Uneven weather conditions have been torturing the country since few days triggering shock alerts all across for locals and pilgrims.

Let’s look at some of them:

Mansarovar Yatra
Bad weather conditions have stopped around 200 Indian pilgrims in Simikot and Humla on their Mansarovar Yatra, as the commercial flight operations remained stalled due to unsupportive weather.

This incident is coming after a similar situation in the last month that saw around 1500 Indian tourists struck at various places on their journey to Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and return.

Simikot and Humla are available only through air connectivity, and no other way is a major concern for pilgrims.

Flooding Rivers
This is one perennial problem that Nepalis have been facing over the years. Very recently, Bagmati and Lal Bakaiya Rivers have reportedly eroded their embarkments and started affecting the public and transport movement across different places of Rautahat and Sarlahi.

The floods have reportedly washed away Ropanis of land across different places of the municipalities such as Maryadapur, Tejapakad, Badarhawa Rautahat and Hajariya.

“Teams of technicians have been deployed to control erosion. However, locals are facing a shortage of required materials to control the flood,” says Chief of Water Induced Disaster and River Control Division Office, Rautahat, Raj Kumar Sriwstab.

Health, A Serious Concern
Adding to the existing concerns, floods in Bhaktapur have given rise to an outbreak of Hepatitis-E in Bhaktapur.  Overflowing of the Hanumante River as a result of incessant rains resulted in floods contaminating drinking water in the area.

Speaking about the situation, Coordinator of Clinical Research Unit at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital Dr. Sher Bahadur Pun said some of the locals were reportedly found to be Hepatitis E positive.

“One person with Hepatitis E is enough to cause an outbreak. Usually, it doesn’t lead to long-term illness or liver damage like some other forms of hepatitis do. But Hepatitis E can be dangerous for pregnant women or anyone with the weak immune system, including the elderly or people who are ill,” adds Pun.

List not exhaustive!
Hope the governmental measures and active participation of related stakeholders will address the existing issues, creating a way for dealing with perennial problems.

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In a recent decision, both the countries decided to develop inland waterways navigation from India’s River Ganges to Nepali border covering the latter’s Kosi and Gandaki (Narayani) rivers.

Towards this end, officials from both the ends discussed key aspects of the project in a two-day meeting held during July 15-16, 2018.

First Such Meeting!
As part of discussions, the two sides discussed to form a team that will undertake a field study for development of the proposed project.

According to the Indian Embassy, the meeting focused on techno-economic feasibility of various routes and modalities.

The 1^st Indo-Nepal consultation meeting on Inland Waterways Connectivity concluded with signing of Minutes. Two sides agreed to immediately send technical scoping missions to each other’s country for techno economic feasibility studies of riverine routes, Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said in a tweet.

The Indian side also offered to initiate capacity development of inland waterways professionals of Nepal, the Embassy added.

Under the study process, Indian officials will visit Kosi and Narayani rivers and Nepali technical team will take a travel to Calcutta, Haldia-Varanali section to observe India’s inland waterways development already under process.

Vice-President of Inland Waterways Authority of India Pravir Pandey and Joint Secretary of Nepal’s Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS) Madhav Belbase signed and exchanged the deal amid the presence of their respective teams, on behalf of the two countries.

Dreams Come True!
Following the two-day meeting, officials of both the sides were excited at the forward movement with regard to the long-awaited dream of both the countries.

It is possible to develop inland waterways in Nepali rivers, especially in Narayani, probably after two years, says Pradeep Gyawali, Nepal Foreign Minister .

The latest announcement comes as a result of the first such consultation meeting between the two countries on ‘Inland Waterways Connectivity’ following an agreement made during PM Oli’s India visit in April 2018.

 “There is a scope of inland waterway navigation in Kosi and Narayani rivers, which can be linked with third counties, including Bangladesh via Haldia, India. It will contribute to Nepal’s economic development,” reads an official release by WECS.

The post Indo-Nepal Inland Waterways Project on Track! appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The 30^th Annual Rafting Festival 2018 held under the theme ‘Let’s Protect our Rivers for Tourism and Environment’ witnessed more than 400 local and foreign participants.

As part of the festival, an annual white-water rafting was organized at the Benighat-Phisling section of Trishuli River, 40 km away from Kathmandu.

“Being enriched with water resources, Nepal has a huge prospect for water adventures. Thus, through this event, we aim to promote water adventure rafting which highly contributes to the country’s tourism,” said Shiva Adhikari, general secretary of Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies (NARA), an umbrella organization of rafting agencies that organized the event.

Besides tourism promotion, the festival was also aimed at protecting and preserving the rivers across Nepal for environmental conservation.

Sharing his experience about the festival, Sujata Bhattarai, a health professional and one of the festival participants said, “It was my first time and I enjoyed paddling along with the water waves. It’s an amazing experience.”

On the occasion, NARA pitched for the Nepal’s status as the best destination for adventurous water tourism.

Among various other adventure sports such as cannoning, kayaking and stand-up paddle, Nepal has a special place for rafting because of a good number of river bodies across the country.

While there are nearly 6000 big and small rivers across the country, 16 big rivers including Trishuli, Kali Gandaki, Sunkoshi, Bhotekoshi and Karnali, among others allow river rafting under government’s approval.

Nepali rafting industry has around 65 river rafting agencies and nearly 1,500 rafting guides.

Also Read: 

• Adventure Tourism – The Extreme Side of Nepal

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This eventually created a dire need for waste management, globally, and resulted in high demand for various waste management techniques to recycle the waste into different useful forms.

This is the trend we have been observing over the years across municipalities, corporations, cities, among others.

While some countries have already come up with innovative waste management solutions, some are underway in their efforts, and some have just begun.

Nepal stands no exception!

As a country with huge natural resource base, waste management and eco-friendly solutions mean a lot for Nepal.

Towards this end, Nepal has been undertaking various measures to tackle waste management to ensure a clean country for its citizens, and has also witnessed revenue generation across sectors from such initiatives.

Let’s take a deep dive into such instances that contributed to Tidy Nepal!

Clean-up Campaigns for a Cause

When it comes to Nepal, the country’s capital Kathmandu is most spoken about in terms of pollution and congestion.

 “Foreigners and also Nepalis living abroad are reluctant to come to Kathmandu as the city has become overly polluted. Anyone can fall sick if exposed to the dusty environment here just for a few days. The metropolis and the government should immediately come forward to resolve the issue of air pollution,” says Nepal’s renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Bhagwan Koirala.

Over the years, authorities and public have been working hand-in-hand to address the pollution and waste concerns in the Kathmandu Valley.

Here are some of the recent campaigns undertaken in Nepal:

Mega Campaigns: Very recently in the third week of February 2018, around 31 Metric Tons (MT) of solid waste has been extracted from the Valley as part of various clean-up campaigns including Bagmati Clean-up Mega Campaign, Guheshwari Bagmati-up Campaign, Rudramati Clean-up Campaign, Bishnumati Clean-up Campaign and Ring Road Clean-up Campaign.

Interestingly, people from all of walks of life including general public, Nepal Army, Nepal Police and various other government departments took part in the clean-up drives that have been underway since more than four years.

Swachchha Hawa: Hundreds of public including students, activists, environmentalists and health experts took part in another public campaign called ‘Swachchha Hawa’ that highlighted air quality concerns and demanded clean air in the Valley.

“We have gathered here voluntarily to mount pressure on the government. While the government does something to deal with air pollution, we should not forget our responsibility towards keeping environment safe and clean,” said campaign coordinator Dipak Raj Sapkota speaking on the sidelines of the ‘Swachchha Hawa’ campaign.

Nepali Environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar says, “Such initiative has yielded positive results in the past. Nearly 15 years ago, when the public in Bhaktapur and Lalitpur rallied demanding action for controlling air pollution, the local authorities took certain measures which helped bring the air pollution levels down by up to 26 percent. We are demanding nothing but clean air to breathe.”

Our Waste Our Responsibility: Clean Up Nepal and Australian Embassy in Nepal jointly organized a nation-wide campaign across 31 districts of the country with the participation of around 24,000 Nepalis.

The campaign run under the slogan ‘our waste, our responsibility’ saw all sections of Nepali society including individuals belonging to different areas, communities and organizations, was aimed at cleaning of rivers, lakes, streets and public places.

This annual drive was part of the global-level ‘Clean Up the World’ campaign and involved 15,000 volunteers in 2013 and had mobilized over 100,000 people as of 2013 resulting in collection of 520,000 kilos of waste at 350 locations in 36 districts throughout Nepal.

Football for Garbage: Khotang’s Rupakot Majhuwagadhi Municipality Ward No 11 has come up with an innovative idea as part of its sanitation campaign. The Ward officials announced a football for the garbage collectors for every five kilogram of garbage collected, which drew huge attention among the local youth. “Football for garbage campaign will continue till the ward gets rid of all old garbage,” says the Ward Chairperson Ramchandra Rai.

Clean-up Mount Everest:

Leaving no stone unturned, mountaineering expedition organizers had also called for a campaign to clean-up the garbage on Mount Everest in March 2017.

As part of this activity, the organizers sent garbage-collection bags along with climbers to collect the trash on Mount Everest, which was collected back to the base camp through helicopters. Hundreds of climbers and their associated guides expressed their willingness for this expedition.

Success Stories: Dhankuta, A Model Village

According to the World Bank 2015 report, Nepal’s cities account to 7 lakh tons of waste annually, of which, 50 percent is collected and the remaining left as dumps.

Though the solid waste management can hold 50 percent of a municipality’s annual budget, most of them are hardly seeing any revenues through such services. 

Hold on! Dhankuta is an exception!

Setting a role model for the entire country, Nepal’s Dhankuta municipality emerged as Nepal’s cleanest city.

Dhankuta garnered the award in the annual contest put forth by the Government of Nepal’s Solid Waste Management Technical Support Center (SWMTC).

“We were not so particular about cleanliness up until about a decade ago. Like so many towns in the country, residents littered plastic everywhere. It choked our drains and was such an eye-sore,” says Lal Chandra Gongba Tamang, former President of the Dhankuta chapter of Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI).

That was in 2009, the locals of Dhankuta felt the need to get away with the concerns the municipality is facing with the disposal of waste. Eventually, the locals installed a landfill in Salleri at across a large area of 30 ropanis at Rs 40 million budget.

This landfill assures the municipality handling of 10 tons of waste per day for around 25 years. Moving ahead with this encouragement, Dhankuta finally became ‘plastic-free’.

The municipality today has an efficient waste management system involving 16 sanitation workers focused on ensuring cleanliness across all wards of the municipality on a regular basis, among others.

The locals have gone ahead implementing effective recycling methodologies, wherein, households are well-trained in segregating biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste, and usually reutilize biodegradables as manure or cattle feed. This can eventually cut-down the waste produced in the municipality easing the landfill load.

End result, the municipality has a wonderful garden built on the top of the buried waste! Besides cleanliness, the municipality has also been generating huge revenues through its tidy policies.

Stunning right? Yes, the locals claim that the ‘matter of pride’. Not just for the locals, the municipality stands as an inspiration and a model village to thousands outside the municipality.

Call To Action:

You might also have come across such inspiring stories that inspired millions. So, what are you waiting for? Nepali Sansar welcomes yours contribution for such stunning stories. Come on, Contribute and Collaborate! at newsbureau@nepalisansar.com

The post Tidy Nepal: Waste Management a Norm in Nepal, Dhankuta An Inspiration appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

As a unique geography with around 6000 small and big rivers, and other natural resources like wind, solar, biofuel, among others, Nepal holds a strong energy potential that can power the local and global energy requirements in the future.

Despite its size, the country holds such a strong portfolio contributing to almost 3 percent of the world’s electricity generation through its hydropower.

Besides, the country also hosts a diverse biodiversity profile that helps it contribute to the development of the global ecosystem.

Continuing its journey from the past, Nepal has made major strides towards establishing its image as the country for clean energy solutions. As part of these efforts, the country underwent rapid developments and has taken active measures.

Good Bye Coal!

Coal consumption has always been a major topic of discussion when it comes to achieving full-fledged energy revolution.

And, Nepal stands at its best in this regard!

While its close neighbor India ranks among the top countries in terms of coal production and dependence on coal for electricity generation, Nepal claims to have been maintaining zero percent coal consumption for power generation.

This adds to Nepal’s strong energy portfolio at the global level.

Tapping Hydropower Potential

Out of Nepal’s 84000 MW hydropower potential, around 43000 MW is economically viable.

Taking ahead Nepal’s strong energy potential, the Government of Nepal has taken various initiatives over the period.

As a key measure in the process, the Nepal Government declared 2016-26 as the ‘national energy crisis reduction and electricity development decade’.

Experts feel that Nepal’s hydropower generation will reach record heights in the years to go.

The government envisages to take the country’s hydropower production capacity to 10,000-25,000 MW in the next 10-20 years period.

Progressing as planned, the country has seen major addition to its hydropower portfolio in 2017.

While the actual hydropower production was just 753 MW in 2015, the Nepal’s hydropower production capacity grew almost three-fold in 2017 alone.

With an addition of 50 MW to the national grid, the country’s energy sector saw its hydropower potential growing to 150 MW with the addition of 16 new hydropower projects with a total installed capacity of 100 MW, by the end of 2017.

Meanwhile, in the recently-held Himalayan Hydro Expo (HHE) 2018, the President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari urged the global investors to invest in Nepal’s hydropower sector, which reiterates Nepal’s strong commitment to the development of hydropower sector.

“We have huge potential in hydropower development and if properly tapped, this sector will be able to change the fate of the entire nation. The country is importing huge quantum of electricity annually and this practice should be ended. The government and private sector should join hands and come together for hydropower development,” said the President in her address at the three-day HHE 2018.

Event Nepali industry experts felt that this conference would act as a major platform to draw investment into the country’s hydropower sector.

According to Vijaya Sagar Pradhan, Managing Director of Expo and Event Management Private Limited, this expo was aimed at achieving the key objective of generating 17,000 MW hydropower capacity over the next seven years.

The second edition of the three-day Nepal Power Investment Summit 2018, held during January 27-29, 2018, also saw Nepal’s special attention on hydropower sector, wherein, the President said the government will accord top priority to foreign investment and technology for the sector’s development.

It is noteworthy that Bangladesh has recently expressed its interest to invest in Nepal’s hydropower projects. “In order to meet the growing demand, we are considering Nepal a big market that can fulfil our needs,” Bangladeshi Ambassador to Nepal Mashfee Binte Shams said in a recent statement.

In another major announcement, the Government of Nepal has also announced the 1200-MW Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project following Nepali Cabinet’s decision in this regard on November 24, 2017. This project to be built with domestic resources is being termed as a ‘national-pride project.

Solar and Wind, The Most Abundant

As a country surrounded by large mountains and natural habitat, Nepal holds a strong potential for solar and wind energy.

Considering the rate of wind blows at an average of 18 hours per day, APEC estimates Nepal’s wind energy potential can generate 3000 MW power with two remote districts Manang and Mustang alone holding 2500 MW potential.

Adding to the already-installed ones, Nepal is expected to ramp up the establishment of more wind power stations in the future.

When it comes to solar energy, Nepal find its true solar energy utilization across the hilly areas of the country with scattered settlements and no power access.

The population in such remote parts of the country are relying on solar energy for their energy needs. 

With the average solar radiation varying between 3.6-6.2 Kwh/m2/day and the sunshine of about 300 days in a year, AEPC estimates Nepal’s solar energy production potential at 2100 MW.

While Nepal had 185,017 solar powers installed across the country as of 2010 prior to the earthquake disaster, the number of installations went on to rise post the April 2015 earthquake and has substituted the hydropower requirements at large across the affected hilly areas.

It is noteworthy here that Nepal’s largest wind-solar hybrid power system, supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is also already under operation.

The USD 16.2 million worth project, powered by 20-KW capacitive wind turbines and 15-kW capacitive solar PV panels, accounts to 110 units of energy generation per day and is currently catering to 83 rural households in the Hariharpurgadi village of Sindhuli district.

Green or Electric Vehicles (EV) Adoption

Nepal has been clear on its energy policies that have been in line with the eco-friendly requirements, over the period.

Taking a leap ahead, Nepal has already started looking for alternative energy solutions that are on high priority across the globe.

In a move controlling vehicle emissions and ensuring clean energy policies, Nepal is gearing up for the adoption of Electric Vehicles (EV) or green vehicles, at a pace expected to be faster than that of the neighboring Asian giant India, says Nepal’s former Finance Secretary Rameshore Khanal.

“When there is disincentive to buy petrol-fueled cars, people will readily buy EVs. Whereas, in Nepal, there has been a voluntary adoption of EVs even when enough incentives are not in place. EVs will provide a measure of energy security for Nepal,” says Khanal.

However, lack of strong government policies recommending the same are yet to happen across the country, he adds.

Khanal pitches for the official disincentivization of the fossil fuel car usage and declaration of rural areas recently connected with the national road network and other areas like Singh Durbar as
‘EV-only zones’.

With the right policies in place, Nepal’s complete transition to EVs can become a reality in a span of 10 years, says Khanal.

Biogas, an Eco-friendly Solution

As part of measures to protect its abundant natural resource and an eco-friendly environment, Nepal is also gearing up for the implementation of biogas plants across the country.

With the government’s subsidiary-level support, biogas plants of various sizes have already started coming up across different parts of the country.

According to Nepal’s Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (APEC), the existing 320,000 biogas plants across the country are saving about 400,000 trees, annually, which equals to minimizing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by more than one million tons annually.

In addition, the existing animal population can result in 14.9 million tons of animal dung, which upon conversion to biogas can meet up to 40 percent of Nepal’s overall energy power requirements.

Besides animal waste, around 670 metric tons of waste generated from the country’s 58 municipalities also offer scope for the high-potential biogas production.

The Last Word

With such a strong energy potential, Nepal can be of a major advantage for the global energy sector.

Besides, this high-range energy portfolio would also be of major need for the country in its developmental path towards meeting the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The post Nepal For Clean Energy Solutions, Bets Big on Hydropower appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

This festival is coming as the 16^th edition of the Himalayan White Water Challenge (HWCC), a river rafting festival.

NARA has been organizing this festival since 2002 in different rivers and now, the 16^th HWCC festival is being held in the Trishuli River from Dhading to Chitwan.

Through this festival, NARA aims at promoting domestic and international tourism in Nepal with regard to adventurous water rafting and establish the country’s image as the best global destination for adventurous water tourism.

NARA also intends to enhance the skills of river guides and athletes using this platform.

Apart from Nepal, the championship is being supported by river guides from different countries such as India, Japan, America, Dubai, Turkey, Italy, Britain and Iceland, and a total of 500 athletes are expected to participate.

The championship will be held in four categories and the winner of each category will be awarded with a cash prize of Rs 100,000, followed by Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 for the second and third positions, respectively.

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The 10-day long offers the audience a unique opportunity of witnessing beautiful sceneries, river life, nature and joy of touring the amazing Karnali River that lies in the far west of Nepal.

Adrenaline Rush also organizes various other adventurous events like rafting trips and expeditions, kayaking, canyoning and Camp Iccha, and is known for its listing by the renowned tour advisor website, Lonely Planet.

Event Date and Time:
Date: Nov 12-22, 2017; From 7:00 AM on Nov 12, 2017         

Organizer:
Adrenaline Rush Nepal

Location:
Adrenaline Rush Nepal, Chaksibari Marg / Next to Kathmandu Guest House Street, Kathmandu, Nepal

Contact Info:
Off Chaksibari Marg, Thamel, Kathmandu
Email:info@adrenalinenepal.com
Phone: +977-1-4701056

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Worsened monsoon created havoc across Nepal displacing thousands, killing around 400 livestock and inundating more than 30,000 houses across various regions of the country.

The situation worsened since Friday and badly affected areas across eastern, central and western regions of the country.

According to Nepali Home Ministry, at least 66 people have died while 35 went missing in landslides and floods in the last three days. Around 34,483 houses were inundated across plains and more than 1,000 houses were destroyed, including livestock.

Sunsari witnessed the highest casualties with 8 deaths and 6 missing cases, followed by 7 in Rautahat, 5 in Morang, 4 each in Jhapa & Sindhuli and 3 each in Banke, Bara, Sarlahi, Dang and Surkhet.

Saptari district alone saw more than 10,000 inundated houses and 500 displaced families. More than two dozen villages of Saptari, including district headquarters Rajbiraj, have completely submerged in floods as the Khando, Koshi Jita and Mahuli rivers flooded and gushed into human settlements.

In line with the Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD)’s assessment, which is expecting the rainfall to continue for the next few days, thousands have been displaced under pre-safety measures.

According to Water Resources Analyst Ajay Dixit, spatial extension of the low-pressure system from eastern India to Nepal resulted in this situation.

700 Foreign Tourists Stranded and Over 100 Hotels Submerged

Around 700 foreign and national tourists were stuck in Sauraha of Chitwan District, as the water from flooded Rapti River entered settlements halting movement and severely affecting rescue works in the city. Some tourist vehicles were also washed away by floods.

Tourists from USA, China, Sri Lanka, India and national tourists were among those stranded.

Over 100 hotels in Chitwan were also hit by the floods. According to Chairman of Regional Hotels Association Suman Ghimire, rescuing stranded tourists was not immediately possible due to continuous rainfall. “We will move them to safer places on elephants but only when the rainfall stops,” said Ghimire.

Rs 19.7 Million Relief Fund; Rs 2 Lakh Each for Affected

In response to the disaster, Home Ministry has released Rs 19.7 million as financial assistance to the victims across various districts of the country.

Financial Administration Chief at the Home Ministry Shivanath Poudel informed that the amount was already sent to the affected districts in the first round and would likely be augmented post in-detailed study of affected cases.

The government has decided to provide exgratia of Rs 2 lakh to every family that lost its members in the disaster. According to the Minister of Information and Communications Mohan Bahadur Basnet, the government is likely to announce compensation package for flood victims after PM’s spot inspection.

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