Fourteen Hours a Day

My chargeable light starts to flicker; then I know it has been more than two hours since the inevitable blackout took course as pre scheduled. It would not be long before I would again be shrouded by the dismal darkness. Either the makers of that miserable gadget did not knew their product would find itself being drained to the last lumen or the makers of our nation could not fulfill their promises of a new Nepal. Who is to blame?

Ninety seven years have gone by since the start of construction of Pharping Hydroelectric Plant in 1911. The plant generated 500 Kilo Watts of electricity. This was the start of an era that has never had a golden period. Today, Nepal has an electric power of total installed capacity 609 Mega Watt (MW) but the demand is more than 800 MW. The consequence is load shedding which is currently 14 hours a day. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) changes the load shedding schedule and duration time and again citing different reasons. People plan their days according to load shedding schedule. They sleep and wake up accordingly. Businesses and office-goers, professionals try to adjust their work and daily routine in harmony with the load-shedding schedule.

Extended duration of power cuts has affected business the most. The electrical tempos that are in operation in the Kathmandu Valley have already launched protests against the NEA for increasing the duration of load shedding. The power supply is not adequate for recharging their batteries, and because of this their business worth billions is virtually at the point of closure. The cyber cafes are also facing the brunt. Even the invertors did not prove to be saviors for them because it becomes difficult to charge the invertors fully when one has the luxury of just four hours of electricity at a time.

The ever widening gap between demand and supply has forced government to declare "energy crisis" in the country. Government officers say that the declaration of “energy crisis will speed up the NEA’s work to produce more electricity for sustained solution. Fearing of 18 hours power-cut in future, the government had proposed to set up diesel run thermal power plant which has been criticized by experts nationwide. According to experts the low water-level in reservoir during dry season and dismantled Koshi Hydropower Transmission Line is the key cause of additional power cut in Nepal. Though this alone is not the cause of electricity crisis in the country, rather it is the consequence of lack of maintenance of existing power plants, inability to establish new power plants as per demand and also electricity leakage. The NEA’s effort to extend the supply of electricity to remote villages is cited as another reason behind the ever increasing blackouts.

Paradoxical it may sound but the truth is we live in a country that is second richest in the world in terms of water resources. The potential for generating hydro electricity is enormous. Experts say the economic potential is 43,000 mega watts and yet sixty percent of the population still does not have access to electricity. A decade long civil war and political instability didn’t help the cause either.

Hydro electricity for now seems to be the ultimate solution to the existing energy crisis. It doesn’t come without challenges though. A report by John C. Garcia states that adverse impacts related to hydropower development can be serious and significant, leading to increased poverty, social dislocation, losses in fishery resources and declines in biodiversity among a host of other associated impacts. The report further states that Run of the-river projects with high head and small reservoirs have fewer adverse environmental impacts on the social, biological and physical environments than large reservoirs in lower elevations that can require the dislocation of people and loss of productive lands and major ecological changes. However, in some cases, larger reservoirs can provide additional benefits such as flood-control, irrigation, aquaculture and recreation/tourism opportunities.

There are also serious engineering, social, environmental, fiscal and political challenges. Even under the best of circumstances, delays and cost overruns are to be expected when dealing with large infrastructure projects. This has been exemplified by high-profile projects in the US and Europe, including Boston’s ‘Big Dig’ tunnel, the San Francisco Bay Bridge Project and the English Channel Project. The report further states that in Nepal maximizing efficiency and meeting schedules is complicated by having to transport large equipment through other countries. Also, the political instability, security, remote project locations, poor roads and infrastructure, monsoon, unstable steep slopes and high sediment loads are major challenges. In addition, local communities in various project areas have learned that they can stop work on projects and thereby have their needs or desires met.

Hydropower development will require massive investments in Nepal. According to a presentation made by Ram Manohar Shrestha a minimum investment of USD 6,000 million is required to produce 5,000 Mega Watts of electricity. Production of such huge amounts of electricity will open up great trade opportunities with India. Even if India goes nuclear, it would not be sufficient to fulfill its increasing energy demand. Nepal could benefit from this by exporting electricity to India. This would require the formulation of long-term national strategies for export oriented Hydro Power development and the development of a genuine mutually beneficial partnership with India.

As the blame game continues amongst the politicians we are compelled to live our lives guided by the NEA’s power cut schedule. In the near future the government might promote Braille system throughout the country for it requires only fingers when vision is obscured by darkness. The European countries with low population growth rate may start power cuts of their own hoping for a baby boom year. Or we may find ourselves in a new Nepal where hydro electricity is not only a potential but a reality and load shedding a myth.

John C. Garcia is a Systems Ecologist and Principal of Garcia and Associates. Mr. Garcia has consulted on environmental aspects related to hydropower development in Nepal since the 1980s.

Ram Manohar Shrestha is a professor of energy economics in Asian Institution of Technology, Thailand.

Democracy is:

Democracy is a movie. Not just one but two movies by the same name.

I knew I would be under the hammer for not submitting my blog. It was the second of the two blogs that we had to submit a week earlier that had my mind hung like a virus infected PC. It was the perfectionist in me that just wouldn’t get satisfied with an ordinary article. The result-I was just able to write a paragraph. “I don’t want to hear excuses”, the master said and he was right.

Angles were what we discussed and it was not even a geometry class. These were story angles that were neither acute nor obtuse but captivating. I was amazed at the fact that even a mundane article idea could have such amazing facets to be explored. For instance I had never realized that an article about a tour could have a socio economic angle.

After a couple of hours of discussions on story angles the master made us watch two short movies. According to him these were two of the ten entries from Nepal to a short film making competition organized worldwide.

The first movie showed movement of vehicles on some of the busiest roads of Kathmandu. The cinematographer had also filmed crowded streets with piles of garbage. Music played in the background. It was jazz funk. Soon a rapper appeared who said that democracy is not about blaming for black outs, neither it is about blaming for garbage piles on street and killings. We should save it all. The movie ends with the statement that democracy is a movement. I found the content of the movie clichéd. It has been used many a times by popular rappers and newspaper columnists alike. The use of moving vehicles was overdone. The use of rap with jazz was innovative though. We watched the movie two times. In spite of that I could not make sense of the message the movie was trying to deliver.

The opening sequence of the second movie had pigeons. Then there was a lady with an accentuated voice handling dozens of eggs. These were said to be democracy eggs. Each of the eggs was labeled with a name of a country. One by one she picked up the eggs and cracked them up. First of all she cracked the egg labeled Nepal which showed rotten democracy. China didn’t crack. South and North Korea had paper chits. Both when combined read good democracy if both unite. Pakistan and Afghanistan rattled. Iraq gave a dead chic. At last America gave a live chick. At the end of the movie two hands fly a pigeon and then the movie ends. The content was simple but the presentation was effective and interesting. The use of a woman with accentuated voice didn’t make any sense. The first and last part of the movie showed pigeons while the middle showed eggs. This didn’t make any sense to me.

The fact that these movies were made within a short period of time with limited budget makes me appreciate them. I think the whole idea behind them was to make people think about the meaning that democracy holds in their life. In this context the movies were successful at least in my case. So what is democracy for you?

For me democracy is a word with an elusive meaning which I am yet to decipher.

A Dying Bridge

It has already been more than 5 months since the last vehicle crossed the crippled bridge. The bridge over the Bagmati River joining Old Baneshwor and Sinamangal was one among many dying bridges in Kathmandu when it finally cracked after nearly 52 years of service. According to locals it was the month of Bhadra when the bridge finally gave up under increased vehicular movements, lack of repair and sand digging. Any vehicular movement over the bridge has been banned since.

Life has taken alternative ways for people living in this area. Suraj Puri who is a student at a nearby college said, “It now takes longer time for me to go to my gym classes because I have to take the alternative route.” A diversion bridge has been constructed and vehicles need to take a detour. This has had an impact on the life of people living in this area. Daily transportation and business are most affected. Larger vehicles cannot pass through the diversion bridge that was constructed about one and half months after the main bridge was blocked off. Although a temporary solution, the diversion bridge has served its purpose. Tempos and microbuses can be seen going through the bridge.

The effects on local business are prominent. Savendra Shrestha, a local retailer laments, “Customers are no longer coming in numbers as they used to since the main bridge has been closed and I am also finding it difficult to bring in goods for my shop.” The Sinamangal area also has a hospital. The hospital’s ambulance used to take the route through the main bridge but now it has to take the longer route.

The soon to come monsoons is already giving nightmares to the local people. Rudra Prasad Lamichhane who owns a local stationary said, “It is going to be more difficult for us during the monsoons because the road going through the diversion bridge is not in a good condition and matters are going to be worse as the rain starts to pour.” This issue has to be addressed by the local authority as soon as possible other wise come monsoon it will be difficult for people to cross the diversion bridge.

Life in Sinamangal area has found ways to adjust to this new scenario where a dying bridge is- counting its last breaths and while still carrying the load of more than a few pedestrians. The government is just an onlooker.

Arpan sir’s class

I was late for my first ever class with Mr. Arpan Shrestha, our guest teacher on English language. It was the joy of writing that made me take his class. It was an early morning start, at least for me who wakes up at half past eight in the morning. As I entered the class room I could see Medha, calm and poised as always on the first bench. Swadesh and Niraj were attentive as ever on the second. I sat beside Medha without wasting much time as I was already a bit nervous for interrupting the new master. “You have to write two paragraphs on any topic”, said Medha. As I started to jot down my words, I never realized I had written a blog instead of an article. But soon I was to know from the new master who seemed assertive.

As we learned more about arranging information on an article, I thought why couldn’t the Origin members come up with the idea of organizing such classes on writing tips earlier. The new master was critical about some of the writings of my classmates. He was emphasizing more on objective writing rather than subjective. He said, “…you cannot write your own opinions when writing on a topic…” I couldn’t disagree. Some of my classmates left the class when the class was far from over. This seemed to annoy him. By that time I was confident that he means business. It was a welcome change for me who am jaded of teachers who do not seem to take their jobs seriously. We moved on with discussions on the mistakes that we had made while writing the couple of paragraphs at the start of the class. The discussions ended and I thought the class was over. Contrary to my thought, Mr. Shrestha made us write a paragraph each on what we had learnt on that day’s class. Reluctantly, I took out my pen and note book that I had already kept in my bag to do the task. We wrote it and got it reviewed by him. The class was over.