How to make our neighborhoods and cities less air polluted and livable?

There are four immediate causes of air pollution in the cities:

1.      Industrial emissions
2.     Vehicular emissions
3.     Dust
4.     Litter/garbage

Industrial emissions are the result of manufacturing industries such as cement and brick factories. At the moment, industrial emissions are important but not the major air pollutants in Nepal--thanks to the poor state of industrialization.

Vehicular emissions are the number one source of air pollution in Kathmandu and Nepal in general. Blame the old and poorly maintained vehicles coupled with poor and congested roads, bad traffic, and poor fuel quality. On top of this, lack of effective emission control creates a perfect environment for the diesel and petrol guzzlers to exhaust the fumes that’s no good to the people and the environment.

Dust is probably the second biggest air pollutant in Nepal. The unique mixture of vehicular emissions and dust is the reason why you, your clothes and your shoe look so different when you get home even after a brief walk in Kathmandu.

The unmanaged garbage or litter also contributes to air pollution, but it is not as big of a culprit compared to the other three mentioned above. More than the air, littering negatively affects drinking water sources.  

Because vehicular emissions and dust are the major causes of air pollution in Nepal, below I present few good practice examples from the U.S. that can be helpful in addressing the problem.

• Vehicle emission test: US started to test vehicle emissions in 1960s with growing air pollution in major cities. Established through the US Clean Air Act 1970 and several amendments thereafter, the law and the system have matured over time and they are strictly enforced now. It is required to be done in every two years, and a vehicle must pass various criteria established by the Act. The testing procedure, which uses a computerized system, is so efficient that it only takes about 10-15 minutes to complete the test.
• Cover up the ground dirt: Nearly every street, road, sidewalk, driveway, runway, parking lot are paved with concrete, asphalt or bricks. Open area in the parks, roadsides, backyard or front yard of a house are generally covered with grass (Picture- grass carpets being placed on the roadsides). 
  
  Similarly, the bases of the trees and the gardens are covered with something called mulch—made with wooden pallets. The mulch helps keep the moisture while covering the soil. Because the soil is covered nearly everywhere, especially in areas where human footprints are high, the soil dust cannot take off the ground.  And if there is a significant amount of mud or open soil in the residential area for whatever reasons, authorities take no time to clean up. 
• Anti-littering law and social norm: Littering in public place is illegal in all 50 states in the U.S. One could be fined and/or asked to serve anti-pollution community activities for illegal littering. Moreover, it is something that is socially unacceptable. These legal and social norms are well complemented by the towns and municipalities by abundantly placing the trashcans in every nooks and corners of the cities. The cleaning authorities regularly pick up trashes, and no, there are no strikes or bandh here!

While it may not be possible to adopt all these practices as-they-are in Nepal overnight, authorities there can learn a lot from these examples as they continue to work in making the cities livable.

Mission Cleanliness: Sharing Few Good Practices

Cleanliness is not only a public health matter; it’s a reflection of a civilized society.  How a community or a country becomes clean is a complex and usually a lengthy phenomenon. It requires a combined intervention of public health policies and change in social or cultural behaviors- both are often mutually inclusive.

Most of the developed countries were plagued with diseases, war and poverty before they were able to realize the importance of personal hygiene, sanitation and cleanliness. With such realization came changed individual behavior, social norms, and public policies, all of which contributed to build clean and healthy societies in those countries. This is not to say that all communities, cities and villages of the developed countries are clean, as it depends on various factors; but on average they are clean.

Developing countries these days don’t have to go through such undesirable events like diseases and war calamities to adopt clean practices. They have an easy access to a zillion of low cost or no cost good practice examples from around the world both in policy design and enforcement, and social behavior and normative change that can be easily adapted into local context. All it is needed is a collective passion for change and a vision, and political willingness. There are several good practices to follow even in complicated aspects like political willingness. Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi’s Clean India Campaign is just one recent example.

In this blog, I have captured few pictures of my current hometown in USA to exemplify a couple of good practices that I believe are helping to make my community look clean. The first picture shows few metal signboards stuck in the ground. These signboards are to advertise new houses that are on sale in the area, and they can be easily pulled off from the ground when they are not needed. They haven’t created visual pollution, and the materials used can be recycled.

The second picture shows a few workers hired by our Homeowner’s Association to help clean the community we live in. A Homeowners Association is a community body established to monitor and enforce the rules created by the association. It maintains the economic and social value of the community. As apparent in the pictures, the workers are using simple technology—the portable air blowers-- to clean the dead leaves off the ground alongside the street. These air-blowers clean dust, dead leaves and other light trashes off the ground without having the workers use labor-intensive tools such as brooms.

Practices and technologies like these can be easily adapted in developing countries. I said adapted, not replicated, because we know that most developing societies are constrained in basic fundamentals of development such as electricity, water etc. So instead of conventional energy, solar-energy-fueled air-blower can be developed. Instead of perfectly shaped and painted metal signboards, hand-painted signboards can be used in an organized fashion. The point is that simple ideas like these can greatly help reduce and manage unnecessary trash, and help maintain the aesthetic view of the communities. By aesthetic, I didn’t mean to treat this topic as something that’s not as critical for wellbeing. To me, it is a development vision that I see on things, which in this case is my neighborhood. I truly believe that everyone deserves to live in a reality of such a vision.

Are we prepared against Ebola?

Nearly 932 people have already died in West Africa since the Ebola outbreak about six months ago. As of now, four countries in particular- Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Nigeria- have been hit hard by the virus, and a some citizens of USA, Saudi Arabia, and Spain are also inflicted (International Business Times). There is no reason to believe that the virus won’t travel to South Asia and Nepal eventually.

According to WHO, Ebola transmits through close contact with the blood or other bodily fluids. It is believed to have inflicted human via infected animals (monkeys, chimpanzees etc.). Ebola has the case fatality rate of 90%. Initial symptoms of the disease are fever, weakness, headache followed by diarrhea, vomiting, etc. eventually leading to liver and kidney failure. Someone infected with Ebola virus may take 2-21 days to show up the symptoms (WHO).

Times of India recently reported that there are nearly 45,000 Indians living in Ebola affected countries (Times of India). If the virus outbreak persists and increases further, many of them may return back to India. Already a certain number of Indians working in Liberia are planning to return back to India. As such Indian government has planned various precautionary measures such as airport screening, self-disclosure upon arrival, airport health facilities in the key airports where people from Africa likely come in.

Small number of Nepalese are currently living in the Ebola affected countries in West Africa mainly for the UN peace-keeping work. So far there is no record of any Nepali citizen being affected by the virus (The Himalayan Times). As much as this is a good news, it is equally important for the government to be prepared in case if the unexpected happens. Beside, given a large number of Indian populations living in West Africa, and their frequent travel between India and African countries, the possibility of Ebola coming to India and subsequently to Nepal cannot be avoided altogether.

It is a high time that the Ministry of Health (MoH) alerts all of its health systems to pay especial attention to any potential Ebola outbreak. Arrangements also need to be made at the airport and other immigration points to monitor health of the foreigners and Nepalese entering to Nepal, particularly those coming from Africa. But most of all, MoH should proactively initiate discussions on Ebola prevention and control with other relevant line ministries and departments as appropriate, and swiftly develop an appropriate strategy and implement it in order to systematically deal with the potential outbreak of the virus in Nepal.

Leverage the Modi Momentum: Few Immediate Steps

Modi’s recent trip to Nepal has been hailed by both Nepali and Indian communities as a new hope for Nepal India relations and Nepal’s development. The renewed mutual interest and appreciation between the two countries is exactly what was needed for Nepal at this time to minimize the angst among certain Nepalese populations against the historical legacy of Indian foreign policy toward Nepal. Time will tell whether or not the renewed aspirations and hopes will translate into actions. What is noteworthy right now is the hope an Indian leader has been able create among the Nepalese people that no other leader was able to in the recent history.

 

Modi’s visit has positively fueled the underlying relationship between Nepal and India. Gallup poll 2011 found that nearly 80% Nepalese had positive opinions about India (http://www.gallup.com/poll/150143/Nepalese-Pakistan-South-Asia-Greatest-Security-Threat.aspx), despite all the suspicions and even negative discourse about India that goes into every day conversation especially among the independent scholars, thinkers, intellectuals, and certain left wingers. The under-current warmth Nepalese at large have toward India is because of the social and cultural lines that often cut across between the two countries. This relationship is Nepal’s strength as well as weakness, which Modi rightly recognized and quickly turned it into affection through political, religious and personal sentiments. He did not only emphasize the social cultural aspects, but also backed his interest of prosper Nepal by offering $1 billion new credit line assistance for HIT (Highway, information technology, and transmission) projects.
 

Nepalese political leaders should use and leverage the steps set forth by Modi. They should also truly believe that, like Modi, a leader can indeed change peoples’ perception, turn a wrong into a right, and recharge the populations with thoughtful engagements. But they should also understand that all of this of course cannot happen without a careful thinking, proper homework, and planning. So going fward the leaders should be prepared themselves with rigorous homework and targeted efforts to negotiate with the rest of the Modi’s administration on various development agenda including highway development, information technology, and electricity transmission.
 

Above all, Nepalese prime minister should not undermine his (his position’s) ability to make a change in the way people think and feel about their leaders and political systems. Feelings and perceptions are important, as they often determine peoples’ actions. So perhaps one of the important steps Nepalese prime minister can take right now is to come to the national television and give a quick roundup of Modi’s visit, outcomes of the visit, his impressions, and the hopes he has for Nepal. This will only help Nepalese people to believe that their feelings are not in hollow and are equally shared by their government, and the chief of the government is committed to use the momentum for the greater good of country men and women.
 

Similarly, Nepalese policy makers and politicians should properly plan and prioritize the projects that they would like to seek financial and technical assistance from India. This is a high time that they do this right, and test Modi’s largesse. Remember this: Modi has all the good reasons to do good in neighboring countries especially in nepal, so as to balance the great political and economic influence China is pushing from the north, secure India's borders from rather hostile neighbors, benefit from Nepal's water and electricity potentials, and of course the Pashupatinath! Nepalese leadership should recognize this, and leverage the newly energized relationship for country’s greater socio-economic development.

District Specific Governance Indicators- Good Initiative

Today's MYREPUBLICA has published a brief news about the district-wise governance ranking in Nepal. According to the news, the ranking was carried out based on three main criteria-- utilization of budget, transparency, and good governance. Bhaktapur District Development Committee (DDC), which was in the fifth position last year (2012), has topped the list of 74 districts this year, resulting to 30% raise in development budget to be coming to DDC this year (2013).

This is an incredible news to the Bhaktapur DDC and local people. Equally impressive to me is the continuation of the process of governance assessment and ranking of the districts. This could indeed be an important tool to increase governance-competition among the districts, exchange knowledge and good practices between the districts, reduce corruption, empower people, and ultimately help develop the districts. For this to happen, the rating methodology needs to be clear and unbiased; and the outcome (the report) needs to be widely marketed/disseminated so it receives better visibility by both the public and government agencies.

While I am yet to read the "Performance Report" before making any remarks on the methodology and results, the MYREPUBLICA news (see below) however is not very helpful to visualize the methods and processes employed preparing the report. For example, the news does not give us any information about who conducted the study and what are the specific indicators of criteria such as utilization of budget, transparency and good governance. Perhaps, a better marketing/dissemination of the report, as discussed above, could address issues like these.

Anyhow, a big congratulations to Bhaktapur DDC and all the Bhaktapureans! Moving forward, it would be very helpful if the DDC could write some good practice notes/stories on its governance experiences and disclose them in publicly available avenues (e.g. website) so that other districts could learn from Bhaktapur. 

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Bhaktapur leads others in good governance UPENDRA LAMICHHANE BHAKTAPUR, July 18:

Bhaktapur has come ahead of other 74 districts in terms of utilization of budget, transparency and good governance. Bhaktapur District Development Committee scored 83 in performance assessment report released on Monday. Interestingly, Dhankuta and Sindhupalchowk took second and third positions with 82 and 79 points respectively. Local Development Officer of Bhaktapur Rajendra Kumar KC attributed the achievement to the entire DDC team for maintaining financial discipline and prioritizing development activities. This achievement has won Bhaktapur an additional 30 percent development budget. “We performed our duty honestly. We did our best to implement the welfare scheme meant for the poor. Transparency and proper utilization of budget helped us leave other districts behind in performance assessment,” KC said. Last year, Bhaktapur had secured fifth position in the assessment. The work evaluation of the local bodies was prepared on the basis of financial management, financial resource mobilization, communication and transparency, monitoring and evaluation, among others. “We carried out all development works in coordination with consumers committees. This turned out to be effective,” said KC. “We are happy that we could use the budget allocated to women and children quite effectively,” he said. Meanwhile, Laxmidevi Humagain, monitoring and administrative officer of DDC, stated that the success has added greater responsibility on their shoulders. “The news has made us proud. But this has added more responsibility on our shoulders,” she said. “We need to be very careful to maintain our success,” Humagain added.

Community Consultation -- An Important Tool for Local Democratic Governance

In today's editorial, the Kathmandu Post raised an important issue of polity-led corruption at the local level (i.e. district, village, and municipality level); and various proposals coming in to address this problem. Corruption has always been a big bottleneck in Nepal's development struggle which has only increased after the devolution of local elected bodies in 2002 by the Sher Bahadur Deuba Government. Local level election has not been able to take place since the last 13 years thus seriously undermining local democratic governance. This rightly appears to be the major concern of Nepalese people on Himalmedia's nationwide public opinion survey in May 2011 (http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2011/05/13/ByTheWay/18193).

As indicated in the Post's editorial (see below), local level elections are not possible anytime soon as the country hasn't drafted constitution yet. Therefore some kinds of alternative provisions must be established by replacing or re-structuring the all party mechanism (instituted in 2006)- a widely corrupted mechanism- which is responsible for budget disbursement decisions at the local level. The proposal put forward by local development minister Urmila Aryal- seven member council represented by all party representatives according to the share of votes they received in 2008 constitutional assembly election- is a good initiative. Such organizational structure may help the Councils to be a bit more responsible for public as the dominant party representatives will be at peoples' target if things go wrong. But as noted in the Post's editorial, there is not much room to be fully optimistic if the Councils will function accountably and corruption-free (see explanations in editorial piece below).

While a more rigorous debate should continue on this before finalizing a certain mechanism, I think one component will be crucial for the proposal Councils' effective functioning. That is public consultation and feedback system. This component seems to be missing in current proposals and in the debates of local institution. What I meant by public consultation and feedback system is: at every local council level there must be regular consultation meetings-- like a townhall meeting-- inviting all community members to share and update Council's plans and activities, and receive peoples' feedback. Such townhall meetings could be done once in a three month (or as appropriate) by informing all local stakeholders (public, NGOs, businesses etc)in advance. Especial efforts should be given to ensure that local stakeholders, including women, minorities, and vulnerable populations are aware about the meetings, its processes, and importance of their participation in such meetings.

Peoples' consultation and feedback system becomes critical for transparent functioning of public institutions, particularly the ones like local council as proposed by Minister Aryal. The Councils will be forced to remain accountable to their local constituencies when they have to face local communities, answer their questions, and consult and incorporate their feedback from a collective venue on a regular basis. This process will help local communities to take charge of the matters that are of their interest by not completely relying on the Council. This will build a basis for a strong democratic governance at the local level. This foundation will also provide a much needed local level organizational structure for an accountable democratic governance when Nepal is able to have local election in next few years.

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JUN 26, 2011 (Kathmandu Post Editorial)
It has by now become abundantly clear that there are major dysfunctions in the operation of local bodies—DDCs, VDCs and municipalities. In particular, the all-party mechanisms constituted after 2006, where in the absence of elected local bodies, committees consisting of members of all political parties in the area are responsible for taking decisions on the disbursement of funding, have been shown to be greatly prone to major corruption. Funds distributed from the centre are often treated by the political parties at the local levels as resources to be distributed among themselves and to party supporters. As parties command substantial power, there is not much that the local officials from the Ministry of Local Development can do about this state of affairs.

All this, of course, has been recognised for a few years now. It is also recognised that local elections will, by putting in place elected representatives accountable to their populations, contribute towards improving this state of affairs. But it is also recognised that it will be years before elections are held and that other remedies are required in the interregnum. The Ministry of Local Development had floated some proposals last year that appear to have been entirely disregarded by the government. Now the Local Development Minister Urmila Aryal has come up with a new proposal, the gist of which appears to be that the all-party mechanisms should be replaced with a seven-member representative council on which each party will receive representation according to their share of the vote in the 2008 CA elections. The objective appears to be granting parties with a larger mandate, a larger role in local governance. The reasoning goes like this: Tasked with a larger mandate, the parties will assume greater responsibility, development funds will be better spent and corruption will decline.

While the intentions behind Minister Aryal’s proposals are welcome, let us not be too optimistic that, even if implemented, they will lead to a major change in the existing state of affairs. Corruption in local bodies has become too endemic for such a limited change to control. Measures that hold political party representatives accountable for the money they disburse and provisions for investigation and prosecution is what is required. There is currently no legal provision that can hold local party representatives to account; it is government bureaucrats at the local level who bear legal responsibility for any corruption that takes place. Further, corruption will continue to flourish as long as local party leaders possess the patronage and support of their leaders in Kathmandu. It is an open secret that the corruption in local bodies often occurs in collusion with top political party leaders in Kathmandu. Besides firm measures and strong institutions that are able to hold local party leaders to account, then, what is required is an overhaul in the attitudes of top-level leaders towards public funds. Local governance will continue to be dismal unless this happens (http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2011/06/26/editorial/back-to-basics/223325.html).

Reducing Inequality: Underlying Challenge of Federalism in Nepal

The spirit of federalism among general public in Nepal was fostered with a strong sentiment of self-governance of their locality and setting themselves free from the top-down central authority. In other words, federalism was a response of grass-roots against social, cultural, economic, and political hegemony of the center and sub-centers. Such hegemony relationship is considered to be the main reason of increasing socio-economic inequality among populations living in the center/s (e.g. Kathmandu), sub-centers (district headquarters) and peripheries—areas that are generally isolated from the center and sub-centers.

Many people have proposed different explanations about the rationale of federalism. Some argue that if the country had been able to maintain a reasonable level of equity in basic wellbeing among its populations across regions/sub-regions, the issue of federalism would not have existed now. It is, in this context, important for us to reflect on the underpinnings of the socio-political phenomenon that conceived federalism in Nepal.

Despite the passage of an ambitious local governance act in 1990s, relationship between centers, sub-centers and peripheries remained strongly hierarchical in terms of institutional structure, information exchange and program/service delivery. The flow of information, decisions and resources remained largely controlled by the central or sub-central authorities. But perhaps even more important, the organization and management of public institutions at the local level continued to maintain the culture of the rule-of-privilege. Majority of minorities—women, indigenous, and the Dalits—continued to be excluded from the management and decision making processes at the local level. Such exclusion ultimately cost high for the society as these groups continued to loose interest in those institutions such as legal systems, administrative systems, health/education etc.

The lack of adequate inclusion of these populations in institutional stake helped maintain the gap between people and the institutions. In other words, public institutions could not adequately buy-in local people for their product and services. Consequently, poverty and vulnerability continued to transmit through generations especially among minority populations of peripheral areas. Maoists took the opportunity to play the chord of the state of vulnerability, which later turned out to be the fundamental agenda (federalism) of the democratic movement organized by the Maoists and seven-party alliance in 2006.

The moral ground of federalism in Nepal, as explained, lies in the persisting social inequalities across sub-regions and populations. Such inequalities are the result of the way Nepalese institutions function and their inability to have their stakeholders’ buy-in. A successful federal structure therefore should be able to end this gap, primarily by empowering locales in periphery and including them in institutional governance.

Various models (ethnicity-based, ethno-language based, geography-based, natural resources-based) proposed by different political parties and intellectuals therefore warrant a rigorous analysis and debate whether they can actually address the crux of the problem. Given that only six months remain to complete the constitution and that too amidst a tremendous political instability on the ground, it will be difficult to conduct such rigorous analysis one these models and find the “right one”. If so, Nepal may continue to risk instability, inequality and underdevelopment.