If we look at the Valley, only the temperature and humidity and even safety were within comfortable limit till a few years back
The Kathmandu Valley was a heavenly abode in the past. Consequently, Bipaswi Buddha and Sikhi Buddha are said to have come to the valley for meditation in the ancient times. This state of serenity continued till the times of Bhanubhakta Acharya, the First Poet of Nepal who described Kathmandu as a heavenly and peaceful city in the 19th Century by writing Alakapuri Kantipuri Nagari. Now it has been Narakapuri Kantipuri Nagari or it has virtually become like hell in view of the prevailing environ.
One does not need to carry out a rocket science research to prove this harsh reality. In the list of the 2015report of the Global Livability Index, Melbourne ranked first followed by Vienna with Damascus of Syria languishing at the bottom of the 140 countries round the globe. Kathmandu figured in the 124th position. This scenario has not changed much. In the 2023 Livability Index, Vienna progressed further occupying the first among the 174 countries with Damascus again languishing at the bottom. Fortunately, Kathmandu does not figure in the list of the last ten cities as do the other countries of the SAARC region, like Karachi and Dacca featuring in the 166th and 168th position respectively. Delhi is also down below in the 112th rank. The rank of Kathmandu is not available in the summary version of the report but it can be imagined to hover around 150 to 160 by simple interpolation.
The Index is calculated by taking five categories into consideration on the basis of weightage provided to them varying from 25 to 10 per cent. These are stability, health care, the culture and environment, education and infrastructure. It is obvious that any city that excels on these five categories gets to the top of the ranking like Vienna, miserably failing which gets itself pushed at the bottom like Damascus.
A group of engineers and architects dedicated to the development of Nepal through the exercise of Democracy entitled an apolitical Democratic Engineers Alliance had held a half day programme to deliberate on the Livability of Kathmandu Valley under the Chairmanship of Mr Dhruba Raj Thapa who wears yet another hat of the Former Chairman of Nepal Engineers Association among few others. The renowned Engineer of Nepal Mr Shankar Nath Rimal who planned the Tikapur city besides designing several buildings like the Nepal Academy, Amrit Science College and Ministry of Foreign Affairs building graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. The following technical session chaired by former Secretary Purna Kaderia unfolded the Keynote presentation of Dr Bindu Prasad Lohany bringing his all-round experience that he had accumulated as a Vice President of Asian Development Bank. His paper virtually touched all the aspects surrounding the livability of the cities providing a point of departure for the participating panelists for their opinion duly holding the audience spellbound perhaps as never before.
Dr Lahani opined that the epicenter of the global economy is shifting from the west to the east following which 50 per cent of the global economy will be centered in Asian cities. Cities contribute 80 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product and Kathmandu enjoys almost 30 per cent of it. Cities face two problems - firstly of the need to manage the urbanisation and secondly the climate change.
The panelists talked about the need of involving multi stakeholders like the mayors to deliberate about the livability of Kathmandu valley, implementation of the masterplan of Kathmandu which is under preparation, to carry out cultural heritage conservation as followed in Patan, going for a low rise construction rather than the high rise construction dominated by skyscrapers, following the criteria of the Global Livability Index, developing Nepal's own criteria based on its rich cultural heritage like Bhutan and adopting the holistic approach instead of the presently followed piecemeal approach. Like the renowned football players Messi and Ronaldo sitting on the bench at times, the audience brought very brilliant ideas like the need of asking people of Kathmandu regarding livability rather than deciding by the so called experts.
In order to make Kathmandu livable, it has to satisfy the global criteria of livability in the same manner as the corruption of a country is determined the ranking put forward by the Transparency International. Accordingly, it should first be safe. Nobody wants to live in a city that is infected with both petty and violent crimes. Nor do they like threat of terror, military conflict and civil unrest. Similarly, people want to live in a city which provides qualitative private and public health care. Besides, they want to live in a city with tolerable temperature and humidity. Moreover, it should have lower level of corruption and censorship; show high social and religious inclusion. Furthermore, it should avail sporting and cultural opportunities, food and drink as well as consumer and good services. Education, both public and private, should be of the highest order. Likewise, the quality of public transport, road network, international links, energy and water provision, telecommunication and housing should of a recognised level.
If we look at Kathmandu, only the temperature and humidity and even safety were within comfortable limit till a few years back. But now due to climate change, it has been hot as well as humid. It thus fumbles in almost all the other aforementioned aspects.
Kathmandu may be slowly slipping out of control but there are worse cases like the polluted Japanese city Katakyushu in the city's history. It was brought back to its original glory by initiating few reformative measures. River Thames of London was also restored from its stinking state in the middle of the 19th Century. Likewise, Kathmandu also can be made livable as it was in the time of Bipashvi and Sikhi Buddha as well as Bhanubhakta if given a proper idea to all the municipalities of the valley through holding such useful programs by the Democratic Engineers Alliance and the likes at regular interval.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 20, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
