Living with migraine

Sujata Awale
Kathmandu

Severe half headache, nausea, unbearable eye pain and vomiting. These are typical signs of my migraine pain. This pain comes in a weekly, bi-monthly or monthly basis depending upon what kind of lifestyle I carry. I don't remember since when I started getting this migraine pain. I am sure it's not hereditary – there is no history of migraine in my family. Seven years ago when I had a severe headache, going to sleep was the only remedy to pain. It was only four years ago I came to know it was migraine, and I have now learned to live with it.

While I was unaware of this neuro-vascular disease, I suffered a lot. My mother suffered even more. Every time I had a migraine attack, my mother used to get a panic attack. The symptoms – severe headache followed by eye pain and then vomiting – can scare anyone. The pain is so intense that you cannot perform your regular work. Everything around you will irritate you and you become highly sensitive to light and smell. My worried mother would do everything possible to put me to sleep. 

When I had consulted my doctor, he had told me: “There is no cure for migraine. You should learn to live with it.” Migraine being a neuro-vascular disease – a disease related to neurons and blood vessels – it is incurable. Medicines prescribed for migraine do not treat the conditions, they can only minimise the frequency of migraine attacks and prevent neurons from getting damaged further.

Being extra careful and noting down the migraine chart helps a lot to prevent frequent attacks. I track my migraine attacks in a chart, and in these years I have learned that peanuts, fizzy drinks, noodles, oily food, junk food, cheese, butter, red wine and alcohol trigger migraine. Fasting for long, exposure to direct sunlight, sleeping disorder, stress and even hormonal imbalance also trigger my migraine. I have accepted that migraine is now part of my life and it had made it easier for me to live with it. I avoid circumstances and foods that trigger the attack. 

Somehow this pain has been helpful to correct my eating habits. I don't eat oily and junk foods. It saves me from unhygienic eating behaviour and prevents me from putting on those extra calories. I don't consume frizzy drinks, hence I am not getting those extra sugars. If you are having a headache like mine, it could be migraine. Consulting your doctor is the best idea.

Value in waste

KMC’s pilot project’s success could lead to similar projects in other municipalities and involvement of the private sector on a bigger scale

Sujata Awale
Kathmandu

Solid waste management is always an uphill task for Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC). To manage organic waste, for the first time in Nepal, KMC with support from the European Union (EU) has successfully installed a waste-to-energy plant at the Teku transfer centre. The project has been initiated as a one-year pilot project. The system will consume three tonnes of solid organic waste daily and produce 14 kilowatts of electricity.

Besides producing electricity, the plant will also produces 300 kilograms of bio-organic fertiliser, 300 cubic metre of biogas along with 1,500 litres of treated water. Stakeholders stated that the project is a positive step to manage solid waste in a sustainable way.

Leading by example

According to the KMC, they collect 500 tonnes of waste every day and 70 per cent of that waste is organic. “With the successful installation of the project, it will surely help the metropolitan city to manage its organic waste on a daily basis,” said Gyanendra Karki, Spokesperson of the KMC. He further said, “It will cut down the expenses of the municipality on managing solid waste each year.”

Karki informed that each year KMC spends Rs 500 million in fuel, staff and other development activities at the Sisdole dumping side. He further said, “If this pilot project is successful, waste can be managed at its source by establishing this technology.” As of now, the plant will consume the organic waste of ward number 12, 15, 18 and 20.

Citing that they are waiting for the results, he said, “We will study this pilot project and plan accordingly for the future.” Being optimistic about the project, he said, “Waste that was the main source of pollution can be used for generating electricity, water, bio-gas and fertiliser which is indeed a good step in managing waste sustainably.” According to KMC, the electricity generated will be used for street lights and operation of the KMC office.

“Though we started on a small scale, this project will set an example,” said Rabin Man Shrestha, Chief of Environment Management Division at KMC and Director of the project. He further said that if the project is a success, they will use the technology broadly. “We have initiated plans to separate organic from non-organic waste, however, it will take time to bring awareness and change,” Shrestha said, adding that separating the waste is the main challenge they are facing at present.

According to him, the waste-to-energy project is a three-year project initiated in 2014 and will end in February, 2017. The KMC awarded the contract by joint venture to Raj and Riwaz, Nepalese Waste and Xeon companies to import machinery and establish a 14 kilowatt electricity plant. The equipment was imported from Pune, India. The project was 80 per cent funded by the EU and 20 per cent by the KMC. The total project cost is Rs 18.2 million.

Challenges ahead

Operating and sustaining the waste-to-energy plant is still a challenge as there is no mechanism for separating organic and non-organic waste from the source. Although the KMC has initiated the separation of waste from households by distributing green and red bins, it has not really materialised.

“Despite being a small project, waste-to-energy is one of the most feasible technologies for Nepal that produces bio-gas from organic waste and electricity from the gas,” said Environmentalist Bhusan Tuladhar. However, he said, “The main challenges that the KMC may come across is proper management, lack of technical expertise and waste homogeneity.” He further added, “There are many examples of failure for similar kinds of projects initiated by the government due to lack of technical expertise, skills and institutional obligations. Hence, the KMC should focus on developing expertise and practice on proper management.”

He stated that KMC can get organic waste sufficient for the pilot project, however, it will face challenges in case of operating bigger plants in the valley as there is no mechanism for separating waste from the source.

Tuladhar informed, “KMC collects such a big amount of waste that, if planned and segregated properly, will be sufficient to establish a bigger plant and produce electricity and gas that can be used for household or transportation.” He further said, “Organic waste and leachate is the main cause of water, air and land pollution and for many diseases. If the organic waste is used for generating electricity, the problem of managing waste will be solved significantly.”

Lesson to learn

KMC is planning to replicate the project in other municipalities if the one-year pilot project succeeds. Furthermore, the project also tries to change attitude and behaviour change among the public. The metropolis has already started an initiative ‘waste to money’ and this project will lead with example if it succeeds.

“The project not only helps in managing waste but it will also mitigate the problem of energy crisis that the country goes through every year,” said Ranjan Kumar Shrestha, Senior Programme Manager at EU. He further said, “This initiative also helps changing attitude and behaviour of public on waste and develops the habit of organic and non-organic segregation.”

Citing that the project will lead with example, Shrestha said, “Government entities as well as the private sector can adopt this technology to make money out of waste. And the government should create a conducive environment for the private sector to enter the waste management sector.” He said, “The government should attract the private sector with tax breaks and other incentives to invest in the waste sector as the government alone will not be sufficient to manage it,” adding that learning from the project should be shared.

Stating that expertise development is required for the sustainability of the project, he said, “Many times government projects fail due to the lack of ability to retain experts in the project. For sustenance, the Solid Waste Management and Technical Centre should take charge of capacity building and conducting training, coordination, rapport building and management in integrated way to create awareness.”

The waste-to-energy plant will consume three tonnes of solid organic waste daily and produce 14 kilowatts of electricity.

Besides producing electricity, the plant will also produces 300 kilograms of bio-organic fertiliser, 300 cubic metre of biogas along with 1,500 litres of treated water.



Published on The Himalayan Times, Perspectives, November 13, 2016 ིissue.
http://thehimalayantimes.com/perspectives/value-in-waste-kathmandu-metropolitan-city/

Unmanaged laboratories, unhealthy practices

Loopholes in policy encourages black marketers to play foul with public health

 

Sujata Awale
Kathmandu

A resident of Kalanki, Krishna Devi-63 (name changed) recently lost her life due to the wrong prognosis of her blood report. She was suffering from heart ailment. Doctors from Ganga Lal Hospital sent her home after two months of treatment. The doctors had strictly instructed her family members to conduct regular blood tests. Residing in Kalanki itself, her blood was regularly sent to a nearby polyclinic for diagnosis and the blood reports clearly showed that the level of sugar and haemoglobin both were normal. But suddenly her health deteriorated and she was rushed to the hospital only to find that her haemoglobin level was far too less than normal. She was shifted to the ICU but it was too late.

Likewise, Manju Dangol (name changed) a patient from Patan, diagnosed with chest infection, was asked to have culture of sputum. She did the culture from Mediquest Laboratory at Pulchowk. In the report, she was diagnosed with Pseudomonas virus, a rare virus found in human body. Her doctor asked her to get admitted in the hospital soon after studying the report as the virus was resistant to oral antibiotics. Being skeptical about the report, she then consulted with doctors from Patan Hospital, Norvic Hospital and Grande Hospital. There she was told that she had already recovered from the chest infection. The virus showed in the report was due to the negligence of the laboratory; the sputum was infected in the laboratoryitself.

These are just a few examples. Due to wrong reports provided bypathology laboratories, many people receive wrong diagnosis and medicines, leading to untimely death.

Heights of Carelessness

Unskilled manpower, use of low quality equipment and reagent and not maintaining the temperature are major reasons that lead to wrong reports. Furthermore, haphazardly opened pathology laboratory, not following minimum standards, loopholes in policy, weak monitoring and enforcement and unhealthy competition among laboratory further encourage such foul play with public health.

“Laboratory reports play a vital role in terms of determining the cause of a patient’s ailment and severity of the disease. Wrong reports can be dangerous as doctors prescribe medicines according to the report,” said Dr Anjani Kumar Jha, President of National Medical Association. He also said, “Not only does the patient suffer from substandard laboratory reports but the laboratories not following the basic standard can be dangerous for operators as well.”

Agreeing that various issues of wrong reports from laboratories have come up in recent times, Jha said, “Unskilled manpower is one of the main reasons for incorrect report.” He elaborated, “The government has not defined specifications for who should conduct which tests. In polyclinics and labs, a lab assistant who may be unqualified handles all the tests.” He further said that the government should come up with proper guidelines clearly stating the qualifications required to conduct a particular test. “In Nepal, MBBS doctors and lab assistants trained for 15 months or so work on the same tests without restriction,” he added.

Agreeing with him, Chintamani Sharma, Laboratory Chief at National Reference Laboratory (NRL) said, “Ambiance, equipment selection, quality of reagent, temperature, lighting and human resource play equally important roles in maintaining the quality of any laboratory report.”

Citing that the quality of reagent determines the quality of the tests, Sharma said, “Quality reagent is important for a reliable test. It has to be stored in between the temperature of two to eight degree Celsius constantly. But many laboratories neglect the handling of reagent and use low quality product leading to incorrect results.” Pointing that the government’s monitoring mechanism is not functional and therefore, ineffective, he said, “There should be strict quality control but the government doesn’t bother to even go and monitor the laboratories that directly affect people’s health.”

Loopholes in policy

According to National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL), there are altogether 1,500 registered laboratories across the country. However, NPHL, the authorised body to inspect quality of pathology laboratories are unaware about the number of unregistered illegal laboratories across the country.

“The chaotic situation of laboratories is the outcome of the government’s negligence,” said Kishor Kumar Khanal, Managing Director at NRL. “The government has set a minimum standard to follow but due to lack of proper monitoring the rule is violated easily and frequently,” he added. He is of the opinion that the government should conduct proper and periodic monitoring, have proper database, categorise the laboratory as per their services and should seal the laboratory if found in violation of the minimum standard.

According to him, there is no specific licensing and grading system to service providers provided by the Public Health Office. While asked about illegal laboratories, Dr Geeta Shakya, Director of NPHL, said, “NPHL is responsible to recommend and monitor the quality check of polyclinic, diagnostic centres and pathology laboratories. However, we don’t have the right to punish such illegal entities.”

To control such illegal and haphazardly opened laboratories, she said, “We need proper guidelines, policies and act to regulate laboratories.” According to her, they have already submitted the draft of Guidelines of Laboratories to the Cabinet and are waiting for its approval.

About quality control, Dr Shakya said, “Accuracy detention is crucial for quality checking and maintenance but we don’t have any guidelines. We are planning to make accuracy detention with the ownership of the Department of Industry that includes quality testing of products, equipment and laboratory.”

Stating that the situation of mushrooming illegal pathology laboratories is just an outcome of impractical policy introduced in 2073, she said, “We are not given much authority and the existing policy is entangled and cumbersome for service providers. They operate services without obliging by the rules enjoying the loopholes in the policy.”

At present, laboratories get registered at the Office of the Company Registrar or the Small and Cottage Industries Development Centre under the Ministry of Industry. The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has given the responsibility of registration and renewing of pathology laboratories and medical diagnostic centres to the Regional Health Directorate based on the recommendation from NPHL and District Public Health Office (DPHO). However, no one bothers to renew their laboratory as the policy has not made it mandatory.

The MoHP formulated Minimum Laboratory Standard (MLS) to be followed in 2061. The MLS states that the minimum area for any laboratory to be set up should be 300 sq ft. There should be refrigeration facility to store reagent and other necessary medication, power back up system, allocated standard of incubator and reagent with minimum staff qualification to operate laboratories among others. However, NPHL said that 50 per cent of registered laboratories are operating below the standard and non registered laboratories are beyond the government’s eyes.

Dr Shakya said, “In our monitoring report of 2071/72 fiscal year, we found that only 50 per cent laboratories are following the basic standards while 25 per cent needs to upgrade their standard whereas remaining 25 per cent has not been following any norm.”

The government has no demarcation of certification to know the difference between registered and non-registered pathology laboratories. She said, “Until the parliament approves the proposal of Public Health Act and Guideline of Laboratories, we can’t do anything to control the situation.”

Non-operating legal provisions

Advocate Ram Chandra Simkhada said that the government is indifferent to increasing cases of sufferers from substandard reports of the laboratories. He informed that there are plenty of acts that protect the right to health. “If anyone suffers due to a wrong report from any pathology laboratory, one can file the case against the laboratory and the person performing the test as per Consumers Protection Act.”

The provisions in the Muluki Ain 2064 related to ‘cheating’ states that with or without carrying out any test, if a pathology laboratory provides wrong prognoses, both the laboratory and the person performing the tests are made to compensate for the fees paid by the service seekers and are fined up to Rs 5,000 as well as sentenced to imprisonment for five years.

The Consumers Protection Act 2054, Section 18 (D) provisions fines up to Rs 500,000 and five years of imprisonment to violating individuals and institutions that provide false services or counselling by taking fees or charges. He informed that there are plenty of acts that protect the rights of consumers for quality service such as Law Against Black Marketing and Social Act 2032, Competition Management and Market Protection Act 2063 and Consumers Protection Act 2054. If a service provider is found guilty of false services s/he can be asked to compensate to sufferers along with Rs 50,000 penalty plus five years of jail sentence and also up to Rs 500,000 penalty with lifelong imprisonment.

“Unhealthy competition, weak monitoring system, turning service business into commercial business, use of low quality material and unskilled manpower are reasons behind the increase in black marketing,” said Simkhada, who was also the immediate past secretary of Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights. According to him, the government should take sole responsibility to crack down on such malpractices. The Department of Quality Control, DPHO and NPHL should conduct regular market surveillance.

On this, Dr Senendra Raj Upreti, Secretary for MoHP, said, “We don’t have enough policies to crack down on existing illegal laboratories. We cannot restrict such illegal laboratories and diagnostic centres. We can only instruct service providers to abide by the law and MLS.” Citing that pathology laboratories and medical diagnostic centres began mushrooming after 2057, he said, “Earlier while drafting the policy, policy makers failed to take into account the growth of private sector at such a rapid pace. Now we are working on the policy level to manage this situation better.”



Published on The Himalayan Times, Perspectives, October 30, 2016

http://thehimalayantimes.com/perspectives/unmanaged-laboratories-unhealthy-practices/

Delays in national pride projects set a poor example

Lack of farsightedness, planning, ambiguous policies and weak implementation over the years has left projects in a bad state

 

 

Sujata Awale

Kathmandu

The performance of national pride hydropower projects are far behind schedule due to lack of legal incentives, special rules and regulations to smoothly run these projects. According to the report of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), the budget allocated for national pride projects are not spent and the development of projects are not as expected.

The government has announced three hydropower projects — Upper Tamakoshi, Buddhigandaki and West Seti as national pride projects with huge importance and impact on the nation. Except for Upper Tamakoshi 456 MW run-of-the-river project, both storage projects Buddhigandaki 1,200 MW and West Seti 715 MW are performing badly.

Lack of proper attention, special provisions and policies, minimising of hurdles, prioritisation and strong political will to develop these projects are the main reasons for slow development. Moreover, lack of farsightedness, planning, ambiguous policies and weak implementation in yester years resulted in the present poor state of these national pride projects.

The government identified 21 projects as ‘national pride’ projects considering the impor¬tant role they could play on the socio-economic development of the country. To ensure early completion of these projects, the government has also pledged to remove all hurdles in the way of their implementation. However, the government and concerned authorities have proved once again that they are big on talk and low on delivery.

STILL ON PAPER

 

The government announced Budhigandaki as a national pride project in the fiscal year 2013-14. The project was to be completed by 2019-20, however, there has been no work done physically. According to the OAG report, physical evelopment is nil and of the total estimated cost of Rs 255 billion, only Rs 1.22 billion was spent till the end of fiscal year 2015-16.

“Development of any hydropower project needs intense paper work before going to construction phase. And it will be wrong to say that there is no development on the project,” said Gopal Basnet, Executive Director at Buddhigandaki Hydropower Development Committee (BHDC). Informing about the progress, he said, “We have already completed the detailed engineering report and environment impact assessment (EIA) report is ready for submission to the Ministry of Environment.”

He further said, “Once we get EIA approval from the ministries, we will process for bidding tender and determine the modality of funding.” According to him, they plan to complete the modality of funding by the end of December.

Land acquisition, compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement are major challenges that come along with storage projects. On these issues, Basnet said, “We have already acquired 60,000 ropanis of land in a short period. Now we are working on the classification of land to compensate.” He further said that they have estimated Rs five billion to be needed for acquiring private land that will be submerged by the reservoir.

According to him, the government should develop a finance management committee, development model for the project, finance modality and a committee to transfer it into a company to provide authority for smooth work on the project development. He also said that due to the earthquake, they are slightly set back but work was still on schedule. He is of the opinion that if everything goes smoothly after awarding project to contractors, it will take seven to eight years to complete the mega project. As per the census report of 2013-14, the project will affect 8,117 households out of which 3,560 households will be displaced fully affecting a population of 46,000.

WAITING FOR THE GREEN SIGNAL

Likewise, West Seti Hydropower Project is at a standstill with no visible development. The project is waiting for joint venture agreement (JVA) with its Chinese counterpart the China Three Gorges Corporation. Due to delay in negotiation and establishing joint venture company, no physical homework was done on the project. The project was awarded to the Chinese contractor Three Gorges with a 75 per cent stake in the company and 25 per cent to Nepal Electricity Authority in built-operation-transfer modality.

Investment Board of Nepal (IBN) is playing a mediating role for negotiation with the Chinese counterparts to conclude the JVA. “The negotiation is in the last stage and we will conclude it within this month,” said Sanjay Dhungel, Senior Divisional Engineer at IBN. Agreeing that the project is delayed, he said, “Once a joint venture company is established, the project gets legalised and the project will speed up,” adding that the project has completed preliminary study reports which just needs updates. According to him, it is natural for it to take time to work on such a large scale project.

Dhungel said that the concept paper on National Energy Crisis Mitigation and Electricity Development Decade 2072, has created positive ground for the development of national pride projects. He said, “The concept paper is the best document to solve the problems of the hydro sector of Nepal. However, without legalising the concept paper as law, it cannot be implemented. So the government should speed this up.” According to him, the government has to deal with barriers and policy clashes with many different ministries while developing projects.

“Forest clearance is major hurdle in West Seti project and the government should make it easy to get clearance and look into other policy barriers to smoothly initiate the national pride project,” he said. As per the SMEC’s report, the project will relocate approximately 2,000 households. “As local people are positive towards the development of the project, land acquisition won’t be a problem,” he said confidently.

Among the three projects, Upper Tamakoshi is performing well and near completion. According to the Ministry of Energy (MoE), the project has met 80 per cent of physical target. The project is one of the huge projects developed with local investment. The project, funded by domestic financial institutions and companies, received the label of national pride in the fiscal year 2010-11 and was supposed to come into operation in February 2017. However, the devastating earthquakes of 2015 have pushed back its commercial operation date to September 2018.

PAVING THE WAY

As most hydropower projects are run-of-the-river type, the variation in demand and supply of electricity in the dry season became too high that the country suffers loadshedding of up to 14 hours a day. To minimise the power cuts, it is vital to complete all of three national pride projects as soon as possible. “Our system is focused on run-of-the-river hydropower projects.

To minimise this variation development of West Seti and Buddhigandaki storage projects play a vital role,” said Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, Spokesperson and Joint Secretary at MoE. Citing that political parties are positive, he said, “As it will take time to introduce the law, the ministry is working on a bill to foster the hydro sector.” Minister for Energy Janardhan Sharma informed, “As a part of law reforms, we have already sent the draft of Electricity Regulation Commission Law and Energy Crisis Bill for approval to the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs to ensure smooth development of hydropower projects.”

He further said that the government is positive and it will support the development of hydropower to end power cuts. Ghimire further said, “We have developed an Energy Crisis Bill and Electricity Regulation Commission Law with intensive research and after identifying various challenges in on-going projects. We believe that the bill and law will certainly help mitigate problems.” Agreeing that there have been delays to develop projects, he said, “Rather than scruntinise what caused the delay in projects earlier, we need to focus on how to speed up the development of projects in days to come. And the ministry is working on developing national pride projects as well as other hydropower projects without delay.”

According to him, they are working to ease major problems such as land acquisition, right of way issues, land evaluation, incentives, rehabilitation and resettlement issues.

Published on The Himalayan Times, Perspectives October 23 

http://epaper.thehimalayantimes.com/

Human trafficking on the rise

Reported cases up by 150 per cent as compared to last year

Sujata Awale

Kathmandu

After the massive 2015 earthquake, various reports confirm that human trafficking rate has gone up. As per the data provided by Nepal Police Headquarters, human trafficking in the first month of this fiscal (mid-July to mid-August) was up by 150 per cent when compared
to the same month of fiscal year 2015-16. In the fiscal year 2015-16, a total of 212 cases were reported which was 16 per cent higher when compared to the fiscal year 2014-15 that reported 181 cases. However, due to the lack of a systematic and centralised counter-trafficking database system in Nepal, the data presented cannot be termed as exact data.

Unlike other criminal acts, human trafficking faces technical difficulties. To determine if a crime has been committed, it needs victims to give witnesses. This is the main reason why stakeholders stated that it is difficult to ascertain the real scenario of human trafficking. Experiences from the 2010 Haiti earthquake also showed that vulnerability of trafficking of children and women is much higher after a disaster. According to a recent report from the National Human Rights Commission ‘Trafficking in Persons’, vulnerability to human trafficking has increased by 15 to 20 per cent for women and children.

LACK OF DATA

 

“There is no doubt that women and children are the most vulnerable groups for human trafficking after the earthquake owing to a drastic change in livelihood and poverty,” said Kamal Thapa Kshetri, Human Rights Officer at National Human Right Commission Office of the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons (NHRC-OSRT). Citing that human trafficking has increased, he said, “However, it is hard to say at what rate human trafficking is increasing. The problem of database is not only in Nepal but exists worldwide.” According to him, there lacks a central data system and the data varies according to organisations.

Talking about the pattern of human trafficking and destinations, Kshetri said, “Of late human trafficking of women and children from Nepal is growing to South Asian, middle east and African countries also besides India.”

According to him, women were even rescued from Sri Lanka, Kenya and Tanzania, among others.The latest US State Department 2016 Trafficking in Persons report stated that Nepal is a major source, transit and destination country for men, women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. It also said that Nepali men women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour in Nepal, India, the Middle East, Asia, United States and Sub Saharan Africa in construction, mines, factories, domestic work, begging and the adult entertainment industry.

Till date, no reliable information has been generated on the magnitude of trafficking even
after the earthquake. The study on child trafficking conducted by ILO in 2001 estimated that 12,000 children are trafficked each year from Nepal. As very few cases are reported in Nepal, data on women and children who are victims of trafficking are limited and estimates are highly varied. “Districts of origin, poverty, unemployment, gender, age group, education, ethnicity and caste system are affecting factors that increase vulnerability to trafficking,” said Kshetri, adding, “These are the reason why women are mostly trafficked and missing children are reported high.” He further elaborated that the earthquake has invited sudden change in livelihood of the women and children resulting vulnerable situation.

PROBLEM GALORE

 

According to UNICEF, lack of reliable data regarding trafficking, caste and ethnicity-based discrimination, limited financial resources, insufficient labour market regulation and monitoring, absence of programmes to promote safe, legal migration and provision of services to people who wish to seek work legally within a country are contributing factors for trafficking.

Photos: Sanu Maharjan/ THT

It is a universal truth that after disaster or conflicts people became so vulnerable that they can be easily convinced and trafficked to metropolitan cities or migration for better livelihood. “After a big crisis, people are vulnerable and desperate for survival support. And in this most vulnerable time, anyone can take advantage,” said Reseacher for women and conflict issues Shiva K Dhungana. Citing that due to the government’s negligence human trafficking has increased, he said, “The earthquake hit while the country was reeling under political crisis or in political transition. The government had not been able to develop preparedness for such a sensitive issue like human trafficking.” He blames the government for the sad situation and said, “The government is too busy with political agenda that so reconstruction and rehabilitation of the earthquake victims is not prioritised.”

Moreover, Dhungana said that there are still loopholes in the security system in Nepal. “Due to open border, it is easy for traffickers to cross the border. In this case, Nepal Police should be more alert and increase security checking at border areas.” He is of the opinion that trafficking cases will naturally drop if the government initiates work on reconstruction and implements plans to upgrade the life of earthquake victims.

CONTROLLING MECHANISM

 

Effective law enforcement against traffickers is a major deterrent to trafficking and Nepal Police plays vital role in minimising human trafficking. The government’s preparedness and prioritising reconstruction work will create better livelihood and also decrease the vulnerability of people living in poverty after the disaster. “Nepal Police is working at optimum level to control human trafficking,” said Sarbendra Khanal, Senior Superintendent of Police at the Metropolitan Crime Division of Nepal Police. Informing that they were successful in breaking a network of human traffickers from Delhi and the US, he said, “This crackdown has been successful and surely demoralise other traffickers.”

He further said, “We are aware of probable trafficking cases on the rise, we have increased surveillance, vigilance and even started stringent action in border areas, major bus parks, check points and airports.” For easy access to police, Nepal Police also operates a victim support unit hotline number 1177 for the public who can complain about any suspicious activities. Moreover, it has also made the phone number 4269741 available for victims to call from abroad. “Till now we have rescued 600 women from different countries and we are doing our best to crack down on human trafficking,” he added.

Khanal does not agree with how the international media, INGOs and NGOs create a picture of human trafficking issues. Stating that human trafficking issues are different from other crimes, he said, “In such case, we need victims to come forward and give witness how they were taken. Otherwise, police can’t intervene on migrating workers as it falls on their right to travel freely for better economic opportunities abroad,” he added.

He is of the opinion that public awareness is vital to minimise human trafficking. According to him, Kavre, Sindhupalchowk, Nuwakot, Dhading are the most vulnerable districts for human trafficking as these are highly affected districts after the earthquake.

“It is true that the number of cases of human trafficking reported is increasing more than before especially from the metros,” said Madhav Prasad Joshi, Spokesperson of Nepal Police Headquarters. Admitting that there are still loopholes in the security system, he said, “However, Nepal Police is not the only one responsible for the control mechanism. It takes equal effort and fulfilling of responsibilities by the government, NGOs, INGOs and citizens.”

According to him, there is a lack of awareness among people and they themselves consciously or unconsciously get trafficked lying to police and not giving the right information when police intervene. Nepal Police reported that 1,851 people (413 boys, 437 girls, 825 women and 176 men) were intercepted from potential trafficking between April 2015 to March 2016.

Published on The Himalayan Times, Perspectives on September 25, 2016
 
http://epaper.thehimalayantimes.com/ 

The huge disconnect

Delay in construction of transmission lines by NEA leads to losses for everyone

Sujata Awale
Kathmandu
Despite long hours of power cuts even in wet season, electricity generated by two cascade projects — 4.34 MW Tungun Thosne and 2 MW Khani Khola hydropower project is wasted due to lack of connection to the grid. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has not been able to construct the Matatirtha-Malta 33 kV transmission line project due to problems with contractors. Khani Khola Hydropower Public Limited (KKHPL) — developer of these projects, is forced to bear a loss of Rs 730,368 per day. And electricity that would be sufficient to fulfill the demand for a district is wasted.

This is just one example, there are many such projects whose construction is almost in the final stage but transmission line projects to connect them to the national grid are far behind. According to Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal (IPPAN), IPPs have projects totaling at least 100 MW capacity to be completed in this fiscal 2016-17. Due to delays in transmission line projects, projects close to completion seem that they will also face the same fate.

 

LACKING CONNECTION

Developers are suffering a significant loss as the produced power cannot be evacuated to the national grid. On the other hand, NEA has to pay a penalty to the developers as per the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Moreover, the country suffers prolonged power cuts even after projects being completed.
“We have invested Rs 1.10 billion to construct these projects and now when they have been completed, there is no transmission line to evacuate generated power,” said Bijay Man Sherchan, Chairman of KKHPL. Citing that there is a clause to get five per cent penalty in PPA, he said, “The penalty that the NEA pays is not even sufficient for paying back our interest rate. If this is the situation, developers will not invest in the hydropower sector.”Informing that no work at all has been carried out for the 33 kV transmission line so far, Sherchan said, “NEA awarded the project work to contractor Tripureshwor Jaya Durge who has 10 different similar projects. They have not been able to complete a single project.” He further said that NEA’s lack of proper monitoring, keeping contractors in the loop and holding them responsible for completion of projects on time has resulted in costly delays. According to him, no work on transmission tower erection has been done till now.

 

POOR PERFORMANCE

As a contingency plan, NEA plans to evacuate power through the 11 kV transmission line for the project. However, even that will take time. “As per NEA, they will take 45 days more to complete this 11 kV transmission line, and till then we have no option but to wait and watch,” he said in disappointment. He stated that there is a sufficient fund to develop domestic hydropower projects but the government needs to be more responsible.
“A total of at least 100 MW projects will be completed in this fiscal. If NEA cannot complete the transmission line projects on time, NEA has to pay a huge penalty as per the PPA to developers,” said Kumar Pandey, General Secretary of IPPAN. He said, “Developers initiate their projects only when the government commits to complete their part of the project on time. Not fulfilling these commitment shows how irresponsible NEA is. This is not acceptable from a public entity.” He said that developers suffer the most as they invest huge capital acquiring loans. According to him, developers of projects totaling 700 MW are waiting for the commitment of NEA to construct transmission lines before starting.

 

ALL TALK

Stakeholders stated that problems of land acquisition, right of way issues, forestry clearance, snail paced bureaucratic process, contradictory policies, irresponsible contractors and time consuming process are to blame for delayed transmission line projects. “In the case of the Matatirtha-Malta transmission line project, we have already completed the substation but we are facing difficulties in erecting towers due to contractors,” said Kanhaiya Manandhar, Chief of Directorate of Transmission Line at NEA.
Hewa Khola 15 MW project and Upper Marsyandi 50 MW project are near to completion. He said, “We have a contingency plan for Hewa Khola project which will be completed on time to evacuate power. We have almost completed Bhulbhule transmission line to connect Upper Marsyandi project.”
Manandhar informed that the government has made good ground policy to develop transmission line projects in the concept paper ‘National Energy Crisis Mitigation and Electricity Development Decade 2072’. “On the basis of this paper, the government has formed the ‘Infrastructure Development Projects Monitoring and Direction High Level Committee’. This committee will solve the issues related to important development projects,” he informed.
He further said that they are working on a master plan to have cross border connectivity with India. “We have solved the issues of right-of-way and forestry for the 220 kV Khimti-Dhalkebar (75 km) transmission line project via fast track system. Other pending transmission line projects such as Hetauda-Syuchatar and Kusma have also been solved,” he explained. According to him, they have plans to complete 500 km transmission line projects by the end of this fiscal year.

 

BIG PLANS 

 

While Manandhar is optimistic about the smooth work environment at these projects, developers stated that it is not the actual situation and there are challenges to implementation.In Dordi Corridor alone, 112 MW total power projects are under construction and their commercial operation date (COD) is within three years. But the interesting thing is that NEA is still working on the initial environmental examination (IEE) of the project. If this transmission line is not completed on time, Upper Dorje I 25 MW and Upper Dorje 27 MW will not be able to evacuate energy to the national grid and NEA will have to pay the penalty to developers.
The Upper Marsyandi project has COD in few months. However, the 220 kV Marsyandi Corridor Transmission Line Project still waits for approval from the Ministry of Energy (MoE) for terms of reference (ToR). “We have completed the survey design and initiated the Environment Impact Assessment for the project to be fast tracked,” said Chirantan Rana, Project Manager at Marsyandi Corridor 220 kV Transmission Line Project. He informed that they broke the license into two sections, the Manang- Udipur (46 km) and Udipur-Bharatpur (69 km). Agreeing that they are behind schedule, he said, “As soon as we get approval for ToR, we will take out the tender of IEE for the project. Our target was to complete the project in 2019 but it seems it will be completed only in 2020.” The 115 km long transmission line project will have the capacity to evacuate 1,600 MW from Ilam to Bharatpur. According to him, the total project cost of USD 95 million will be funded by the European Investment Bank.

PRETTY ON PAPER

On the National Energy Crisis Mitigation plan, Rana said, “It is a brilliant document that addresses hurdles of transmission line development such as right-of-way issues, forestry clearance, local obstruction, land acquisition, et cetera. However, the main challenges emerge in the implementation part.” He further said, “If only the government can turn the concept paper into directives and act, only then it can be implemented smoothly.”
Likewise, in the Solu Corridor total 217.5 MW projects are in the construction phase, however, the 132 kV transmission line project is still waiting for forestry clearance. Solu (23.5 MW) and Lower Solu (82 MW) are already in construction. “It seems that Solu will be completed four months before the completion of the transmission project in 2018,” said Janardhan Gautam, Project Manager at Solu Corridor 132 kV Transmission Line Project, adding that they are working on the project to be completed on time. He emphasises on the need to select technical and competent bidders rather than just the lowest bidder. “A year was wasted on the issue of selecting more technical bidders than the lowest bidder. Everyone should be aware of this,” he said.

Published on The Himalayan Times, Perspectives, September 4, 2016