Cleaning up Everest
Everest is not only the tallest mountain in the world but also has great sanctity. But this sanctity is being defiled. Every year, during the expedition season, around 700 climbers and guides spend nearly two months atop Everest. When they climb down, they leave behind large amounts of feces, urine and other pollutants. Such pollutants are piling up in areas above 5,000 meters. At the base camps, wastes are collected in drums, and disposed of when the drums are full. But, from 5,300 meters on, there are no toilets and human waste is directly deposited in the snow. New climbers report that the route to the top of Everest is not just crowded but terribly polluted too. The area is covered with empty oxygen cylinders, food wrappers, broken tents, batteries, mountain gears and other accessories including clothes and backpacks of climbers and guides.
Worse still, there are around 200 dead bodies in Everest, including that of George Mallory after his disappearance in 1924. Pollution in Everest is a threat to human civilization too, as the whole Himalayan range including Everest is a source of fresh water for South Asia and beyond.
However, there are still those who argue that survival of the climbers and supporting staff in a ‘death zone’, coupled with supporting the local economy, should be the first priority, while bringing back the abandoned mountaineering gears should be a distant second priority.
There have been some efforts to clean up Everest. But they are inadequate to deal with the scale of the pollution on such a harsh terrain. Dawa Steven Sherpa and his clean-up team, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee and Tara Air have been carrying out Everest clean-up expeditions on their own. Likewise, the government has obliged the climbers to bring back the garbage in order to get their deposits back. But, again, such efforts, even though made in good faith, are not enough.
In the absence of effective monitoring, government actions are no more than rituals as the focus is still on generating more revenue, as if Everest is a cow that can be milked endlessly.
The first thing we should do is reduce excessive commercialization of Everest and preserve its sanctity. The flow of climbers cannot continue indefinitely unless we clean up our mountains. Everest should be a perennial source of income for Nepali tourism, not a short-lived tourism product. This is why our primary focus should be on promoting expeditions that produce less pollutants.
For this, wind power can be harnessed in Everest so that the climbers need not carry cooking gas. Likewise, the climbers can be encouraged to carry solar panels with them, for cooking and other purposes.
But the focus right now should be on removing garbage from Everest through innovative ideas. Recently, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (better known by its French acronym UIAA) has given some financial support to a project designed to produce gas from human waste on Everest. The next step could be fixing simple ropes at certain locations with which to send down garbage to the base camps. Such innovative, and mass-scale, measures are desperately needed.
By Dr Ganesh Gurung
The author is a former member of the National Planning Commission and currently an advisor to Nepal mountaineering Association (NMA)
Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Ugly Duckling’ at Mandala
Najir Hussain, who has acted in various Nepali movies like Bir Bikram, Hostel Returns, Punte Parade, etc, is back in theater with his debut directorial venture ‘The Ugly Duckling’. Khan previously performed as a theater actor and has featured in over 20 plays.‘The Ugly Duckling’ is a fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen, who is best known for writing children’s stories. Andersen’s stories like the ‘The Princess and the Pea’ and ‘The Ugly Duckling’ are classics of the genre.
The Ugly Duckling is about a journey of a bird that differs in appearance from others in its flock, which makes it an outcast. Confused about its identity, the ugly duckling goes through a difficult phase. But with hope and self-belief, it eventually overcomes the hardship and discovers its inner beauty. The play depicts the ways in which people tend to discriminate against those who are different to them. It’s a timeless theme, so although the original story was written in 1843, the contemporary audience can easily relate to the plot.
The cast includes Hussain, Bikram Shrestha, Milan Karki, Vijaya Karki, Binita Gurung and Kiran Shrestha. The play is being staged at Mandala Theater in Anamnagar and will run till June 3. The showtime is 5:30 pm every day of the week (except Mondays). There is an extra show on Saturdays at 1 pm. APEX BUREAU
Many parts of Nepal without road links
Forty-eight rural municipalities in 37 districts remain unconnected by roads. As many as 259 Village Development Committees (no longer administrative units after last year’s local level restructuring) are unconnected. (It’s from these VDCs that the centers of the 48 rural municipalities were fixed. The remaining VDCs were converted into 211 wards.) The government hopes to connect every ward at the local level with a road network. The government, through the Department of Local Infrastructure Development and Agricultural Roads (DoLIDAR) and the Department of Roads (DoR), has so far constructed roads spanning 70,000km throughout the country. Still, two north-eastern districts—Dolpa and Humla—are not connected by roads. Humla has seven rural municipalities; Dolpa has eight.
Altogether seven rural municipalities and 37 wards in Province 1, four rural municipalities and 17 wards in Province 3, 24 wards in Province 4, eight wards in Province 5, 26 rural municipalities and 107 wards in Province 6, and 11 rural municipalities and 66 wards in Province 7 are without a road connection. All the rural municipalities and wards in Province 2 are connected by roads.
Jeevan Guragain, chief of DoLIDAR’s Rural Agricultural Road Branch, informed that the government, with the aid of donors like the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the DFID, has been investing more and more in rural roads. “In the current fiscal, one billion rupees has been allocated for rural roads. Of this, Rs 550 million has been invested in roads constructed with public participation and the remaining Rs 450 million in roads built to connect rural municipalities and wards,” he said.
Dinesh Thapalia, a Secretary at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, said that in the past, the roads to connect rural municipalities and wards were not a priority as there would have been few users of these roads. “But the ministry is now strongly lobbying the government to connect each rural municipality and ward of the country to a road network,” he said.
Disconnected
According to a recent master plan that DoLIDAR took three years to prepare, in Province 1, three rural municipalities and 16 wards in the district of Taplejung, two wards in Bhojpur, four rural municipalities and 14 wards in Solukhumbu, and five wards in Khotang are not connected to a road network.
In Province 3, two wards in Ramechhap, one ward in Dolakha, two rural municipalities and seven wards in Kavre, one ward in Nuwakot, two wards in Rasuwa, one rural municipality and three wards in Dhading, and one rural municipality and one ward in Chitwan are not connected.
In the same vein, in Province 4, eight wards in Gorkha, three wards in Lamjung, one ward in Tanahun, two wards in Kaski, two wards in Manang, six wards in Myagdi and two wards in Baglung are not connected. Similarly, in Province 5, one ward in Pyuthan, one ward in Rolpa, and six wards in Rukum are not connected.
In Province 6, four wards in Salyan, three wards in Surkhet, three wards in Dailekh, two rural municipalities and 10 wards in Jajarkot are without road connections. In the same province, two wards in Jumla, eight rural municipalities and 21 wards in Dolpa, seven rural municipalities and 24 wards in Kalikot, two rural municipalities and 13 wards in Mugu, and seven rural municipalities and 27 wards in Humla are not connected.
And in Province 7, three rural municipalities and 10 wards in Bajura, one rural municipality and seven wards in Bajhang, five wards in Doti, four wards in Achham, one rural municipality and three wards in Kailali are sans road links. Besides these, four rural municipalities and 23 wards in Baitadi and two rural municipalities and 14 wards in Darchula are not connected.
By Gopi Krishna Dhungana | Kathmandu
Oli’s foreign outlook
A few incidents marred Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day Nepal visit. While welcoming Modi in Janakpur, Province 2 Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut broke every rule in the diplomacy playbook by asking the Indian prime minister to help resolve a purely domestic issue. Later, while Indian journalists were allowed in a joint press meet between the two prime ministers, Nepali journalists were curiously barred. Then there was the unforgettable botch-job with the Nepali flag.
Yet it would be a stretch to say that the visit was fruitless or that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli somehow ‘surrendered’ before Modi. While the Indian prime minister was in town, the hashtag #BlockadeWasCrimeMrModi was the number one trending theme on Twitter. The common feeling was that Modi should apologize for the five-month-long blockade. While that was understandable, given how much people suffered during those testing times, it was also an unrealistic expectation. Seldom in history have state or government heads formally apologized for the past misdeeds of their countries. The Americans, for instance, have never apologized for dropping nuclear bombs on Japan or, more recently, for needlessly invading Iraq.
Interestingly, this time too Modi fell short of welcoming the constitution. But he congratulated Nepalis for the three tiers of elections—held under the same constitution. Modi also unequivocally said India is in favor of an undivided and strong Nepal, dispelling doubts that it is supporting divisive forces here. Another important development has been India’s acceptance of the left merger, undoubtedly at Oli’s urging; until now there seemed to be a feeling in New Delhi that the alliance (and now a unified party) was a ‘Chinese construct’.
In other words, there has been a marked thaw in Nepal-India relations since Oli became prime minister, and he must be given some credit for that. Following Modi’s departure from Nepal, Oli has, moreover, clarified that he is as keen on improving ties with China, where he is going soon. Notwithstanding the agreements that were (or were not) signed during Modi’s recent visit, his recent dealings with our two important neighbors are marked by a level of finesse that has seldom been seen in Nepali leaders. Even his staunch critics grudgingly accept this. Oli may have more strategic acumen than people give him credit for. Now that he is in charge of a strong, unified party, we may just get to witness that acumen put to even better use.
Finally, the left merger comes through
The formal unification of CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) had been stuck for the past seven months because the Maoists wanted a ‘respectable’ place in the new party, which the UML top brass was not ready to grant. As Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal would later clarify, this meant a near 50-50 division of office-bearers between UML and the Maoist Center in all the important decision-making bodies of the to-be-formed party. There were a few other (albeit less important) sticking points: whether to recognize the bloody ‘people’s war’ in the new party statute, and whether the ‘sun’ or the ‘hammer and sickle’ should be the new party symbol.
The Maoist party’s demand for more office-bearers was understandable. It would have had a tough time whittling down its 1,099-member central committee. The new party, as per an earlier understanding, would have just 299 central committee members, and many influential Maoist leaders feared being ‘demoted’. Dahal had his own calculations. Before he agreed to a formal merger, he wanted to make sure that he either got to become the prime minister after two and a half years or secured the post of chairman of the new party. And should Oli renege on his promise on these fronts, he wanted to keep open the option of breaking away from the unified party.
According to new electoral laws, Dahal would need the support of at least 40 percent central committee members to break away, and UML was not ready to give such a large share to the Maoists. Yet after holding out for so long, KP Oli and UML leadership seem to have decided that the risks associated with a breakdown of the left unity far outweighed the benefits of curbing Dahal’s ambitions.
Thus the two parties have formally united. The central committee of the new party has been expanded to 441 members, of which UML will get 221 (54.5 percent) while the Maoists will get 200 (45.5 percent). Likewise, the powerful Standing Committee will have 25 members from UML and 18 members from Maoist Center. Dahal and Oli will jointly chair the party. ‘Sun’ will be the party symbol and ‘people’s war’ will be recognized. All the remaining issues will be settled by the general convention that is to be held within two years.
With the formal merger, Oli, his health permitting, has all but guaranteed that he will serve a five-year term as prime minister, which would be the first time this has happened in the history of democratic Nepal. But it is the general convention that will determine the party’s future. It is hard to see Dahal agreeing to play second fiddle to anyone for five long years should he not get to be the party chairman after the general convention.
Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup played in Kathmandu
Turkish Airlines brought its international even—Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup—to Gokarna Forest Resort Kathmandu this week. The global event by Turkish Airline has more than 8,000 invited guests competing in more than 100 tournaments around the world.
“Turkish Airlines is firmly committed to the aspirational vision of sporting competition and trusts in its ability to unite people from different nations,” a press statement released by Turkish Airlines read, “That support extends from football, basketball, rugby and golf at all levels and the amateur series is a fine example of this from the carrier, which offers a multiple award-winning Business Class service and allows guests to take clubs for free.”
The Kathmandu event held on March 12 was supported by the local business community and leading businessmen were among the competitors at Gokarna Forest Resort. Among the competitors was Pratima Sherpa who recently put golf in Nepal on the map after Tiger Woods invited her to Florida for a private lesson in her quest to become Nepal’s first female professional golfer before traveling back to Kathmandu to compete in the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup.
Madhav Acharya will represent Kathmandu in the international tournament after winning the competition with 43 points, while Madhav Simkhada was runner-up, Kishan Agrawal was third.
“We would like to thank all of our guests who made the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup here in Kathmandu a huge success,” Abdullah Tuncer Kececı, General Manager for Turkish Airlines Kathmandu, said at the event.
