By sacking the person that many Nepalis credit for ending<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/power-cuts-are-back-in-nepal"> prolonged daily power cuts</a>, the coalition led by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-government-changes-again">Prime Minister KP Oli </a>has added fuel to the fire as anti-government forces plan protests in the coming weeks. A Cabinet meeting on Monday decided to replace the Executive Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/transformer-man"> Kulman Ghising</a> with Hitendra Dev Shakya. There is a sense of deja vu since both men led <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=9409">the NEA</a> in previous stints. &nbsp;Ghising had been NEA chief in 2016 and again in 2021, when he had replaced Shakya. Ghising is backed by Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist Centre, which is now in the opposition, and Shakya is regarded as being close to Oli’s UML. Relations between Ghising and Energy Minister Dipak Khadka have been strained for the past year after the NEA cut off <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-electricity-demand-soars">electricity supply</a> to industries for failing to pay dues dating back to 2016. At the time, factories were provided uninterrupted power from dedicated lines, while the rest of the country suffered power cuts sometimes lasting 18 hours a day.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250326070312_593aa13f73deedb75404e18be27a97c718c3486d67ba3bdcc6a9c7aa0405a4d7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250326070312_593aa13f73deedb75404e18be27a97c718c3486d67ba3bdcc6a9c7aa0405a4d7" data-rendition-name="original" width="1204" height="390" loading="lazy" alt="NEA"> </figure>  Industrialists cried foul and appealed to Minister Khadka and Prime Minister Oli, contesting the NEA’s overdue bill. Khadka, who is from the Nepali Congress (NC), is himself a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/missing-pieces-of-the-hydropower-jigsaw">hydropower </a>entrepreneur and his appointment as energy Minister was seen as conflict of interest. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/kulman-ghising-to-stay-on?fb_comment_id=3199622240152768_3199919450123047">Ghising is largely credited </a>for having ‘ended loadshedding’ because he redirected electricity from industry to households -- even though imports from India and increase in installed capacity worked in his favour. Following Ghising’s dismissal, there were protests at Kathmandu’s Mandala intersection on Tuesday with demonstrators holding placards that read: ‘Kulman Ghising: Architect of a Bright Nepal’. Even members of the coalition government opposed Ghising’s sacking. Information Minister and government spokesperson Prithvi Subba Gurung on Monday said pointedly that he had no knowledge of Ghising’s removal. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kulman-ghising-s-tenure-at-nea-in-doubt">Kulman Ghising’s tenure at NEA in doubt</a>, Ramesh Kumar Energy Minister Khadka has sought clarification several times from Ghising, accusing him of ‘insubordination’, and his main gripe was that the NEA chief worked ‘arbitrarily’ on back-pay tariffs from industrialists and making <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-india-power-play">energy agreements with India</a> on his own.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250325100352_3b03eec43ea6d58b854939cb3bccdec627c381d03abc58f3aba333b2c577add2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250325100352_3b03eec43ea6d58b854939cb3bccdec627c381d03abc58f3aba333b2c577add2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1347" height="923" loading="lazy" alt="Sacking of NEA chief exposes cronyism"> </figure>  He did not like Ghising going off to India to talk about <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/blueprint-for-nepal-india-electricity-trade">power trade</a>, and questioned his authority to make deals bypassing the ministry. The minister even gave Ghising a performance ‘report card’ in which he was given zero out of 100. Speaking in Parliament on Sunday, Khadka warned that Nepalis would <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/power-cuts-nepal-here-to-stay,1701">once more have to suffer load shedding </a>because of Ghising. “We are in a situation where households may soon face power cuts. So Kulman isn’t really the hero bringer of light,” said Khadka, in remarks that were lampooned on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-social-media-contagion">social media </a>and newspaper cartoons.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250325100356_8b8eceb3a1d39f694ba38aba750ada91e648ca0a8451b2071169951d1833f732.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20250325100356_8b8eceb3a1d39f694ba38aba750ada91e648ca0a8451b2071169951d1833f732" data-rendition-name="original" width="600" height="514" loading="lazy" alt="Cartoon in Kantipur by Abin Shrestha"> <figcaption>Cartoon in Kantipur by Abin Shrestha.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250325100356_dc19b92815359a91c6daa23d28f89a017af9aca6d97491a276e7d5d19d6fd9b0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250325100356_dc19b92815359a91c6daa23d28f89a017af9aca6d97491a276e7d5d19d6fd9b0" data-rendition-name="original" width="514" height="600" loading="lazy" alt="Front page of Naya Patrika "> <figcaption>Front page of Naya Patrika newspaper on Monday morning with coverage sympathetic to Kulman Ghising.</figcaption> </figure>  <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-suffers-another-winter-drought">A prolonged winter drought </a>and below-normal precipitation in March means <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/geopolitics-of-nepal-s-rivers">Nepal’s rivers </a>are running low, reducing the installed capacity of the mainly run-of-river <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-1st-hydroelectric-plant-is-a-museum-piece">hydropower plants</a> by one-third. In addition some of the bigger plants like the 456MW Tama Kosi were damaged in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/when-it-rains-it-pours-ksqprbu3">last September’s floods</a>. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/spring-returns-to-nepal-s-mountaineering">spring season</a> shortfall coincided with India announcing it could not export electricity to Nepal during peak hours because of its own domestic demand. Ghising and Khadka appeared to be negotiating separately with India on increasing<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balance-of-power"> power export to Nepal</a>, and often seemed to work at cross purposes. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/more-than-half-of-nepal-s-electricity-imported-from-india">More than half of Nepal’s electricity imported from India</a> The NEA under Ghising had been making up for the power deficit by cutting electricity to industries to maintain household supply. This month, industrial corridors in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-tarai-s-shrinking-forests">the Tarai </a>have been suffering power cuts from 6pm to 6am, forcing them to use diesel generators. These cuts have added to the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/pokhara-s-tourism-woes">woes of powerful businesses</a> which NEA had been pursuing to pay their back dues. Industrialists had been putting pressure on the government to rein in Ghising. Two industries did play part of the sums they owed to NEA last week, just before Ghising got the sack. &nbsp; Ghising had wide support in<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepalis-not-so-unhappy"> Nepal’s public sphere</a>, with some speculating that he may have political ambitions. Which could be another reason that the UML and NC are wary of him, since he could be a Maoist candidate in the next elections. Ghising has said he will contest his dismissal in court.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250325100356_1ab203b400602f8780bbffd35970df35f927d2c66fc3c68be67f443f7dcd327b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_26" data-image-id="20250325100356_1ab203b400602f8780bbffd35970df35f927d2c66fc3c68be67f443f7dcd327b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1069" loading="lazy" alt="Sacking of NEA chief exposes cronyism"> </figure>  It was during Ghising’s 2016 stint that he solved, seemingly overnight, debilitating power cuts. No doubt, he had some luck in timing, but being an electrical engineer himself also invested in upgrading transmission and distribution. “Some things were in place when Kulman Ghising came in, but what he did first was to free up 400MW from the dedicated line to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=9511">industrialists,</a>” recalls energy expert Kumar Pandey. Ghising also benefited from the completion of the 140km transmission line from Dhalkebar to Muzaffarpur in India, which meant Indian exports could make up for the shortfall, allowing NEA to end power cuts to households. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-they-kept-nepal-in-the-dark-ages">How they kept Nepal in the dark ages</a> “He also arranged power cables to reroute energy distribution within the country, which was huge,” says Pandey. All of these actions freed up to 700MW in the evening, which Ghising was able to redistribute to the public. Ghising is also credited with effective negotiations with India to increase the export of 1000MW of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-precious-electricity-going-waste">Nepal’s surplus electricity</a> in the monsoon – despite India refusing to buy power from plants with Chinese investment or contractors. Electricity exports allowed NEA to go from being a loss-making entity to earning a profit of Rs11.36 billion over Rs53.18 billion in sales. “Bad infrastructure was causing localised power cuts. A transformer in Kohalpur would burn up and wouldn’t be fixed for a month, and we had no spares,” Ghising told a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy-yWmi4wCc">YouTube interview</a> two days before his removal. “<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11138">Loadshedding </a>was also causing more loadshedding because consumption would soar when electricity was restored.” Ultimately, his dismissal reeks of politics, the business interest cronies and clashing egos. The only silver lining seems to be that Ghising’s replacement Hitendra Dev Shakya is also a grid development and power sector expert, and knows the sector well.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250325100356_836599bd3bcdb4d3d8f91d3f74dabe3c2976eb359690920377b7385904946ca7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_32" data-image-id="20250325100356_836599bd3bcdb4d3d8f91d3f74dabe3c2976eb359690920377b7385904946ca7" data-rendition-name="original" width="1419" height="946" loading="lazy" alt="Sacking of NEA chief exposes cronyism"> </figure>  Asking Ghising to ‘explain why he shouldn’t be removed from his position for insubordination’ essentially proved that this was a power play, and the NEA chief had to be removed because he was a ‘Maoist man’. However, the removal of a popular technocrat from the NEA could further anger Nepalis who are already disillusioned with established political parties and their cronyism. &nbsp;One barometer of public frustration is the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-ghost-of-monarchy-returns-to-haunt-nepal">growing support on the streets even for pro-monarchist forces</a> led by the RPP and RPP-N who are planning further nationwide rallies next month.

Vishad Raj Onta

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Sacking of NEA chief exposes cronyism

A cabinet meeting last week appointed former journalist Sharad Ojha as the chair of the Nepal Insurance Authority, the regulator of the sector. Ojha has no qualifications for the post as required by Nepal’s Insurance Act.&nbsp;
His family ties to Nepali Congress president <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/deuba-5-qh371fm4">Sher Bahadur Deuba</a> has been cited as the reason he got to bypass appointment criteria.
This is just the latest example. Bending the law to appoint <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-crony-communism-exposed">cronies</a> and special interest groups to leadership positions in regulatory bodies has <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/crony-communism">become the norm in Nepal</a>.
Ojha’s predecessor was former Home Secretary Surya Prasad Silwal, who was suspended two months before the end of his term in December after the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ciaa-traps-small-fish-lets-big-ones-go">Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA)</a> filed a corruption case against him in the Special Court. Days after Ojha’s appointment, the court cleared Silwal of corruption charges.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/search?q=corruption+case">Nepal’s corruption carousel</a>
Before Silwal, the Nepal Insurance Authority was led by Chiranjivi Chapagain, a relative of Chandra Dhakal of the IME Group. Chapagain is accused of granting approval to 10 insurance companies under dubious circumstances and favouring <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/ime-insurance">IME Life Insurance’</a>s approval.
Meanwhile, intense lobbying by interest groups with ties to both <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-government-changes-again">Prime Minister Oli</a> and PM-in-waiting Deuba allowed Santosh Narayan Shrestha’s appointment as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Board of Nepal (SEBON) in December. Shrestha promptly paid his dues to the groups that put him in office by making preparations to grant them permission to operate stock exchange.
Shrestha was preceded by hotelier Ramesh Kumar Hamal, the recommendation procedure and committee for whom were changed to ensure his appointment.
During his tenure, Hamal hastily amended a law that allowed specific companies to sell premium stocks amid ongoing debates, &nbsp;and another one allowing the operation of stock exchanges with private sector investment instead of public companies. None of this raised eyebrows.
Hamal’s predecessor Bhishma Raj Dhungana, a former Nepal Rastra Bank official, was dismissed as SEBON chair following allegations of irregularities.&nbsp;
Most of these recent individuals were appointed heads of regulatory bodies under PM Oli and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel and probably at their behest.
The appointments at the Nepal Insurance Authority and SEBON reflect a blatant disregard for the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/federalism-rule-of-law-and-the-judiciary">rule of law</a>. Such practice is also rampant in the cooperatives and real estate sectors, where <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-risks-being-blacklisted-on-money-laundering">illegal financial dealings</a> and bad faith business is modus operandi.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Deepak Khadka, also a hydropower entrepreneur, is set on ousting <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/more-than-half-of-nepal-s-electricity-imported-from-india">Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)</a> managing director <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/kulman-ghising-to-stay-on">Kulman Ghising</a>. He previously ordered the removal of Dudhkoshi Hydropower Project CEO Bimal Gurung for criticising him on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/no-comment">social media</a>.&nbsp;
The minister has a major conflict of interest because of his involvement in private energy sector, and is pressuring parliamentary committees and regulatory bodies to amend the law to allow the sale of 50% of the shares of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/missing-pieces-of-the-hydropower-jigsaw">hydropower projects </a>during the so-called 'lock-in period', which prevents the sale of promoter shares.
Now, lobbyists have set their sights on the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). Maha Prasad Adhikari’s tenure ends in April, and the same groups behind the appointment of the chiefs of regulatory bodies like SEBON and Nepal Insurance Authority are going door to door of governing coalition leaders to have their candidate appointed.&nbsp;
The book Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson—co-winners of last year’s Nobel Prize for Economics with economist Simon Johnson—describes how public institutions are misused, weakened, and pushed toward failure by those with access to power.
Regulatory bodies are crucial to maintaining fair competition and ethical market practices. They exist to serve Nepal’s public. However, they are being deliberately undermined by special interest groups paying off authorities for plum positions that will enrich them and their political patrons. &nbsp;
The government ordered the Department of Money Laundering to ‘wait’ as the body sought permission to take action against Ajeya Sumargi for illicit dealing.
It was thus unsurprising that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Nepal on its grey list in February for failing to take effective and result-oriented action to prevent money laundering.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/black-white-and-grey">Black, white and grey</a>, Ramesh Kumar
The international community has raised a red flag against malgovernance, political interference, conflicts of interest, and impunity. The world is watching, but Nepal’s politico-corporate interests are too deep in greed to care.
Ramesh Kumar

Public-Private Collusion

‘Do you want people to have access to telephony or do you want to fight corruption? If you want to fight corruption, these people will be completely cut off from information highway for the rest of their lives, okay, full stop. Make up your mind.’ British businessman and self-proclaimed ‘thought leader’ Mohamed Amersi sits across from The Guardian journalist Tom Burgis at his lawyer’s offices in London as he makes this matter-of-fact statement.&nbsp; Amersi was referring to the dealings of Nepali businessman and fixer<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=776#google_vignette"> Ajeya Sumargi</a>, one of the many subjects of his 2024 book Cuckooland: Where the Rich Own the Truth. This is Burgis’ third book, and he weaves a fast-paced tale with investigative reporting to chart the deal-making career of Amersi in the global telecommunication industry. The investigation traces Amersi’s backroom deals with associates of Russian president Vladimir Putin to Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of an Uzbek dictator. Inevitably, Burgis follows the trail to Nepal where a former Maoist commander turned prime minister wants to strike a deal with Lars Nyberg of the Swedish-Finnish firm TeliaSonera to break into the emerging market. Burgis' account of Amersi’s dealings in Nepal begins with the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy"> royal massacre</a> in 2001 and Gyanendra’s ascension to power. The new king stages a coup in 2005 and reimposes absolute monarchy, and on this new stage enters Ajeya Sumargi.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-richest-man-in-the-pandora-papers">Nepal’s richest man in the Pandora Papers&nbsp;</a> Sumargi starts out a smalltime businessman in Hetauda but soon climbs into the circle of movers and shakers in Kathmandu. He is self-made and has made a vocation out of knowing the right people in right places.&nbsp; And the right person to know in Nepal’s new political landscape was Gyanendra’s son-in-law, for whom Sumargi becomes a fixer, ensuring he becomes indispensable. Eventually this leads into his foray into telecoms just as mobile telephony was making inroads in Nepal. But Nepalis are sick of the conflict that had claimed 17,000 lives and of an authoritarian king. A people’s movement in April 2006 <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/lost-decade-of-post-conflict-transition,2139">forced Gyanendra out</a>, and the Maoists were subsequently elected to a Constituent Assembly.&nbsp; By then Sumargi had switched sides and sidled up to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (aka Prachanda, the Fierce One) Both are pictured, above. He is soon cleaning up illicit funds the Maoists allegedly purloined from stipends meant for former guerrillas in UN-supervised demobilisation camps.&nbsp; Sumargi arranges luxury lodgings in Lazimpat for Dahal in a house purchased in the name of his sister-in-law. Sumargi’s proximity to power earns him a license for Hello Nepal.&nbsp; Enter: TeliaSonera, which at the time also owns and operates Kcell in Kazakhstan and Ucell in Uzbekistan, and Ncell which it acquired in 2008 in Nepal. At a meeting with TeliaSonera boss Lars Nyberg, Prime Minister Dahal suggests purchasing Hello Nepal to make the pesky issue of license renewal go away. Sumargi opens the doors. Telia Sonera opens its wallet. And Sumargi, says the book, coolly pockets $74 million from TeliaSonera’s acquisition of Hello Nepal. He greases the right palms, makes TeliaSonera’s problems go away, and prepares to become an additional $200 million richer.&nbsp; TeliaSonera’s operations in Uzbekistan unravelled after Swedish investigators found it had negotiated with the Uzbek president’s daughter Karimova to obtain licenses and frequencies in return for millions in bribes. Nyberg resigned, and the new management debated whether to pull out of Nepal too.&nbsp; Amersi is unhappy, Sumargi is livid and threatens to sue. Burgis writes that in the end ‘friendship prevails’-- Sumargi is compensated and TeliaSonera’s new directors bury the findings of the investigation into their Nepal operation. After the scandal, TeliaSonera rebranded itself as Telia and divested from Ncell, selling its majority stake to Malaysian conglomerate Axiata for $1.36 billion in 2016.&nbsp; Was Sumargi able to channel the ill-gotten wealth of Maoist leaders through his dealings with Amersi and Co, and if so, how much? Burgis is not able to tell: ‘Whether any of the riches Mohamed Amersi helped to guide towards Sumargi were shared with the Fierce One and the other Maoist leaders, I cannot definitively say.’ In any case, Sumargi offloaded the millions he made from the TeliaSonera deal to his offshore accounts, adding to his considerable wealth, as documented in a 2019 investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Centre for Investigative Journalists Nepal (CIJ-N). Amersi, meanwhile, went on to speak at a University of Oxford event about tackling <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-s-corruption-carousel">corruption</a>. The irony is not lost. He is now among the major donors to the British Conservative Party, and rubs shoulders with the likes of Boris Johnson and King Charles. Much of the book is based on the author’s conversation with Amersi in 2023 at his lawyer’s offices, where he was invited by Amersi himself in order to ‘set the record straight’ after an ex-Conservative Party MP questioned his iffy financial dealings. In words that would prove to be more relevant than ever, Burgis writes . ‘Everywhere, the powerful are making a renewed claim to the greatest prize of all: to own the truth. The power to choose what you want reality to be and impose that reality on the world.’&nbsp; The footnotes in Cuckooland contain Burgis’ often derisive, wry commentary on Amersi’s indignant, expletive-laden interjections during his interviews. The footnotes are as interesting as the book’s revelations about Nepal’s crony communism. &nbsp; ‘Your agenda is biased against me, and so you are looking for skeletons,’ Amersi insists to Burgis during one of his tirades. ‘Write your book and you’ll see what happens to it,’ he says during another. The underworld that Burgis has shined his light on is bleak. The lines between <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/Kleptocracy-kills,3161">kleptocracy</a> and democracy are blurred, corruption runs rampant, and accountability and truth are lost to the wheeling-dealings that enrich oligarchs.&nbsp; Given the apathy and silence that has greeted the explosive revelations in Cuckooland, perhaps Nepalis would rather have access to telephony than fight corruption. &nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241220121232_6b15740b65e4feddfc0afc9972cbfcee1852b8442338be2d2d697dc2357c7727.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20241220121232_6b15740b65e4feddfc0afc9972cbfcee1852b8442338be2d2d697dc2357c7727" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Cuckooland"> </figure>  &nbsp;

Shristi Karki

Nepal’s crony-Communism exposed

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141124/636cfc189c7e80680e0a0b6ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="620" height="364"/><figcaption>Illustration: NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVE</figcaption></figure>The cause of prolonged political paralysis in Nepal is cronyism, and the only way to uproot it is by tackling its source: vote-buying and campaigns funded by big business.The criminalisation of politics and the politicisation of crime means that it is becoming more and more difficult to separate business and politics. None of the parties are free of this cronyism which fuels corruption, and the business of politics.Those being investigated or convicted by the courts and criminals on the wanted list walk freely in and out of the prime minister’s residence. Lawbreakers become lawmakers. Gangsters become ministers.Post-1990, there have been many ways to get into politics: student union leaders and dropouts become whole-timers, retired bureaucrats try their second innings by joining parties, and the really smart ones take the short-cut to become legislators and ministers without even standing for elections. They buy their way to the top.Idealism has become a fairy tale. Politics without principle is possible, but politics without money is unimaginable. Political integrity has become an oxymoron. No matter how popular or honest politicians may be, they cannot win elections without financial backing. And the cash comes from businesses seeking a healthy return on investment.There are two ways to seek ROI from politics. Firstly, by offering a straightforward donation (a bribe in polite parlance) to a politician standing for elections and demanding a pound of flesh later. The second is to offer an even heftier ‘campaign contribution’ to directly become a nominated MP from that party without ever contesting an election.The constitutional provision to ensure proportional representation for marginalised communities has become the backdoor for tycoons to enter the House chambers.Education entrepreneur Umesh Shrestha became an MP through proportional representation, and he is now state minister for health.This was one of Sher Bahadur Deuba’s first ministerial appointments after assuming office two weeks ago, and one he took without consulting his party or coalition members, and it has understandably been met with much flak.Shrestha is a self-made but wealthy man, and has announced he will not take a salary as minister. Unlike politicians, he may be less tempted by petty payoffs. However, appointing someone who is setting up a chain of private hospitals to the Health Ministry is akin to putting a fox in charge of the chicken coop. The conflict of interest has sent a clear message to the public: anything goes in Nepal’s crony capitalism.Deuba had earlier appointed Shrestha as MP from the Nepali Congress reserve quota after the second Constituent Assembly election in 2013, and the private school operator sat in the Education Committee of the legislature.The prime minister has not been able to give a clear rationale for appointing Shrestha, and after widespread criticism of the move, he said rather ambiguously: “It won’t happen again.” It is clear that Shrestha is being rewarded for being a major party donor.This week, the Ministry of Health under the new businessman-turned-state minister announced that the private sector can import Covid-19 vaccines. How does this make sense when there are G2G agreements in place, COVAX doses are in the pipeline, and private importers will be competing with the government for vaccines from the same global supply chain?We can give Shrestha the benefit of doubt, and argue that the boy who came from Bhojpur to Kathmandu in his flip-flops to build a business empire, may be better at managing healthcare delivery than clueless and corrupt politicians who have been ministers before.In fact, if there is blame to be placed on anyone, it should be on an expensive system that allows greedy political actors to elevate their cronies to important positions in government.Who is next, Nepal’s richest man <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binod_Chaudhary" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binod_Chaudhary&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628230509987000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHy8AJanSbKIsOE1kgjHV6i5VpGaQ">Binod Chaudhary</a> who is also a NC donor and MP?All this is nothing new, of course. Prime Minister K P Oli also promoted his favourite cronies, and appointed industrialist Moti Dugad minister. Cronyism was also in full display in the Gandaki Province drama last month: Dobate Biswakarma was all set to become the only Dalit minister in the provincial government, but he was suddenly supplanted by Bindu Thapa, a Deuba loyalist rewarded for his generous contributions to the party.When Nepal’s development is driven by sand mining magnates, quarry tycoons, and infrastructure contractors, it is no surprise that politics is also contracted out. This is why for politicians, ‘prosperity’ is measured by highways, bridges, view tower contracts, and not by quality schools, accessible health care and meaningful jobs for young Nepalis.<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Elected-contractors,4182" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Elected-contractors,4182&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628230509987000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFjiW9tcKmZX0bJuBB7Bmhx_i7SCA">An investigation in this paper</a> after the 2017 elections showed that up to 40% of elected local government representatives were contractors who now rent out their own excavators and tipper trucks to themselves. This is behind the recent spurt of destructive road-building and unregulated natural resource exploitation.The way to address this rot is to stop allowing Nepal’s richest businessmen from using the quota for indigenous and ethnic minorities to become unelected ministers. The ballot box is not a cash box, and for Nepal’s equitable progress, the next election must stop votes being bought with notes.Transliteration of Shekhar Kharel’s <a href="https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/125267" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/125267&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628230509987000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFdMPoAPlyZ3H5OCibSylDZy-9_mA">original op-ed in Himal Khabar</a> by Aryan Sitaula.

The business of politics in Nepal

Where will Nepal be in 2050? It is only 25 years away. The country’s population will be peaking at 36 million, the poverty rate will drop to near zero. Maternal and child mortality rates will fall further. Nepal will be generating up to 40,000MW of hydro and solar power, more than half of that for export. Upgraded highways will improve connectivity, railways will make transport cheaper. Pokhara and Birganj will only be two hours away from Kathmandu. Nijgad airport could be Nepal’s new aviation hub, reducing Kathmandu’s congestion. Nepal will hitch its wagon to the engines of economic growth in India and China. Investment and job creation will reduce outmigration, Nepal's data centres will be powered with surplus electricity. Remote areas will prosper with high-value tourists. That is if all goes well. But if Nepal’s politics remains dysfunctional with incompetent leadership, then the country will muddle along as it is doing now. Society will be more unequal, public discontent may boil over as politicians resort to faith to hide failures, the exodus abroad of youth will continue. Climate breakdown will exacerbate these crises. Global average temperature will have risen to 2.7°C above pre-industrial levels (it is 1.1°C now). The remaining Himalayan icecap will shrink by half, glacial lakes will threaten valleys. The hydrology of rivers will change, reducing dry season flow. Severe and prolonged heat waves in the Tarai will force people to migrate back to the mountains. In the final analysis, it all boils down to a political system that is more accountable, and displays more integrity and efficiency. <h2>Mission 2050</h2> · Melamchi Water Supply Project · Pokhrara International Airport · Bhairawa International Airport · Upper Tama Kosi Hydroelectric Project . Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway What do these biggest infrastructure projects in Nepal have in common? All ended up being more expensive than they should, all have been delayed and are not fully operational, two were badly damaged in climate-related disasters that should have been foreseen. The $800 million Melamchi is Nepal’s most expensive infrastructure project to date. It took 30 years to build, but was nearly destroyed by a glacial debris flow in June 2021. The headworks need major repairs. The 456MW Upper Tama Kosi was severely damaged by a rockfall and floods in last September’s floods. It is still not operating at full capacity, and other hydropower plants were damaged in recent glacial floods. Pokhara and Bhairawa airports were supposed to be the new aviation gateways to Nepal to take the pressure off Kathmandu, and become game changers for tourism and pilgrimage. Nearly three years later, both handle domestic flights. Poor and inadequate design, kickbacks on contracts, cost overruns, failure of diplomacy to get India’s nod on air routes, and lack of planning and marketing have made the airports a pair of white elephants. Some of these setbacks can be blamed on natural calamities, but mostly it is political incompetence and greed, lack of accountability and poor implementation. That is no surprise, since these are the hallmarks of doing business in Nepal, often delaying projects, adding to the cost, and even when completed they are already outdated. That is the story of the last 25 years, are the next 25 going to be any different? Not if governance does not improve. “What we really need for the future is vision, idea, and understanding, and then the domestic capacity to implement them,” says infrastructure expert Surya Raj Acharya, who laments the total absence of technical and planning expertise. “None of our national highways meet technical standards, our cities are unplanned. The priority was never on quality. Politicians sold us short-term infrastructure that have now become a barrier to prosperity,” he adds. One silver lining has been private sector involvement in hydropower, and the energy strategy aims to generate 11,769MW by 2030. But hydropower is high-investment, high-risk due to climate breakdown, and ecologically damaging. “Hydropower is a good example of how government incentives and public-private partnership can work wonders, although we now have to take climate change into account,” explains economist Kalpana Khanal of the Policy Research Institute. She adds, “We now have to identify other key infrastructure areas that also enhance the growth of other sectors.” The National Planning Commission’s periodic plans guide overall social and economic strategy for the country into the coming decade. Nepal’s current five-year plan (2024-2029) has set a target of 7.3% annual economic growth against the current 3.9%, $2,351 per capita income up from $1,456 at present, and poverty reduction to 12%. The plan aims to export nearly half the hydropower generated by 2030, earning the country Rs41 billion annually. But there is no real coordination between line agencies, and bureaucratic lethargy leads to constant delays, says former member of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Min Bahadur Shahi. “Development in Nepal is still very much synonymous with building roads and bridges, and infrastructure is rudimentary,” he says. “Elsewhere in the world, digital infrastructure and governance go hand in hand, we are far behind.” The frustration of a man who served in the National Planning Commission is an indication where the problem lies: in actually executing plans and implementing strategies. “We need to prioritise projects based on our geography, climate, societal needs,” Shahi continues. “We want to push Nijgad airport when we can’t even operate Pokhara and Bhairawa. Have we even studied potential air routes and needs of international carriers?”  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726070744_0547e5a7fd4424b5de8c279cab637ee7ebd9e65f2673b15e6dbd4eb2aa2524f2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250726070744_0547e5a7fd4424b5de8c279cab637ee7ebd9e65f2673b15e6dbd4eb2aa2524f2" data-rendition-name="original" width="3600" height="2400" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara airport"><figcaption>NO FLY ZONE: Pokhara airport was supposed to be the new aviation gateway to Nepal but nearly three years after its inaguration, it mostly handles domestic flights. Photo: RADHIKA KANDEL </figcaption></figure>  TARGET PRACTICE Export of hydropower, manpower and lately information technology are the mainstays of Nepal’s economy, and will carry the country to its graduation from Least Developed Country status to a developing country in November 2026, and hopefully to middle-income by 2030. Nepal has an installed capacity of about 3,800MW, most of it from hydropower, and increased adoption of electric cars has reduced the import of petroleum products, decreasing the trade deficit with India. Meanwhile, Nepalis abroad sent home $11 billion in remittances last year, and at least $900 million in backend IT exports. But demographer Yogendra B Gurung is not impressed: “Despite the reduction in the poverty rate, and our improving income status, life expectancy, income, even maternal and infant mortality are not on par with countries with similar economic status.” He says relying on remittances is an unsustainable economic model, vulnerable to external factors and remittances are mostly spent on day-to-day needs, and not invested in productive sectors. Remittance is credited with reducing poverty in Nepal which is down to 20.27% from 42% in 1990. Money sent home by workers abroad has allowed families to afford basic healthcare and education, in turn helping to reduce childhood malnutrition and maternal mortality while improving female literacy. But the progress has stalled in recent years, and many doubt Nepal will meet its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets. The National Planning Commission has said Nepal is likely to achieve just 60% of the targets by 2030. Sex ratio at birth, which is 112 boys to 100 girls in Nepal in particular, is worrying, as it is much higher than the biological ratio of 105 to 100. This is much more pronounced in Karnali, Sudurpaschim and Madhes Provinces which suffer from historical neglect. Despite a rise in female literacy, patriarchy is still deeply entrenched and the provinces are behind the rest of the country for gender equality, education, healthcare, nutrition and economic opportunities. “Karnali is resource-rich, especially hydropower and the recent discovery of the methane gas, but inequality is much greater,” says Shahi, who is with the Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDARC). “Federalism in Nepal is only on paper, we need a total structural reform to devolve political power to really bring about change.”  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726070744_fd4a218656e1fbf6f13f5f87a47bfe624516c6a0232481b6be77875ae866deb9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250726070744_fd4a218656e1fbf6f13f5f87a47bfe624516c6a0232481b6be77875ae866deb9" data-rendition-name="original" width="3600" height="2400" loading="lazy" alt="Butwal-Narayangadh "><figcaption>The Daunne section of the Butwal-Narayangadh road notorious for traffic jams and accidents, it has been in never-ending construction for three years. Photo: BISHNU PRASAD GAUDEL / RSS </figcaption></figure>  Despite limited resources, Nepal also suffers from wasteful investment as a result of politically (mis)guided decision-making, instead of people-centric plans and policies, says demographer Gurung. “People are overwhelmingly moving to the cities but our leaders are hell bent on building roads to every village and now there are empty schools in the mountains,” he adds. Nepal needs data-driven planning but its long-term economic vision 2020-44 seems more of a wish-list than realistic goals, including average annual GDP growth of 10.5%, $12,000 per capita income and population under the absolute poverty line at 0. Other goals include raising electricity generation capacity to 40,000MW, access to motor transport to 99%, life expectancy at birth to 80, maternal mortality down to 20% and literacy to 99% and 100% access to the internet, among others. Meanwhile, Nepal is committed to net-zero by 2045 and 100% renewable energy by 2050. “Our planners have no idea what kind of infrastructure we need 20, 30 years down the line to sustain and accelerate growth. We need a big structural change in the political leadership, in technocratic planning, and for policy implementation,” says infrastructure expert Surya Raj Acharya. Meeting such targets would require large investment, and it would be unwise to rely on remittances for the longer run, especially as Nepal’s demographic dividend will diminish as it turns into an aged society by 2065. Reversing out migration requires a favourable investment climate so jobs are created. Good governance marked by accountability and transparency are the basic prerequisite for ease of doing business. But lack of rule of law and illicit funds put Nepal in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money-laundering watchdog. “Everything comes down to a political will. The established parties must realise that if they don’t perform, they will be replaced by alternatives,” says Kalpana Khanal. “In the meantime, we must engage the youth and find ways to retain them as well as attract the diaspora to invest in Nepal.”

Nepal in 2050

MetLife Nepal has signed Rohit Paudel and Indu Barma, the captains of the national men’s and women’s cricket teams, to promote the importance of life insurance.

Metlife signs Nepal cricket captains

Many of us former Nepal Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) would agree that our time in Nepal changed in significant but very different ways our perspectives on life if not the future paths we chose to follow. Of no one was this truer than Dorothy Mierow. Dorothy was born in 1920, in Colorado Springs. Her father Charles C Mierow was a classics scholar and Latin professor, who served for ten years as president of Colorado College.&nbsp; Dorothy developed an interest in animals as a child, graduated with a BA degree in natural history from Carlton College in 1942, a Master’s in biology from the University of Pittsburgh, and another Master’s in geography from the University of Minnesota.&nbsp; As a young woman, Dorothy traveled with her father throughout Europe, including a visit to ancient Greek ruins, and took a Magellan Tour by cruise ship around the world in 1958.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_0bad133ab22aada319e74bbad95d563e191371db291c08f373839fbd15440262.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025071901074_0bad133ab22aada319e74bbad95d563e191371db291c08f373839fbd15440262" data-rendition-name="original" width="903" height="1178" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Dorothy Mierow as a college student in her native Colorado.</figcaption> </figure>  She was a college teacher during much of the 1940s, also teaching at a girls’ school in Hawaii. Then back to her native Colorado in 1953, where she became a curator and later director of the Colorado College Natural History Museum. She taught geography classes, and in her free time, Dorothy climbed 22 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. Traveling in India in 1960, Dorothy decided to spend two weeks in Nepal. In late 1961, she filled out an application to join the Peace Corps and specified that she wanted to go to Nepal, ‘because I admired the people so much when my father and I were there on our trip’.&nbsp; Dorothy reached Kathmandu in September 1962 as the first group of American Peace Corps volunteers in Nepal. She stood out from the others: one of the few women in that group, surely the oldest at age 41, a world traveler, and a woman who already had established a professional career.&nbsp; One doubts if Dorothy had had a husband and children whether she would ever have gone to work and spend much of the rest of her life in Nepal.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901078_68e84ade1ffb0f6c83c7f8fa5c1e7315b5f6c543217f96cde012e4d86f171515.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025071901078_68e84ade1ffb0f6c83c7f8fa5c1e7315b5f6c543217f96cde012e4d86f171515" data-rendition-name="original" width="1259" height="910" loading="lazy" alt="How th Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life NT"> <figcaption>Pokhara Bazar in 1962.</figcaption> </figure>  The Peace Corps assigned Dorothy to teach geography at Tri-Chandra College. After the school closed in the winter due to lack of heating, USAID and the College of Education asked Dorothy to help train general science teachers.&nbsp; She taught for two months and became involved in a textbook-writing project, commenting: ‘I would like the children to know something about public health, conservation (the trees are going fast and so is the soil), and learn the names of some of their common birds, trees, and flowers. They are more impressed with electricity, airplanes, and cell structure.’ When a new college opened in Pokhara in 1963, Dorothy was transferred there and lived with a Nepali family. The college boasted 30 students and no permanent buildings.&nbsp; In October 1963, Dorothy wrote: ‘Pokhara is a town of almost 5,000 people … We are in a fertile valley surrounded by foothills … There is a small Mission Hospital … a Leper Hospital and Tibetan Refugee Camp started by the Red Cross and now run by the Swiss. With winter approaching, more Tibetans are appearing in town, often with pack horses or donkeys. Some have been carrying large boxes of powdered milk,donated (by USAID) to the camp from the airport … There is no electricity, and the transportation problems make many items scarce and expensive. I am really a sort of a museum. The landlord brings all kinds of people in to see how I live and count my shoes and dresses. They express amazement at my books, pictures, tin oven, Nepali dolls from Kathmandu, screened food shelves and curtained closet.’ The standard term for Peace Corps volunteers was two years, but Dorothy extended her term and was still at Prithvi Narayan College at the end of 1965, when she wrote that she had 20 Geography students in the first-year class and 6 in the second year preparing for the IA Examination. The college enrollment was 125 students, and the foundation for a new science building was being excavated.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_c6a80e5e0db0c705b2f8733c6d30dc0386fe3abbd2238ea9d947b7d746f94a29.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2025071901074_c6a80e5e0db0c705b2f8733c6d30dc0386fe3abbd2238ea9d947b7d746f94a29" data-rendition-name="original" width="902" height="605" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>Mierow and friends at Phewa Lake.</figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy noted that she ate one meal a day at the (Shining Mission) Hospital but otherwise lived on dal-bhat, momo, and potato curry at local shops. However, she had developed a new passion: to build what she initially called the Pokhara Museum of the Himalaya. In commendable Peace Corps fashion, Dorothy always worked with Nepalis and respected the culture. ‘The greatest joy and satisfaction I have had has been from the building of a Museum-Library in memory of my parents … It has been possible to feel like a wealthy benefactor with the money saved by father for the family’s education and now available for the education of others… (Father) would have loved to be in on the founding of a new college and be able to plan a library. Several hundred of the books to be in the museum-library came from his collection and were carefully selected to be of use for students in Nepal…’&nbsp; ‘The museum part is to satisfy my own inclinations and was thought of when I found how little diversion there was for the people of Pokhara… It is part of the University requirements for the college that it should have a geography and biology museum. The museum building is small but adequate.&nbsp; I have tried to design it in harmony with Nepalese architecture and decorate it with some of the art of the best artists or woodcarvers… Posts holding up the porch roof are carved by Cottage Industries to represent different peoples of Nepal in typical costumes. The door was carved by a local wood carver and has typical birds of Nepal around it. Inside are 10 roof-support carvings designed by the retired Director of the National Museum in Kathmandu, Mr. C.M. Maskey.&nbsp; They were carved by the best wood carvers in Patan very skilfully. The building has three rooms: the library, the exhibition room, and a smaller workroom which can be used by our newly formed Woman’s Club as well as other groups or classes.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_03d3359c65389d30a0134e9a4862778994121e7e833b7d28b18e06e36fc76ff8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2025071901074_03d3359c65389d30a0134e9a4862778994121e7e833b7d28b18e06e36fc76ff8" data-rendition-name="original" width="629" height="599" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>Mierow with local women in Pokhara in 1969.</figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy promoted her project to influential Nepalis connected with organisations whose support she solicited: The Department of Archaeology, the Department of Agriculture, the Godavari Botanical Gardens; Tribhuvan University’s Science and Education Department, Nature Conservation Society.&nbsp; The museum was opened officially in early 1967. The Annapurna Natural History Museum, the building Dorothy designed and had constructed, is still open and features some exhibits which she created many years ago.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_54326a8a0685e980e782378076de2f5cd02d2426e9b0d94eed972d3dbe83af26.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025071901074_54326a8a0685e980e782378076de2f5cd02d2426e9b0d94eed972d3dbe83af26" data-rendition-name="original" width="1333" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>The Annapurna Natural History Museum.</figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy returned to America in 1967, but she longed for Nepal. In the spring of 1969, she again tried to enroll as a Peace Corps volunteer but was told that as she had spent more than four years, she would not be eligible for another assignment. Undeterred, she persuaded the college in Pokhara to invite her to return as a teacher.&nbsp; UNICEF and the Forestry Department sponsored Dorothy to prepare charts on trees, birds, animals and flowers in colour for distribution to the schools of Nepal. Dorothy, back in the Peace Corps, returned to Pokhara and the Museum in 1972. She formed a friendship with her former geography student from Sikles, Chandra Prasad Gurung, and in 1974, she brought Chandra to America, where he enrolled in Colorado College and studied cultural anthropology.&nbsp; Chandra subsequently earned his PhD in geography from the University of Hawaii and returned to Pokhara to become director of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project. Gurung actively promoted ecotourism, landscape conservation, and biodiversity conservation in Nepal. His life was cut short along with those of 23 other Nepalis and foreigners who perished in a helicopter crash near Taplejung in September 2006.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_322d3c3ac6f1b08ffa07c44a19998b937a7db9eb43527f7539cf6481e1546314.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2025071901074_322d3c3ac6f1b08ffa07c44a19998b937a7db9eb43527f7539cf6481e1546314" data-rendition-name="original" width="2500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>Mierow's four books on Nepal and its biodiversity. </figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy worked with several well-known Nepalis to publish her paintings and photos in beautifully illustrated books. She and Hemanta Mishra of the National Parks and Wildlife Service wrote Wild Animals of Nepal (Ratna Pustak Bhandar, 1976). More than 400 photos Dorothy took on treks to the Everest region, Gosaikunda, Muktinath, Jumla and Rara Lake, as well as travels in the Tarai, appeared in Himalayan Flowers and Trees (Sahayogi Prakashan, 1978).&nbsp; The botanist Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha identified the species. Dorothy and Kesar Lall published This Beautiful Nepal (Sahayogi Press, 1981). Birds of the Central Himalayas (1988) contained Dorothy’s paintings of 250 species of birds found along the areas of the Kali Gandaki River, Pokhara, Chitwan and the central Tarai. Dorothy summed up her life and work in Nepal in Thirty Years in Pokhara (Pilgrims Book House, 1997). Dorothy returned to Pokhara and her adopted Gurung family several times during the 1980s and 1990s to celebrate festivals and meet old friends. Her final years were spent at her mountain cottage in Green Mountain Falls north of Colorado Springs. She died at the age of 79 in August, 2000. Nepal gave new meaning and purpose to Dorothy Mierow’s life. Daniel W Edwards was a Peace Corps volunteer in 1966 and is the author of several books on Nepal. The author thanks Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College.

How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer’s life

· On the night of 15 May, two glacial lakes burst in Tharka in Humla and the debris flow washed away homes and bridges.&nbsp; · Last week, a slurry surge on the Kali Gandaki in Upper Mustang caused at least Rs15 million in damage, and was traced to a melting glacier. · Dozens are feared dead after <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rasuwa-flood-likely-a-glof">an expanding glacial lake in Tibet overflowed</a>, sweeping down into Nepal and damaging four hydropower plants generating 230MW, nearly 8% of the country’s total grid supply.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060748_45225dc707c1e9c2968ca8dbf6e564e01e4eb6e2ff254fb8eb940cf62cdd910b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250718060748_45225dc707c1e9c2968ca8dbf6e564e01e4eb6e2ff254fb8eb940cf62cdd910b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2667" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Rasuwa flood"> <figcaption>Miteri friendship bridge connecting Nepal and China was swept away in the Rasuwa flood. Photo: PRAKASH CHANDRA TIMILSENA / NPL</figcaption> </figure>  And those are just in the past month. Climate scientists say Himalayan glacial lake outbursts are becoming more frequent and destructive, and a warning for Nepal not to put all its eggs in the hydropower basket.&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/when-it-rains-it-pours-ksqprbu3">Record precipitation last September</a> unleashed floods that killed 200 people, and temporarily slashed Nepal’s total generation capacity of 3,000MW by nearly half. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-valley-suffers-quadruple-disaster">Melamchi flood of 2021</a> caused by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-not-so-permanent-frost">permafrost melting</a> on a glacier upstream nearly destroyed a $800 million water supply scheme, Nepal’s largest infrastructure project which four years later still has not resumed full operation. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/sikkim-flood-is-warning-to-nepal">glacial lake overflow in Sikkim</a> caused by record rainfall in September 2023 that destroyed the $1.2 billion Chungthung Dam and caused catastrophic damage to infrastructure on the Teesta River. This was a warning to the cascade of hydropower plants on the Arun and Marsyangdi river basins.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060736_6f61797a6be308321e3bae26e55d2f64cba4b9e5eb262adacb9e92fb5f3c6152.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250718060736_6f61797a6be308321e3bae26e55d2f64cba4b9e5eb262adacb9e92fb5f3c6152" data-rendition-name="original" width="919" height="549" loading="lazy" alt="hydro disasters and hydropower plants"> </figure>  Nepal has set a target of generating an additional 28,500MW by 2035 -- out of the feasible 48,000MW -- but how viable is an energy strategy that is exposed to heightened risk due to climate breakdown? &nbsp; “As extreme weather events increase, we must design and build infrastructures respecting river flow and topography,” says former Energy Secretary Dwarika Nath Dhungel. “We must make the best use of our water resources, but not by letting excavators loose everywhere mining riverbeds and building haphazardly where we shouldn’t.”&nbsp; Although no project can be disaster-proof, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-smarter-himalayan-infrastructure">climate smart design</a> can minimise damage from flash floods and landslides. Recent disasters have driven up insurance premiums for energy projects in Nepal, and smaller ones cannot even afford them. The 456MW Upper Tamakosi hydroelectric project which is still not fully functional after the September floods has claimed insurance worth Rs1.8 billion. The alternative to high risk high investment hydropower projects is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-s-cooking-in-nepal-besides-politics">energy diversification</a> to other renewables such as solar, wind or biogas. Nepal gets annual sunlight of 300 days with 6-7 hours on average to total 50,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060744_4acd452b4117180ca9bb5d3be839ff46dfd5464e4d507f5ad3704cef6253bc48.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250718060744_4acd452b4117180ca9bb5d3be839ff46dfd5464e4d507f5ad3704cef6253bc48" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="solar power"> <figcaption>Farmers in Tarai using solar powered water pump. Photo: GHAMPOWER</figcaption> </figure>  The Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA) calculates that Nepal could source 3,000MW from wind energy alone, considering 10% of the area with more than 300W/m2 wind power density. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/people-power/decentralising-power-in-nepal">Solar energy</a> stations are cheaper and quicker to build, and would be an ideal alternative to reliance on hydropower.&nbsp; “There has been some investment in solar power, especially from the state sector,” says water expert Madhukar Upadhyay. “But there is an issue of land acquisition since the arrays need a lot of space. It is comparatively easier to get a permit to put up a hydropower plant on a river.” As for biogas, there is simply no incentive to build on past success with household level plants to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/more-bullshit">promote industrial-scale production</a>. Scaling up biogas by integrating it with urban biodegradable waste would still be a viable alternative to LPG.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060744_715d44afd5eb4ba8dafa209b0ad0f19400665797b5f078f5636821e600f96684.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250718060744_715d44afd5eb4ba8dafa209b0ad0f19400665797b5f078f5636821e600f96684" data-rendition-name="original" width="1419" height="954" loading="lazy" alt="windmill"> <figcaption>A wind mill in Hapsikot in Nawalpur. Photo: WINPOWER NEPAL</figcaption> </figure>  Nepal’s public sphere is buzzing with excitement over the discovery of potentially 430 billion cubic metres of methane gas beneath Dailekh district that, if properly harnessed, would meet the country’s energy demand for the next 50 years. Even though a feasibility study is awaited, politicians from the prime minister down see this as a petro bonanza that will make Nepal rich. But drilling, storage and distribution of CNG in the country’s current kleptocratic state make that unlikely. If Nepal was to get rich solely on its hydro-energy potential, it could have done so in the past 50 years. Says Dhungel: “This is not exactly a new discovery, but it is premature to celebrate until its extraction is proven to be cost effective. And let us hope it does not get <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balance-of-power">tangled in geopolitics</a>, since China is involved in the prospecting and drilling, which could make India uneasy.”&nbsp; The country suffers from the Dutch Disease curse even before its resource is fully exploited. And the same cronyism, corruption and rent-seeking structure cannot deliver the riches we expect from Dailekh’s methane discovery. Now, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/right-climate-for-nepal-s-energy-transition">with hydropower in jeopardy</a>, Nepal’s planners will have to evolve a new strategy for energy security into the future. But first, governance needs to be cleaned up with long-term strategic planning that takes climate risk into account. For example, do we need to mine fossil gas when there are renewable options? Will Dailekh take Nepal away from its climate commitments? Says Madhukar Upadhyay: “Nepal has always been resource rich and management poor. And the larger the resource, the bigger our management incapacity. It is a societal malaise.”&nbsp;

cronyism