I am travelling in Nepal for the fourth time. It is a wonderful country. However, I think the international airport needs immediate improvements.

What a gloomy, dark welcome to Nepal. The environment is unwelcoming; it is not clear where to go and in what order. There is no information desk. A poor traveller has to undergo six separate stages before getting out.

The luggage carousels are like a jungle — very insecure. There are no clear announcements — neither verbally nor on the screens. We do suggest that if the new minister for tourism wishes to say to visitors, “Welcome to Nepal,” he must begin with bringing the international airport more close to international standards. Begin with brighter lighting and signage, with more staff who are helpful and speak good English.

I have never seen all the passport control desks fully manned, so every queue is a long one. The room is very hot. Our group of travellers comprises 70-year-olds. We can choose any destination. We will choose Nepal but only if Nepal greets us with a more welcoming airport.

David Lumb, UK

Awareness

Apropos of the news story “Earth Day marked with pledge to end plastic pollution” (THT, April 23, Page 2), plastic has become a scourge across the world. The UK is mulling a ban on plastic straw and cutlery and France is the first developed country to ban disposable cups. I read about plastic bans in Nepal on and off but see people going around with plastic bags and bottles all the time. As long as people dispose of them well, I don’t see any problem. What I find offensive is not the school kids throwing plastics or instant noodle wrapper or water bottles from the moving buses, but seemingly mature people in expensive SUVs doing so.

If the latter have no etiquette, I would not expect the former to have it, although littering cannot be condoned. What I personally do is fold all the plastic bags neatly and put them in a paper carton to be gifted to grocers and vendors. We need to do it ourselves, personally. And, from my personal experience, I think teaching young school and college kids ways to properly dispose and reuse plastics can be an effective method.

So, the UNDP and Clean Energy Nepal might like to continue with their good work in fighting plastic menace with round-the-year awareness drive in schools, colleges, groceries, vegetable markets, bus parks and everywhere. Unfortunately, celebrating just a day in a year make even the activists/participants forget about the benefits of proper plastic disposal.  While we are on pollution, we should also start strong campaigns against dust pollution which has become endemic not just in the Valley bowl but all over the country.

I was drenched in dust while walking from Kunta to Dadhkhola on the Melamchi highway yesterday. A continuous line of tippers reminded me of the proverbial trains that are gripping the country. Then there was a huge crusher which had clearly not even heard of EIA.

Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu