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It’s the same every year. The parched country awaits monsoon for plantation to begin and regular supply of drinking water and electricity to resume. When the heavens open, both these needs are taken care of. But new problems immediately arise. The monsoon enacts its own version of horror in death, damange and destruction.

There is much talk about disaster preparedness at these times. But I wonder what we can do to mitigate the monsoon’s fury. Build more dams? The level of rainfall this year would

surely have breached most of them. Be more prepared mentally? I don’t know what good that will do either. The truth is that when nature unleashes its fury there is little people can do, as in the recent spate of flooding in the UK and the heat wave across the United States and Europe. Not the least, the political unrest in parts of the country has not made post-disaster relief efforts any easier.

Suman Dahal, via e-mail

Do more

People across the country are suffering from water-borne diseases. To add to it, the recent floods in the Tarai have increased the risk of water-borne diseases in the Tarai.

The government should organise awareness campaigns to educate people on necessary

precautions. I think the government could have done more by allocating budget for the distribution of safe drinking water to the people of the Tarai.

Sabin Thapa, via e-mail

New column

The inclusion of THT medical board has not only made the newspaper more informative and interesting but more interactive as well. Your newspaper has shown the way by adding a column on medical problems, which will help people get expert advice on their medical problems.

Samundra Karki, via e-mail

No protests

This is in reference to the news report “Venture out in city at your own risk” (THT, July 28). Ironically, even after the formation of the SPA government following Jana Andolan II, the number of protest programmes being organised in the country have only soared.

In fact, the success of the April movement seems visible only in the protests. The frequent call for bandhs has made public life quite difficult. Either the government should ban staging of rallies in public places or it should make it binding on the organisers to stage their protests in specified areas.

Swekchya Dahal,

Sukkhe Dhara

Jobless

This is in reference to the news report “Makwanpur Dalits lagging far behind” (THT, July 29). It is sad that only 10 of the 25,000 dalits in Makwanpur district hold government jobs. It is even more distressing that although the government has made a provision for reservations, dalits have not been able to grab the opportunity because a majority of dalits are still

uneducated.

Therefore, the government should focus more on education than on reservations. Only when they are educated will they be able to take advantage of government quotas.

No other provision is likely to be more useful to the dalits than universal education for them.

Amol Acharya, Bhaktapur