerillas, which terrorized Cambodia in the 1970s. "We never had anything to do with the Khmer Rouge before October 4 or after that," KANTIPUR daily quoted an unnamed Maoist source as saying. "The US statement trying to link us with the Khmer Rouge when the peace talks are in progress appears motivated and ill-intentioned." The Maoist leader further added, "All those who want peace in Nepal should be careful about the hidden message the US statement carries." Last week, addressing a meeting of Heritage Foundation in Washington D. C., Donald Camp, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, had referred to the sympathy of Nepali Maoists towards the Khmer Rouge guerrillas. "Recent Maoist statements defending the Khmer Rouge give one indication of the kind of instability and humanitarian catastrophe that might follow a (Maoist) takeover."

TWELVE WOMEN DIE every day in Nepal due to complications relating to pregnancy, experts said. Most of these deaths occur due to lack of access to basic care during pregnancy, child-birth and post-natal care. According to experts taking part in an interaction program organized by the Safe Motherhood Network recently, in every two hours a mother dies in Nepal while three to four newborns die every sixty minutes. According to a report entitled "World's New Borns," of every 1,000 births, 39 die within the first months of their birth. Among newborns, low birth weight alone accounts for 64-84 per cent of deaths, followed by many other complications such as birth asphyxia, birth injury, infections, neo-natal tetanus, hypothermia and congenital malformations, experts said.