#722 29 August - 4 September 2014 20 pages Rs 50 HUM GURUNG MISSING ANOTHER DEADLINE Mist-ical Dolpa The UCPN(M) threatens to delay the constitution if it is not allowed to lead a parallel government hile the rest of Nepal suffered massive landslides and floods this month, in the trans-Himalayan rain shadow the country’s THE DEADLINE Wlargest and most remote district remained in splendid BY DAMAKANT JAYSHI isolation. Dolpa’s jewel is Phoksundo (above) a lapis lazuli-coloured lake, Nepal’s deepest and second-biggest. The district is the last two among Nepal’s 75 that doesn’t yet have a road connection. Noted PAGE 4 conservationist Hum Gurung travelled to Shey Phoksundo National Park recently to study the region’s spiritual tradition of protecting WATCHING nature, and examine how the sanctuary may be affected by a new road MISS GREEN that will connect Dolpa to the rest of Nepal. THE WATCHDOG The CIAA’s recent sting operations go The World Wildlife Fund appoints after small fry Miss Nepal Subin Limbu as its nepalitimes.com Young Conservation Ambassador. See photo gallery LEGALESE PAGE 16-17 BY BINITA DAHAL PAGE 7 2 EDITORIAL 29 AUGUST - 4 SEPTEMBER 2014 #722 DISASTROUS MANAGEMENT e call them ‘natural disasters’: earthquakes, floods, warning, but are not all that unexpected. The last three landslides. Yet, earthquakes don’t kill people, Nepal is woefully unprepared for calamities issues of this paper have flood stories on page 1 (below). unsafe buildings do. Our ancestors instinctively which are made even more deadly because of In 2008, the government, after much prodding from knewW not to live along river banks, settlements were located bad planning and poor response a consortium of donors, set up a Central Disaster Relief along ridges. Countries exposed to seismic and tsunami risk, Committee under the Home Ministry which drew up a like Japan, have detailed prevention and rescue plans in ‘conceptual framework’ for response management. The place. Most disasters may be natural, but the casualties are lack of hazard mapping, the non-enforcement of zoning and focus has been to decentralise disaster preparedness and largely manmade. building codes. relief to the district level. The aftermath of the Bhote Kosi In 2010, two earthquakes struck the Americas. The Let’s start calling them ‘unnatural disasters’ because landslide showed that decentralised response do work one in Haiti killed more than 300,000 people, but a much most of the damage is preventable. The Kosi embankment well. The Sindhupalchok district administration organised greater earthquake in Chile a few months later killed less did not breach by itself in 2008, quarrying of the boulders on rescue, relief and rehabilitation of survivors. First response than 600 people. The Chileans were better prepared, had the levee had weakened it. This was repeated on the Kamala is always by local communities, and the lesson learnt from stricter building codes and had trained rescue teams. Nepal this month. The Siraha bridge did not just collapse, it was the landslide was to further strengthen local capacity to has Chile-like earthquakes and Haiti-like preparedness and caused by illegal sand-mining upstream. The highest death deal with calamity. The Nepal Army acted promptly, but by rescue planning. toll in the mid-west on the night of 12 August was among being slow to accept an offer of help from Chinese engineers The Himalayan arc is the planet’s highest and youngest people recently resettled along riverbanks. Indiscriminate with experience in unblocking a river after the Yunnan mountain range, and it is still rising. The bedrock is on mining of river beds along the Seti, Trisuli, Narayani and the earthquake on 3 August, may have unnecessarily prolonged the move with the top soil clinging precariously to steep Tarai rivers increases water velocity, making even a normal the crisis. slopes. The mountains act as a rain barrier, too, giving the river run amok. The flashflood in the mid-west showed that central Himalayan foothills some of the heaviest precipitation rates However, there are extreme weather events or disaster management and coordination is still woefully in the world. In this naturally unstable terrain is situated catastrophic once-in-a-lifetime floods that happen without inadequate. Three weeks later, relief hasn't reached many the most-densely populated country in the vvillages,i as Naresh Newar's report on page 19 world. Now, add to this mix a prolonged pprove.r state of flux in which criminalised A disproportionate number of the politicians recklessly resettle people for dedead and displaced in both disasters were vote banks and plunder natural resources wowomen and children. This is a result of male and you have a recipe for manmade human ooutmigration,u but it carries a valuable lesson catastrophes. fofor future disaster planning: that the most Nepal’s location makes natural vvulnerableu segment of our society will be calamities a given. We have to learn to live eevenv more vulnerable in future disasters. with them occurring at regular intervals, we should not be taken by surprise when nepalitimes.com they happen. Yet, when they do we blame Interactive map of fl oods and god ('daibi prakop') even though most of landslides this monsoon. the casualties are a result of bad planning, 8-14 AUGUST 2014 15-21 AUGUST 2014 22-28 AUGUST 2014 YOUR SAY www.nepalitimes.com ‘F’ WORD were able to translate the theories of in India and other countries with NEW AIRLINES Federalism (Nepali style) reminds federalism by decentralising political full blown ethnic struggles, I am Great news (‘Expanding air links’, WHAT’S TRENDING me of the Balkan states (‘Reckless power from the centre to local and most concerned that federalism has #721) and I wish both new airlines federifi cation’, Editorial, #721). regional governance. But with all the become the ‘F’ word that few have well. But it is sad to see how Nepal We are ensuring long term corruption, criminals and mediocrity understood. Politicians are pushing Airlines has been used by politicians confl ict. No wonder India balked among top leaders, federalism is the envelope to see how far they can as their private property and driven into at it - especially with its own states doomed to fail here. go so when the country implodes, they the gutter. NA should be fl ying all over based on language model. Just Nirmal can douse the same fi re they ignited. the world, instead foreign airlines are ‘including’ minorities is not going to Let’s fi rst enfranchise the taking away the hard earned money of change society. Ensure education The slogan of federalism which millions who are stateless, provide our workers abroad. for all. That is the only way to was used to recruit foot soldiers now education to everyone, and allow Bikas Thapa emancipation. has a life of its own and the Maoist them an opportunity to earn their own BIKRAM RAI Namah leaders have exploited it to the core livelihood. That would the greatest Given the uncertainty all around, Most liked on Facebook for their own personal gains (‘Federal achievement for Nepal in the coming I wonder what exactly the investors Participants attempt to break the The struggle for federalism may fundamentalism’, Bihari Krishna decades. see in this constricted Nepali aviation Guinness World Record for the largest human be misguided to the development Shrestha, #721). N market with too many players to bring national fl ag at Tundikhel on Saturday. in the opposite direction and make Incompetent NC and UML along in a 50 seater jet to start with. We had the society regressive. with other parties have been complicit to We’ll have to be content if the Cosmic with 100 seat F-100 in the past, Most shared on Facebook Anil Karki remain relevant in Nepali politics, while new statute incorporates federalism, and banks and leasing companies are Wanted: Prime Minister (1) by Ass our international ‘friends’ have been only identity and inclusion in its preamble: still counting their losses. Most popular on Twitter Sobering analysis from an too happy to stoke the fi re. We must Nepal shall be a multi-ethnic, multi- Armugam Conquering the world by authoritative academic who knows pare down the giant assembly, task lingual, multi-religious, multi-cultural, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita Nepal very well (‘Federalism for a sub-group to draft the constitution, sovereign, secular, inclusive, federal D DEFICIENCY while the parliament focuses on making Most visited online page the sake of it’, David Seddon, democratic republican state. There Doctors now prescribe Vitamin D3 to Marriages made in Facebook by #721). I used to read and re-read laws and keeping government of the shall be fi ve provinces and their patients living in not so hot countries, Merilin Piipuu Nepal in Crisis in my student day in check. Only then will we have nomenclature shall be determined which is to be taken every 3 months of Most commented days, and almost everything an inclusive constitution and form of by the majority of each province interval to help improve metabolism to Federalism for the sake of it Seddon predicted in the book government which decentralises power assembly, and no effort shall cope with osteoporosis, a bone disease by David Seddon has come true. None of the to the grassroots without dividing be spared to institutionalise the that affl icts especially the old ('Vitamin problems he pointed out have people along ethnic lines. Let’s bring federal setup. Predictably, there’ll D Defi ciency,' Dhanvantari, #721). It been resolved. But, as Seddon back elected local governments and be opposition to the new statute. has become a must for every health writes, pushing federalism as a ensure services reach the grassroots.