News

 

Impact of Nepal’s earthquake in Ramechhap province 

posted by Dale Dodge, with information from Suresh Shrestha, TSS employee and WNC partner in Nepal

We are lucky to have been receiving emails over the past two days from Suresh in Nepal. The WNC project is east of Kathmandhu, in the province of Ramechhap. Included here are descriptions, in Suresh’s own words, about the devastation in the province and his country. Thankfully, both he and his family are safe!

postings from newest to oldest
Apr. 27 3:11AM
Due to devastating earthquake, over 75% houses have been damaged in Ramechhap.  These houses, most of built by mud & stone, are no more suitable to live. The families have been displaced and they are staying in plastic temporary tent. Almost all these families belong to poor and backward. We don’t know whether our government will have enough relief funds for reconstruction and/or renovation of the damaged houses. Continue reading “Few deaths … many homes damaged”

Creating a new constitution

posted by Dale Dodge, with information from Suresh Shrestha

After 6 years of democratic government, the government of Nepal has been unable to get the job done of writing a constitution.  There are too many parties, too many vested interests, and too little power.  The following is the final question and answer from an interview with Lok Raj Baral, author and political science professor in Nepal.

Question: You touched on many aspects of governance. It will soon be a year since the formation of the government under Sushil Koirala. How would you assess its performance?

Mr. Baral’s response: This government has not done anything; it has been a non-functioning government. It was barely able to even appoint ambassadors. It failed to expedite the constitution and it has not been actively inclusive. It has been a failure. But I would not just blame Sushil Koirala. It was the same during the tenure of Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai.

This is a fault of the system. There is no single-party majority so any government needs to take other parties along with it. So either you need to satisfy your coalition partner or you need a prime minister with the personality to do what needs to be done. But I also don’t know what the alternative is. Furthermore, we are forced to deal with multiple crises at the same time—governance crisis, leadership crisis, constitutional crisis, corruption crisis, etc. And none of the parties abide by their ideologies. The NC is not socialist, the UML is not Leninist-Marxist, and the Maoists are not Maoist. That is why we need a minimum understanding between the major parties.

Harsh words, but echoed in the report sent to us recently by Suresh Shrestha, our TSS partner in Manthali.

Continue reading “The rocky road of political change: Nepal’s challenges”

Since 2000, World Neighbours Canada has been using WNC and matching CIDA funds to put in sealed, hygienic toilets in many villages of Nepal. What at first was a hard sell to villagers who have practiced ‘open defecation’ all their lives, has now become a highly requested item. Our partner, Tamakoshi Sewa Samiti (TSS), has been fielding increasing numbers of requests from villages who already have a water system in place, to help with the installation of the new toilet. Outhouses and pit toilets have been tried in the past, but there has always been problems with smell and with the attraction of unwanted pests, vermin and insects. The design of the sealed, hygienic toilet overcomes these issues.

Continue reading “How to build a sealed, hygienic toilet”

The loss of CIDA matching funding has resulted in a drop in activity in Nepal over the past year, but TSS has still managed to install 3 water systems in the villages of Saduagaun, Jagirgaun and Kyama.  Funding was partially from WNC, but also from Rotary International via Rotary Aldergrove, and from a student based NGO called CACTES (Caring About Communities Together to Eliminate Struggle) from Surrey, BC.  The three systems combined have brought water to a total of over 500 people.  Unfortunately, the toilet program has been suspended because of lack of funding.

In the coming year, we plan to concentrate on toilets again, especially in the villages that now have water.  We have seen the combination of accessible water and sealed, hygienic toilets reduce gastrointestinal diseases by 80%, and the requests from villages for toilets is as high as ever.

Nine months after the Constituent Assembly elections and six months after Cabinet formation, the government has nominated 17 lawmakers in 26 vacant CA seats only on 30 August, 2014.

The 26 seats were allotted to different political parties as per their seats in CA. Eight of the nominees are from the Nepali Congress, eight from CPN-UML and one from the RPP-Nepal while the four seats allocated to the opposition UCPN (Maoist) and four others to fringe parties are yet to be filled. As per the mandate of CA, the new full-fledged constitution has to be promulgated by 22nd January 2015.

Most of the lawmakers have stressed on the need to deliver the new constitution within the stipulated time-frame either through consensus, if not through voting process. However, the major issues are yet to finalize no. of federal states, its naming and bordering as well as the executive power (Presidential or Pri-ministerial). At present, the executive power is vested to the Pri-minister.

There are still 33 political parties (including faction of Maoist and others) who lost and/or did not take part in the last CA election. Last week, the ruling government had called all-party national political conference to reach consensus on major issues including federalism, governance system and electoral system. However, the 33-party alliance boycotted the meeting in the last minute where participants from other parties waiting in conference room. The consensus has not yet reached on these thorny issues among the ruling parties as well. It is still suspicious that the new constitution be delivered by 22nd January, 2015.