Leaders reverberate

KATHMANDU: Leaders of three big parties committed for a timely statute, on Wednesday. Addressing the NRN conference, vice-chairman of Unified CPN Maoist Dr Baburam Bhattarai said . “The constitution will adopt federalism based on justice and equality and the agenda of socio-economic transformation.While CPN UML boss, Jhalanath Khanal said the parties would prioritize the constitution drafting process. He said, “The parties will draft the new constitution on time.” Meanwhile, Shushil Koirala, acting president of Nepali Congress, said the new constitution would adopt democratic norms and values, press freedom and human rights as basic principles. — HNS

Nepal vulnerable to water-borne diseases

KATHMANDU: Nepal ranks 30th in the list of countries which are prone to water-induced disaster, eleventh on earthquake list and sixth on climate change, statistics released here on the occasion of International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) day, revealed here today. The statistics have shown that more than 1,000 people die annually from natural calamity. While 16,000 families get displaced and property worth Rs 1.2 billon is damaged. The statistics showed that out of every 10 major disasters, nine occured in Asia alone. Natural disater in Nepal range from epidemics, floods, heat and cold waves, landslides, droughts to earthquakes. Worldwide, an estimated 321 major disasters occurred in 2009 in which 235,000 people lost their lives and another 210 million affected directly or indirectly. Between 2000 and 2007, on an average 66,812 people lost their lives and property worth US $ 8.1 billion was lost. The toll from natural disaster in 2009 has more than doubled from that of 2008. — HNS