On account of its innumerable benefits, the local government should launch a campaign to dig ponds across the country. It can provide employment to the local people and those construction workers who have returned from the Middle East
The country is agog with excitement following the formation of a government which is just a spark away from a two-thirds majority, falling short by only two seats. Several myths have tumbled one after another. One of them was that a majority win by a party is impossible with the present constitutional provision. An overwhelming victory by the Rastriya Swatantra Party reducing the other historic parties to the state of Lilliputians is another. Last and not the least is the meteoric rise of Balen Shah to premiership from virtually nowhere in a matter of just three years.
Behind this rosy picture are also several thorns facing the country. The war in the Middle East has forced Nepali migrant workers to return home. It is likely to hit the remittance-based economy of Nepal very hard if such a situation persists for a long time. The spurt in the rise of fuel prices has pushed the inflation sky-high making the life of the people very miserable. There is also a need to provide employment to these returnees from abroad.
This problem can however be solved if acted prudently. Nepal is said to have installed about 400,000 bio-gas plants in the country. But 54 per cent of them have been abandoned due to availability of LPG gas cylinders. The government should provide subsidy for their restoration and use. Furthermore, new bio-gas plants can be installed by plastic-encased, dome-topped bamboo cylinders traditionally used for food storage, known as bhakari, at a very low cost. It can be completed in two weeks and will begin producing gas within a month. It will greatly address the shortage of cooking gas. Many of the construction workers who have lost work can be employed in this bio-gas campaign.
Apart from the fuel problem, the country is facing incidents of fire, both domestic and wild. Like a fish falling from the pan into the fire, the country will be enveloped by monsoon rains and landslides soon after. The terror created by monkeys, deer, and porcupine has been so severe, particularly in Khotang district, that people have virtually stopped farming. They have been importing rice from outsides rather than growing it locally eventually for the monkeys.
Nepal annually faces the pre-monsoon rain, which is about 14 per cent of the total. It is followed by the monsoon at 78 per cent, post-monsoon 5 per cent, and the winter rain 3 per cent. The pre-monsoon rain is characterised by its occurrence in the post afternoon time for a short period followed by storm and hail stones. The monsoon rain that follows virtually pours for several nights and days activating landslides, floods, water logging, and sediment deposits.
Like the restoration of the abandoned and construction of new bamboo plastic bio-gas plants can assuage the fuel problem to a great extent, the age-old technique of digging ponds can be a remedy for the monsoon disasters. Digging ponds in the high lek, mid kachhad, and low besi can be like a defense mechanism, which not only intercepts one disaster at a time but also clusters of them like floods, landslides, wildfires, lightning, wild animal attacks, and adverse impact of climate change.
It rains cats and dogs in the rainy season, which is indeed a boon for an agrarian country like Nepal. But it can be a bane if it transforms into deluge-sparking landslides and floods. Ponds retain some of this rain blunting severe floods and landslides. They also decrease the temperature and increase the humidity, discouraging wildfires.
The planting of indigenous leafy and fruity plants like dhagero, aisalu, bayar, kyamunu, and the likes will provide fodder in the form of leaves, seeds, and fruits as well as drinking water in their own habitat to the wild animals, deterring them from entering human habitats. The pond also sinks the much-desired carbon, addressing the adverse impacts of climate change.
On account of its innumerable benefits, the local government should launch a campaign to dig ponds across the country. It can provide employment to the local people and those construction workers who have returned from the Middle East. This columnist has dug 171 ponds, 101 in Mahottari, and 70 in Khotang districts.
Furthermore, landslides have been prevented by drainage through the construction of canals in Shiranchok Municipality of Gorkha District. The brochure for both of these technologies has been published by DPNet, an umbrella institution of disasters agencies. Similar work was successfully initiated by Nepal Water Conservation Foundation in Lalitpur.
An integrated approach, like the digging of ponds, can be started from the new month of April and completed by the middle of May when the monsoon enters the country by mobilising one team in one gully in the watersheds. Most of its benefits will be seen by the time of the Dashain festival due to the reduction of disaster events along with the growth of lush green vegetations as fodder for the wild animals. It will dramatically reduce human and wildlife conflict.
The government has already suffered a setback by promptly discharging its duty, but unfortunately in a wrong way, such as the arrest of political leaders and business houses. The failure in handling the energy and monsoon crisis may further push it to the top of the political cliff.
It is time that the new government and the opposition worked hand in glove to solve the aforementioned problems facing the country. The government should coordinate its activities while the opposition mobilises the provincial and local governments where they are in charge to bring smiles on the gloomy faces of the people caused by indifference and bad governance in the past.