The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) is a test that those who want to practice medicine in America have to pass. A growing number of Nepalis have been taking the test to emigrate to the US.&nbsp;
Last week, USMLE invalidated test results of some 800 Nepali doctors because of ‘unusual score patterns or variations’.
‘The USMLE program has identified a pattern of anomalous exam performance associated with Nepal, which challenges the validity of test results for a group of examinees,’ its statement said.&nbsp;
Essentially, USMLE was accusing Nepali doctors of having prior knowledge of questions. This sparked outrage among Nepalis in the United States who say it tainted the country's image, and besides there is no way the test questions can be ‘leaked’.&nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-doctors-love-for-urdu-poetry">Ramu Kharel</a> is an emergency medicine physician and assistant professor at Brown University. He told us, "We care for the integrity of the program, and do not condone cheating in any form but the decision is not backed by strong evidence and creates biases when there is already a lot of brewing anti-immigrant sentiment.”
Kharel reached out to the USMLE director who told him it was ‘an ongoing investigation’.
“And yet they put out a blanket statement that has tarnished an entire country’s image as well as the credibility of practicing Nepali doctors who have done a lot of good work in the US.”
Several international doctors in the United States back this up, saying irregularities should have been addressed individually instead of singling out a whole country.
‘Some folks are using incidents of what they call “unusual USMLE Scores" to vilify the whole immigrant community who are resilient, hardworking, and knowledgeable as local doctors are. Let's not generalize the acts of a few to whole country and to emigrants,” X'ed Sadiq Naveed, psychiatrist in Hartford, Connecticut.
<div class="embed-block"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Some folks are using incidents of &quot;unusual USMLE Scores&quot; to vilify whole IMG community. IMGs are as resilient, hardworking, and knowledgable as AMGs are. Let&#39;s not generalize the acts of a few to whole country and the IMG community.&mdash; Sadiq Naveed (@SadiqNaveed) <a href="https://twitter.com/SadiqNaveed/status/1753917839289753714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<div class="embed-block"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">USMLE Score Invalidation: In my opinion mistakes of some mustn&#39;t lead to singling out of an entire country🇳🇵. ECFMG &amp; USMLE could have handled the situation better by a making a more generalized statement rather than naming a particular country. &quot;Culprits should be punished… <a href="https://t.co/h7AnANubE6">pic.twitter.com/h7AnANubE6</a>&mdash; Dr Ahmad Rehan Khan (@AhmadRehanKhan) <a href="https://twitter.com/AhmadRehanKhan/status/1754145466608955585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
&nbsp;Ahmad Rehan Khan, psychiatrist based in Virginia also tweeted: ‘In my opinion mistakes of some mustn't lead to singling out of an entire country. ECFMG &amp; USMLE could have handled the situation better by a making a more generalized statement rather than naming a particular country.’
Kharel started a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/call-for-usmle-to-redact-and-change-the-statement-regarding-applicants-from-nepal?recruiter=1329972259&amp;recruited_by_id=12774da0-c307-11ee-8897-7bad97cd7eca&amp;utm_source=share_petition&amp;utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&amp;utm_medium=copylink">petition calling on USMLE to redact or change the statement</a>, and has over 2,500 signatories already. He has approached the Nepali physicians' group in the US as well as the America Nepal Medical Foundation seeking legal counsel.
“The damage is already done, but USMLE at the very least needs to immediately revise its statement and issue a formal apology,” says Kharel. “The truth is that Nepalis are generally well-liked here."&nbsp;
A week before the USMLE statement, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/grass-is-greener-overseas-for-nepals-doctors">Nepali Times published a report about doctors emigrating</a> to the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the Gulf, leading to a shortage of specialists in Nepal and weakening an already fragile medical system.
Nepal has an annual turnover of nearly 2,500 MBBS graduates, yet the country faces a severe shortage of doctors. The Nepal Medical Council says 36% of doctors have emigrated, but that seems to be an undercount. &nbsp;
Between April-December 2023, 1,025 physicians left Nepal. Since 2020, 1,578 doctors have emigrated to the UK, and 888 to the US.&nbsp;
There are many push factors, but the lack of professional fulfilment in Nepal is the biggest. Equally strong is the pull of the American dream, with even unskilled Nepalis paying up to Rs6 million to human traffickers to take the illegal backdoor to the US.
<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19560">Emigrating doctors</a> may earn more than in Nepal, but international medical graduates in the US often do not get to practice specialised medicine of their choice, and are relegated to long hours as general physicians.&nbsp;
“Nepali doctors are emigrating essentially for thankless, blue-collar jobs,” says Bishal Dhakal, cardiac surgeon and founder of Health At Home in Kathmandu. “They do not make a lot of money by American standards and are doing jobs that American doctors do not want to do. Which is why Nepalis being accused of cheating is so tragic.”
Even so, the <a href="https://www.medscape.com">Medscape medical news website</a> on 1 February states that selling and buying USMLE questions online have become rampant with test questions selling for anywhere from $300 to $2,000.
An Indian doctor Ahmad Ozair at Johns Hopkins says his suspicions were aroused when he saw several students from one medical school in Nepal, posting on social media about scoring up to 280-plus.
‘The statistical probability that you would have three or more candidates in the same year, scoring in the 99th percentile worldwide, from a small geographical area is extremely low,’ Ozair <a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/us-board-discloses-cheating-grads-say-problem-rampant-2024a10002aj">said to Medscape</a>.&nbsp;
Others say the USMLE recall of Nepali test takers was not an ordinary one, and there is photographic evidence of questions leaked at exam centres.&nbsp;
The fact that Nepal’s university exams have regular scandals of ‘question outs’ gave credence to accusations of Nepali cheaters.&nbsp;
J. Bryan Carmody, nephrologist based in Virginia, also took to Twitter to write: ‘This isn’t the usual low-quality “USMLE recalls” - and instead involves screenshots/photos of real questions, taken at test centers by proctors (or after the proctors were paid to look away).’
<div class="embed-block"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The cheating in this case involved “prior unauthorized access to secure exam content.” This isn’t the usual low-quality “USMLE recalls” - and instead involves screenshots/photos of real questions, taken at test centers by proctors (or after the proctors were paid to look away).&mdash; Bryan Carmody (@jbcarmody) <a href="https://twitter.com/jbcarmody/status/1752891546553213219?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
Medical educator Conrad Fisher of MedQuest Test Prep questioned in an X post the high performance of Nepalis: ‘Of 138 with &gt;275 applying to my program, 86% are Nepali. Of the top 100 applicant scores 92% are Nepali.’
But Bishal Dhakal says Nepalis are used to practicing for exams based on past tests, and it is unfair for USMLE to call it cheating just because of high scores. “If there is an issue with exam centres, that should be dealt with separately without dragging the whole country into it," he adds.
An increasing number of Nepali doctors passing USMLE tests with high marks seems to be making some international graduates in America insecure. He adds, "We are sending our smartest doctors to America, and that didn’t sit well with those benefiting from the Subcontinent quota. A small country is being singled out." &nbsp;

Sonia Awale

original

674x448

610x380

500x500

400x266

400x240

400x203

301x200

1250x600

1084x550

Cheated out of the American Dream

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s visit to China comes as the season here in Beijing begins to shift from the summer to autumn.&nbsp;
As the Prime Minister alights from his aircraft at the Beijing Capital International Airport being greeted by still balmy conditions, he may very well wonder why his flight could not have touched down at the other (newer) colossal international airport in Beijing, Daxing International, designed by the award winning British architectural firm Zaha Hadid Architects.
That facility is not just a piece of art but is the world’s largest single-building airport occupying more than 7.5 million sq feet of ground space. Although by land-area, Daxing International is still significantly smaller than King Fahd International or even Denver International or Washington Dulles, the way in which the airport evokes, in combination, a sense of power, networks and a futuristic vision is inescapable.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/fixing-the-broken-parts-in-nepal-china-ties">Fixing the broken parts in Nepal-China ties</a>, Kanak Mani Dixit
This is not surprising at all because the People’s Republic of China is probably at this juncture of history the example par excellence of a Eurasian power vigorously straddling the super continent in almost every sense of the word: political, economic, cultural and certainly in respect to hard infrastructure systems.&nbsp;
It is also no surprise that it is exactly due to this position China currently occupies as a preeminent Eurasian power that it is bumping up with such great and increasing friction against not just the United States but <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/political-geography-of-india-nepal-china-ties">other leading powers in the system such as India</a> and so on.&nbsp;
The state of progressively intense upheavals that is consequently being generated within the international system is something that smaller powers such as Nepal will find almost impossible to circumvent let alone easily maneuver around.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-now-has-to-balance-not-just-india-and-china-but-also-the-west">Nepal now has to balance not just India nad China, but also the West</a>, Bhairaja Panday
It is within this broad lay of the land that Dahal's September sojourn to China must be viewed and analysed. Sino-Nepal relations do not exist in a vacuum, they are part of larger (and ever shifting) structural, geopolitical forces at play that can potentially pull Nepal against gravitational force into spaces not easily comprehensible, much less simple to navigate.&nbsp;
This comes back to the question as to what is the natural direction of Nepal’s foreign policy, where does the gravity of Nepal’s foreign policy lie, because it is against this question too that better inferences and assessments of the prime minister’s China visit can be brought to bear.&nbsp;
At any given point in history, the state of Sino-Nepal relations will be dictated as well by the overall <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/40-years-after-the-sino-us-thaw">nature and tenor of Sino-US</a>, Sino-Indian as well as Sino-Russian relations and different combinations of those bilateral relationships.&nbsp;
Nepal’s relationship with India and then the United States exerts a profound impact on its foreign policy towards China, and this is exponentially the case in contemporary times as larger and larger diaspora communities in those countries become more entrenched and organised, giving rise to push and pull factors that reverberate back into the corridors of power in Kathmandu.&nbsp;
It must not be forgotten as well that the Maoist party Prime Minister Dahal's visit to China takes place at a time in Nepal's history when its governmental and administrative apparatus is perhaps the most fragile and fungible they have ever been, and therefore prone to being malleable in general or definitely within certain distinct pockets.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/geopolitical-tectonics">Geopolitical tectonics</a>, Editorial
There are certain strong domestic lobbies in favour of China within Nepal’s political ecosystem, but it is hard to establish the extent to which these have the ability to triumph in forging real diplomatic success in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/sino-nepal-ties-in-the-post-afghan-era">Sino-Nepal relations</a>.&nbsp;
Surely in terms of big-ticket items in the bilateral relationship such as expansion of BRI and an elevated position for China in harvesting the green energy market in Nepal, it appears that Nepal’s position is currently circumscribed to a large extent by structural factors and that Kathmandu would need to approach cooperation with China with greater creativity encompassing an international approach.&nbsp;
For example, harnessing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/geopolitics-of-nepal-s-rivers">Nepal’s substantial hydropower potential</a> is a key objective of policy makers in the country but due to the divergent and fragmented geopolitical environment Nepal faces externally, it becomes challenging for any one of the great powers alone to plan and actually execute large scale infrastructure projects without inciting adverse pushback.&nbsp;
So would it be feasible for Kathmandu to think along the lines of gradually proposing and nurturing international consortia (by including within a single basket China, India and the United States, for instance) to address the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balance-of-power">development of hydropower in Nepal</a> or other large scale infrastructure initiatives?&nbsp;
It is unlikely that such an approach can be made to happen, but it is certainly worth the effort by the prime minister to explore during his high-level engagements with leaders in China. Sticking to a strictly bilateral approach on this visit to China will be a safe bet for the Prime Minister Dahal and will not ruffle any feathers.
But if one can think out of the box as a means to inject more momentum from Nepal towards much needed regional economic growth, then why not at least try?
Bhaskar Koirala is an independent analyst with Peking University. Views here are the author's own.

Nepal's Maoist leader visits China

<figure><img width="2211" height="1541" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101116/6372080d9c7e80680e0b54c7jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>A much-delayed half-billion dollar US government project to upgrade Nepal’s infrastructure <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587117000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1mPNK10b4Qti4kBCQ2ZqtY">threatens to split Nepal’s governing coalition</a>, amidst indications the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/china-lobbying-against-mcc/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/china-lobbying-against-mcc/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587117000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3xLZatwKG1qUAKCvOP5DVb">Chinese have intensified lobbying</a> with politicians to oppose it.Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress (NC), a minor coalition partner Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), as well as the main opposition UML support the project. But it is vehemently opposed by two Communist parties: the Maoist Centre (MC) and the Unified Socialists.The strain within the coalition appears to have taken a turn for the worse after Prime Minister Deuba got wind that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-speakers-ipu-trip-slammed/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-speakers-ipu-trip-slammed/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587117000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1748mrZsIq3zaEcjwoZOZ_">Parliament Speaker Agni Sapkota</a> of the MC postponed a sitting of the House on Sunday that was to discuss the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project.After a meeting of the five coalition partners on Saturday failed to agree on getting the MCC ratified by Parliament, Sapkota called off a scheduled House sitting for ten days without informing the prime minister.Deuba is said to be so put off that he has leaked a threat to register a proposal to unseat Speaker Sapkota, and has hinted that he will push through the MCC even if it means a split in the coalition.China’s Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi has been meeting various coalition leaders in the past months to lobby against the MCC, the latest was a one-on-one with the opposition UML’s K P Oli at his residence on 22 December.Then on Saturday, just after the inconclusive coalition meeting, the Maoist Centre’s Pushpa Kamal Dahal held an hour-long hush-hush virtual meeting on Saturday with Song Tao, the high-ranking head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC).Although the conversation was said to have centred around greeting each other on Chinese New Year and Dahal being congratulated for being re-elected chair of the Maoist Centre, the timing of the online discussion on Saturday evening is seen as significant.In November also, CPC officials had talked to senior party leaders in Kathmandu to actively dissuade them from passing the American project. The deputy head of the International Department of the CPC Chen Zhao had even called the UML General Secretary Ishwar Pokhrel on 13 December to try to change his party leadership’s pro-MCC stance. Zhao also spoke to Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Unified Socialists, and the latter is said to have assured him that he would not let the MCC be ratified.Speaker Agni Sapkota has been known to be close to Beijing, and has made no secret for his opposition to the MCC, and this week was not the first time that he blocked ratification in Parliament. His predecessor Krishna Bahadur Mahara, also a close confidante to Dahal, was also publicly anti-MCC before he was removed from office in 2019 after allegations of rape.   <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/is-china-now-micro-managing-nepal-politics/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/is-china-now-micro-managing-nepal-politics/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1ZjFWwIUS-IjUQIDA_jTNV">China’s suspicions about the MCC</a> as being an American geo-strategic counter to its own Belt Road Initiative (BRI) can also be gleaned from Chinese academics who have been <a href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TgjzJv5skEkt6rjm9pyU8w" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">writing in state controlled media</a> as well as in interviews with Nepali portals. Wang Yiwei of Renmin University in an op-ed in October called the MCC ‘American ploy’.Besides geopolitics, the MCC has also become a factor as <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dance-of-democracy/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dance-of-democracy/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2v7G-9XPUQE_b0yVvy5RP7">Nepal’s domestic politics</a> as parties try to position themselves for upcoming local government elections in May and federal polls later this year.Last week, Deuba managed to convince Dahal and Nepal to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-coalition-dilly-dallying-on-polls/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-coalition-dilly-dallying-on-polls/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3bRn0dwVnuNcGvc5nNm05E">lift their opposition to holding local elections</a> on time in exchange for keeping the coalition in an electoral alliance. Although NC insiders say they also got a commitment from them to back the MCC, the two leaders have denied this.Both say they will back the MCC only “with amendments” to clauses in the contract that they say undermines Nepal’s sovereignty.For its part, the UML has obstructed Parliament for the past six months, accusing Speaker Sapkota of allowing a breakaway group from the Nepal faction to keep their seats.Amidst all this, Deuba appears to be losing his patience with coalition partners. He takes personal responsibility for having signed the MCC agreement during his previous tenure five years ago, and fears loss of credibility for Nepal from international partners if the agreement is not ratified.Sources said that in Saturday’s meeting, Deuba actually brought up the possibility of the coalition splitting if the MCC is not passed. Deuba is gambling that an electoral alliance with the coalition is important for the MC and the Unified Socialists, both of which have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/who-wants-early-elections-and-why/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/who-wants-early-elections-and-why/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3EuLUjhgdgtlUAmjsBpP1O">weakened by their split with the UML.</a>The UML itself is now playing coy, and K P Oli has made no secret of its aim to use the MCC to split the coalition. Deuba is determined to push the MCC to Parliament even if it means getting UML support, since the NC and JSP alone do not have the numbers to ratify it.UML Chair K P Oli was a strong backer of the MCC when he was prime minister till July last year, and it was in fact his erstwhile party colleagues Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal who <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2o4JhiHrU0WJYe66eGhiHV">weaponised the MCC</a> to bring him down. Ultimately, this led to their Nepal Communist Party to split into the MC and the UML, and the UML itself later split with Nepal breaking off to form the Unified Socialists.Having been so vehemently opposed to MCC, Dahal and Nepal can now not do a 180 degree on the project. And they also have to contend with the Chinese breathing down their necks.One of the more vocal proponents of the MCC has been former Maoist ideologue and ex-prime minister Baburam Bhattarai who fell out with Dahal and is now with the JSP.Bhattarai, who also has a PhD in urban planning, tweeted on Monday: ‘The MCC is a trial by fire for Nepal’s political parties, mainly the Communists. First: Will we try to balance the US and India and China or be beholden to one of them? Second: If we do not want American support, what will we do with aid from the WB, IMF or ADB? If an American grant is untouchable, how about aid from India, China or others?’ <img width="640" height="175" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101116/637208109c7e80680e0b54c8jpeg.jpg" alt="">The $500 million project was signed in 2017 when Prime Minister Deuba led a coalition that also had the Maoists as a partner in government. The Americans have denied that the project has any military component, saying Nepal qualified for it and there are no strings attached.Increasingly impatient with delays in Nepal and irritated with what it sees as Chinese obstruction, the Americans have sent a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2Io7kTRWitTQBFQcPJndxQ">slew of high officials to Nepal</a> in the past six months, who has also warned Nepal that project approval is time-bound, and the MCC can withdraw the grant if Nepal does not want it.The project will pay to expand <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-cost-of-no-mcc/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-cost-of-no-mcc/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3ftWPiTFZ8uZospptUy9b3">Nepal’s electricity grid</a> with a 400kVA transmission line to distribute power from eastern to western Nepal, as well as export surplus to India. Nepal’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-precious-electricity-going-waste/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-precious-electricity-going-waste/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2H55BAU4KQwQs8tcmB84xz">power producers could lose</a> up to Rs142 billion annually if the electricity lines are not built to evacuate the estimated 5,000MW of generation capacity by 2025. The project also has a component to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/generating-electricity-and-cash-for-nepalis/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/generating-electricity-and-cash-for-nepalis/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw212arRNKdVKZSYW2VBkCRW">boost economic growth</a> through improvements in highway connectivity in Central Nepal.

MCC risks split in Nepal’s ruling coalition

<img width="2211" height="1541" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161152/636d1ea99c7e80680e0af421jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>A <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mcc-ball-in-nepals-court/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$500 million American grant</a> to upgrade Nepal’s infrastructure appears at first glance to be delayed because of domestic politics. But the real reason seems to be Beijing’s opposition to the project, and its pressure on politicians not to implement the project.Sources say the Chinese government has been showing unusual interest in the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project as Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba prepares to present it for approval by the winter session of Parliament, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">despite opposition from coalition partners</a>.On 22 December, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi made a hasty trip to the Balkot residence of former prime minister KP Oli of the opposition UML. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oli and Deuba back the American project</a>, and some see this meeting of minds on the MCC even <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/just-do-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">triggering a breakup of the governing coalition</a>.On 13 December, Vice Minister Chen Zhou of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held a video conference with the newly-elected UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel.Pokharel is said to have assured Zhou that his party would not allow activities that could damage Sino-Nepal relations. The UML’s Bishnu Rijal confirmed that Zhou’s call was about the MCC, but added ambiguously: “He must have had queries about development projects that China’s neighbouring country is undertaking.”<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/missing-links-in-nepals-mcc-debate/">Missing links in Nepal’s MCC debate</a>, Jeevan R Sharma and David SeddonZhou had a similar chat with Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Unified Socialists who is also reported to have reiterated that he opposed anti-China activity in Nepal. Nepal has publicly stated he would reject the MCC if it could affect ties with neighbouring countries. CPC officials also held virtual meetings with Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist Centre, who has not hidden his opposition to the MCC.A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “There is no doubt that China does not want the MCC to go ahead, it has already conveyed as much to the top political leadership.”Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota of the Maoist Centre, who is close to Beijing, has said the MCC would not move forward under his watch. His predecessor Krishna Bahadur Mahara publicly admitted to stopping MCC ratification because it was anti-Chinese.“China has already sent the message that it will not sit idly if the development activities in Nepal undermine its interests here,” Nepal’s former ambassador in Beijing Mahendra Bahadur Pandey told Nepali Times. “China has been concerned about the MCC from the very beginning, and views it with suspicion.”<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/">MCC: damned if we do, damned if we don’t</a>, Nepali TimesChina’s objection to the MCC is most noticeably expressed through op-eds. Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at the Renmin University, in one interview with <a href="http://nepalkhabar.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://nepalkhabar.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1640329948769000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1-5zGkO7r9layvLRxbBfav">nepalkhabar.com</a> last October called the MCC ‘an American ploy’.Diplomatic affairs expert Geja Sharma Wagle says that besides the Americans, Nepal needs to balance the interests of its neighbours India and China as well. He says, “It is in Nepal’s best interest to implement both the American MCC and Chinese BRI projects based on our national needs.”Many analysts see the MCC as America’s response to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/bri-and-trans-himalayan-connectivity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Beijing Belt-Road Initiative (BRI) </a>which promotes connectivity and infrastructure in order to benefit China’s influence and trade in the region.Apart from Dahal’s CPN (Maoist Centre) and Nepal’s CPN (Unified Socialist), other coalition members Janata Samajwadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha are also against the American grant. Even the Hindu-Right Rastriya Prajatantra Party recently spoke against it. Deuba called an all-party meeting this week to discuss the MCC, but Oli did not show up. Representatives of other parties reiterated their opposition to the compact in its present form. Jhala Nath Khanal of Unified Socialists was once more named to a committee to further study the MCC agreement.Dahal and Nepal used KP Oli’s support for the MCC against him in a<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-damages-nepals-credibility/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> bitter power struggle</a> that did not just split the Nepal Communist Party, but also the UML. They were so successful in generating public opinion against the MCC, saying it was an American strategy against China, that they find it difficult to back it now, especially with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/all-eyes-on-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">elections a year away</a>.  Dahal is also concerned about his Maoist Centre general convention.At the height of political infighting last year, Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi lobbied unsuccessfully to keep Nepal’s communists united. Now that KP Oli is in the opposition, he is not as openly pro-MCC, but sees it as a weapon to get back at Deuba and Dahal by splitting their coalition — even if it means forging an alliance with the NC.Nepal signed the MCC agreement in Washington in 2017 when Deuba led a similar NC-Maoist coalition. The US has repeatedly said that the project is a grant that Nepal qualified for, and has no strings attached. MCC Vice President Fatima Sumar and US Deputy Secretary of State Donald Lu <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-stuck-between-rock-and-hard-place/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">visited Nepal recently</a>, and reportedly gave Deuba an ultimatum to have Parliament ratification by the end of this year. <img width="1142" height="868" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161152/636d1eac9c7e80680e0af422jpeg.jpg" alt="">Experts say the MCC is important to expand Nepal’s power grid into the future with 400kVA transmission lines that can also allow Nepal to export more surplus electricity to India. Nepal will be generating 4,500MW of hydroelectricity in the next three years, and over 12,000MW by 2030, and much of it risks being wasted if it cannot be supplied to load centres. In monetary terms, Nepal’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-precious-electricity-going-waste/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">power producers could lose</a> at least Rs142 billion annually. Which is why energy experts say Nepal should start work immediately on transmission lines even if the MCC does not go ahead.Although most of the $500 million project is for upgrading transmission lines, it will also improve highway connectivity in central Nepal to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/generating-electricity-and-cash-for-nepalis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">boost economic growth</a>.  Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-cost-of-no-mcc/">The cost of no MCC</a>, Nepali Times

China lobbying against MCC

<figure><img width="2000" height="1333" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161148/636d1dc29c7e80680e0af3d5jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Ang Gelu Lama, 50 and his two-year-old son Lobsang who drowned in their basement apartment on 1 September in New York City. Photos: FACEBOOK</figcaption></figure>The rain started falling in the evening of 31 August in New York City and in the next 24 hours, the city and its surroundings got record rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. It only took a few hours for the streets to be flooded, and the water to enter subway stations.In a basement apartment of a house at the bottom of a dead-end street in the Flushing neighbourhood of Queens, water rushed in through the only window at street level. The apartment was occupied by Mingma Sherpa, her husband Ang Gelu Lama, and their 2-year-old son Lobsang.Mingma called an upstairs neighbour to say that water was starting to pour into the basement, and the family was unable to open their door to get out. The water rose rapidly, drowning the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/under-biden-hope-for-nepali-migrants-in-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">immigrant family from Nepal</a> before help could arrive.  “I cannot even describe how horrible the hurricane was for our community,” said Urgen Sherpa, a long-time resident of Queens and a close friend of Mingma and Ang Gelu. “The funeral was one of the most heartbreaking events in my life… I don’t have words to describe how bad it was, how sad it was.”On the day of the funeral, Ang Gelu’s older brother, who was already in the US, was in attendance. Cars drove slowly down the street in procession, the three caskets lined in a row inside the hearse.The funerals had been delayed in the hope that Mingma Sherpa’s mother and younger sister, and Ang Gelu Lama’s older sister could travel to New York from Nepal for the funeral. They could not get their US visas. The funeral was held without them, the community mourning while family members grieved on the other side of the world.  <figure><img width="532" height="560" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161148/636d1dc69c7e80680e0af3d6jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Mingma Sherpa with her husband and young son, all of whom perished in the flood.</figcaption></figure>Nepal is one of the countries listed as being most at risk from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-change-is-a-disaster-in-the-nepal-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the impact of the climate crisis</a>. The Himalayan villages where Mingma and Ang Gelu come from are exposed to increased risk of flashfloods from melting glaciers, erratic and extreme weather. The Himalaya is warming 0.3-0.78oC faster than the global average, and Nepal’s subsistence farmers have been hit hardest.   The cruel irony is that having left Nepal for economic opportunity in the United States, the family became the casualties of the effect of climate change that is unleashing more frequent and intense storms across the Americas.On 11 December, the state of Kentucky was hit by what has been described as the worst tornado in recorded history, killing more than 100 people. Meteorologists say the disaster was caused by record-high December temperatures in the state, with warm, moist air from the Gulf colliding with colder air from the north.   On 1 September, the day of the tragedy in Queens, New York City experienced record high rainfall from the trailing edge of Hurricane Ida. Central Park in Manhattan got 181mm of rain in 24 hours, nearly double the previous record of 97mm 90 years ago. In Newark across the Hudson, the total precipitation on that day was 213mm – four times higher than the previous daily rainfall record in 1959. Four months after the New York tragedy in which a family that left Nepal fell victim to the kind of disaster that are now affects the whole world, the Kentucky tornado once more underlined that no one is safe anywhere from the impact of the climate emergency.It also came in a year when surges in the pandemic caused job losses that affected the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-promise-of-an-american-dream/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">immigrant community in the United States</a> the hardest. It was a stinging reminder of the challenges faced by lower income families in the United States regarding affordable and safe housing. Besides the Nepali family, the floods in New York claimed 7 other lives that day.Like many other immigrant families who are drawn to New York City for its opportunities, Mingma and Ang Gelu had rented the basement apartment because of the lower cost. The two had married a few years ago, and their Green Card application had been denied just before the storm hit.While flooding is not an imminent concern for New Yorkers living in high rises, the tragedy proved how dangerous it is for people dwelling below street level. Basement apartments are an increasingly common option for those looking for affordable housing in a tightly packed, dense urban landscape. <figure><img width="969" height="619" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161148/636d1dc89c7e80680e0af3d7jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Police and rescuers had to bring in divers to retrieve the bodies of the Nepali family in Queens. </figcaption></figure>Most basement living spaces do not pass New York state regulations for acceptable living conditions. They often have few or no windows, limited ventilation, and typically only one entry and exit, all of which disqualify nearly all basements in the city from being legally livable. However, in one of the most expensive cities in the world, landlords often choose to rent out these spaces anyway to individuals or families who are unable to afford anything else. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/nyregion/legalize-basement-apartments-nyc.html">promised</a> to begin addressing the growing issue in statements back in 2019, but all efforts have since been cut in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and in 2020 Queens became the epicentre of the coronavirus surge. As global temperatures rise, heavier rainfall is <a href="https://theconversation.com/hurricane-ida-2-reasons-for-its-record-shattering-rainfall-in-nyc-and-the-northeast-long-after-the-winds-weakened-167252">inevitable</a>, even in places that have historically been spared from the worst of seasonal storms like New York, or in seasons when tornados are not supposed to happen like in Kentucky in December. This is not a distant prediction, but a new normal. Hurricane season in the eastern United States is a predictable annual phenomenon. Stretching from early summer into the last weeks of autumn, hurricanes thrust gale-force winds and torrential rain across the coast. Severe, and sometimes deadly, flooding is increasingly common. As the 2020 hurricane season came to a close, examining its aftermath revealed dozens of tragic stories of loss and devastation, of which none were more heartbreaking than the drowning of the Nepali family in New York.   While storms are nothing new for New York City residents, the severe flooding brought by Hurricane Ida was more intense than any storm in recent history. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 brought flooding due to storm surges, but the precipitation from Ida was off the charts.   This gave the storm a markedly different character compared to those that preceded it. It was faster and far more unexpected. There was simply not enough runoff to manage the enormous amount of water rushing into the streets, enveloping cars, and pouring into any below-ground space in the city.Cities across the United States and Germany this summer looked like any other part of the developing world that used to be called 'the most vulnerable' to weather extremes. Climate change, it seems, spares no one, no matter where they live.

Climate change drowns the American dream

<figure><img width="1198" height="1227" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13819c7e80680e0a9926jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: BIKRAM RAI/ NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVES</figcaption></figure>Nepal could lose Rs142 billion a year in wasted surplus energy if the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/just-do-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)</a> project designed to upgrade the electricity grid and highways is not endorsed by Parliament.
Nepal is currently generating 2,000MW of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/manpower-and-hydropower/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hydroelectricity</a> with an additional 2,500MW under construction. This figure will soar to 7,300MW by 2025 as per Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) estimates.Presently, Nepal consumes 1,500MW of electricity during the peak season, which is increasing by 20% every year. At this rate, in the next four years, the peak demand will be at 2,600MW, which means there will be an excess of 4,700MW.  
Nepal can export this surplus power to India and there are already agreements in place to facilitate trade between the two countries, but the existing Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross border <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">transmission line</a> can only handle 800MW each way. 
“If Nepal is unable to sell excess energy, we will be losing Rs142 billion every year. At a time when we are lagging in infrastructure, we shouldn’t stop the MCC from being approved,” says Dinesh Shrestha, chair of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI).
FNCCI, Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), Nepal Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Contractors’ Associations of Nepal, Independent Energy Producers’ Association and Nepal-US Chamber of Commerce and Industry have submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba urging the government to stop delaying <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/missing-links-in-nepals-mcc-debate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the five-year compact</a> and implement it soon. 
This is the private sector’s second memorandum to the government in a month. The group also states that some 7,000 Nepalis will be employed during the construction phase of the MCC, which also includes the upgrade of arterial highways to facilitate efficient transportation. The FNCCI memo comes just before the arrival in Kathmandu on Wednesday of US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, Donald Lu during which he is expected to discuss the MCC ratification with Prime Minister Deuba and other party leaders.It is an indication of the importance the US attaches to the project that Deputy Assistant Secretary for South ans Central Asian Affairs Kelly Keiderling also arrives in Kathmandu on Thursday. Deuba met US President Joe Biden at the COP26 Glasgow summit two weeks ago, and revealed that he and Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal had written jointly to the US government saying the MCC would be ratified. But the project has become such a political hot potato in Nepal that Dahal quickly backtracked, clarifying that he had only said that it needed amendments before being passed. A large chunk of the US-aided $500 million grant project is set aside to build the Kathmandu-Hetauda-Butwal 400KVa transmission line which will distribute electricity from existing and new hydropower plants on the Budi Gandaki, Trisuli, Kali Gandaki, Marsyangdi, Kosi, and Tamakosi corridors, and also connect to a high-capacity line to Gorakhpur so Nepal can sell surplus monsoon electricity to India.  
In fact, in anticipation of the MCC project being completed, the NEA <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/india-nepal-sign-power-exchange-deal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">signed an agreement</a> with the state-run Power Grid Corporation of India (POWERGRID) for the Butwal-Gorakhpur cross border transmission line extension two months ago in September, ahead of MCC vice president <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mcc-ball-in-nepals-court/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fatema Z Sumar's visit to Nepal</a>.
But the MCC, the biggest grant aid Nepal has ever received has become the victim of intense power struggle and political infighting within the country. It was first weaponised to unseat K P Oli and now <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">threatens to split the ruling coalition</a> led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. 
The project is seen by the critics as part of America’s Indo-Pacific Strategy to counter China’s Belt Road Initiative. The anti-MCC rhetoric has gained such momentum that the public is convinced it supersedes Nepal’s Constitution and is anti-national, forcing even the staunch supporters from speaking in its favour.
Adds FNCCI’s Dinesh Shrestha: “The MCC is crucial for Nepal’s energy sector and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">is to our benefit</a>. Moreover, this is a grant, not a loan. Further delaying and cancelling the compact will <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-damages-nepals-credibility/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tarnish Nepal’s image and credibility</a> in the world community.”
MCC or no MCC, one thing is for sure. Nepal must build transmission lines and upgrade its electricity grid one way or the other so as not to waste surplus energy it is set to generate in the near future. 
Alternatively, experts say, the government must work immediately to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/good-cop-bad-cop/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">electrify transport and cooking</a> for domestic consumption of surplus power and reduce its import bill on petroleum products and LPG.

The cost of no MCC

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016110/636d12c19c7e80680e0a98eejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2500" height="1000"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Geopolitical and economic <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/sino-nepal-ties-in-the-post-afghan-era/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rivalry between China and the United States</a>, the world’s two largest carbon emitters, distracted delegates at the COP26 Climate Summit from finding ways to help poorer countries address the climate crisis.The needs of countries like Nepal, which are trying to adapt to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">melting mountains</a>, erratic monsoons, droughts and floods, were therefore sidelined.With the Friday deadline looming, and ministers in closed door meetings all night, there are fears that the countries that have been least responsible for the climate crisis will continue to bear most of the burden from its impact.“In every session in Glasgow we saw China vs America,” said Harjeet Singh of Climate Action South Asia. Except for some high income countries pledging limited resources for climate adaptation, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-greenwashing-in-glasgow/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">there was very little progress till Friday morning in Glasgow</a>.The tone for the war of words between the US and China was set by President Joe Biden’s speech to the summit on 3 November in which he slammed the Russian and Chinese leaders for skipping the conference.Indeed, even former US president Barak Obama used his speech on Thursday to target China and Russia. He said: “It was particularly discouraging to see the leaders of two of the world’s largest emitters, China and Russia, declined to even attend the proceedings … their national plans so far reflect what appears to be a dangerous lack of urgency and willingness to maintain the status quo on the part of those governments, and that’s a shame.”Although there has been an attempt to patch up differences with an unexpected announcement on Tuesday of a Sino-US agreement on climate cooperation, the overall mood here is of doom and gloom that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/copout-at-cop26/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">COP26 will not yield the kind of urgent emission cuts needed</a> to keep global average temperatures below 1.5 Celsius by 2050.Obama’s statement sent sparks flying, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin hitting back, saying: “Actions speak louder than words. What we need in order to deal with climate change is concrete action rather than empty words. China’s actions in response to climate change are real.”With hours to go for the closing of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/net-zero-is-not-zero/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the COP26 in Glasgow</a>, most delegates here are not optimistic that the emission cut commitments by countries with the largest carbon footprints will be enough to keep temperature rise within safe limits.Meanwhile UN General Secretary António Guterres has welcomed the joint agreement between China and the United States, calling it a step in the right direction in tackling the climate crisis. Climate experts are skeptical, however.“Similar agreements have been made between these two countries previously, this is nothing new. What matters is their implementation,” says Nabin Singh Khadka of the BBC World Service.In fact, 2015’s landmark Paris Agreement was a result of 30 rounds of talks between Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping. But in 2020, Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the accord. This misstep only made it easier for the next big emitters, China and India, to continue with their carbon-based economies.Only a year later <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-biden-presidency-climate-and-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden reinducted the United States to the global pact</a> but his attempt to lead the climate action has failed with more immediate geopolitical turmoil taking precedence.The United States and China are at each other’s throat in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-stuck-between-rock-and-hard-place/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the race to the global superpower</a> and the each is trying to get as many European and Asian countries under their alliance.Less than two months ago, the US signed the ‘Aukus’ security pact with Australia and the UK. The US had previously formed the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Japan, India, South Korea and Australia back in 2007.China is not happy with these alliances and had been rebuffing the US’s offer in climate cooperation. The US is vocal about China needing to cut down its emissions as one of the main emitters, whereas China is of the opinion that historical emissions by developed countries should also be taken into account.The US was the biggest emitter of GHG from 1950-2005. When it emitted 19.79 million tons of GHG in 1950, China was not even in the list of emitters. It was only since 2006 that China started to overtake the US in emissions. The figure for the US in 2005 was 6.13 billion ton and for China was 5.88 billion ton. This has soared to 10.67 billion tons for China in 2020 and down to 4.71 billion tons for the US.India, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia among other countries are backing China in its argument. The resulting debate has further delayed the implementation of the climate agreements. Developed countries did pledge $100 billion to the Green Climate Fund in 2015 but only $70 billion has been deposited so far.Ahmed Kamruzzaman Majumdar of the Stamford University in Dhaka says the geopolitical interests of the countries are reflected in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/women-and-water/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate summits</a>, further endangering the health of the planet. “The United States and other developed countries are trying to get away by highlighting China’s contribution. But they also have to be serious about reducing their emissions.”Harjit Singh of the South Asia Climate Action agrees. "The US, Australia and Canada have a historic and important role in emissions but China, Phillipines, Indonesia and India where industrialistion has only recently picked up should lead with green economy,” he says.<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/think-globally-in-glasgow-and-act-locally/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Raju Pandit</a>, a climate expert who has been participating in climate conferences from Nepal for over a decade, says that climate change is also a political and economic issue, and should be treated accordingly."We have to put the plant at the centre of our decision making. If the climate issue is not addressed and there is no cooperation, there is no alternative but to face more difficult times ahead,” he says.Least developed countries like Nepal <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-the-climate-crisis-adds-to-child-marriage-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">are most impacted by the climate crisis</a>. The reluctance of big economies to be held responsible has added to the problem. “We have to continue pressuring them. Compensation for loss and damage in our part of the world is a matter of justice,” adds Majumdar.In the meantime, Nepal must prepare for more extreme weather events and deploy mitigation measures available at home. Says Khadka: “We have to start working with the resources we have, we can’t just keep waiting for others to help us.”

Sino-American rift impacts climate action

<figure><img width="1000" height="750" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd7a9c7e80680e0a0be7jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Aunohita Mojumdar on right talking to farmers in a field in the village of Haibat Khel in Parwan province in 2008. Photo: ANNE FEENSTRA</figcaption></figure>Gut-wrenching images and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/bring-us-home-says-nepali-in-kabul/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stories</a> have flooded the media sphere over the last few days. Hundreds flocking to the airport, clinging to the undercarriage of aircraft in desperation,<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/call-to-evacuate-afghan-journalists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> journalists in hiding</a> or seeking visas to leave, people in streets and in camps fleeing the violence that has preceded the fall of province after province to the Taliban. The rapidity with which the Taliban have been able to take control over the entire country has surprised everyone including the Taliban themselves. However, while the speed may not have been foreseen, the collapse of the government had seemed inevitable for some time, especially after the steps taken by the US in rapid succession since the Doha deal they struck with the Taliban in 2020. Ironically called the ‘Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan’, the deal ensured the unconditional withdrawal of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-rome-statute-and-the-hague/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">American troops</a>. Desperate to leave, the US administration acceded to the Taliban insistence of talks without the presence of the elected Afghan government -- thus de-legitimising the leadership that President Joe Biden is today blaming for the collapse of the government.So what of the 20 years of international support? The entire nation-building project led by the Americans, regardless of what President Joe Biden now says, was based on an American view of what a liberated Afghanistan and Afghans should look and sound like, often with little understanding of the ground reality. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-and-the-talibans-second-coming/">Nepal and the Taliban’s second coming</a>, Kanak Mani DixitUnfortunately, American military and financial power outstripped that of other nations several times over and coupled with the belief in American Exceptionalism this ensured their overweening dominance. More nuanced approaches were run rough-shod and complex perspectives that could address the complicated realities were jettisoned in favour of the black-and-white you ‘are with us or against us’ approach. While there is much to blame on the Afghan government and the leaders, it is worth looking at how the security paradigm and the political leadership were instituted. In the initial period following the 2001 invasion, the US prevented the expansion of NATO in order to keep complete control of the security sphere, and subsequently blocked all attempts at allowing even the negotiated surrender of the Taliban leadership, thus driving them underground. Over the years, international forces killed a large number of civilians, an unacceptably high rate of ‘collateral damage’ that turned a significant portion of the Afghan population against them as well as against the Afghan government they were supporting. While ‘introducing democracy’ to Afghans, the US railroaded Afghans into accepting a governance structure that concentrated all powers in the presidency -- far more extreme than any presidential style of governance in existence -- and also forced an electoral system that kept out political parties -- the building blocks of any democratic polity.  <figure><img width="1000" height="750" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd7c9c7e80680e0a0be8jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Leaders of militias were rearmed and empowered despite the fact that some of them had a track record of extreme brutality and predation on the local population. In later years, groups directly under the control of the US --and outside the ambit of the local army and police forces -- were armed, often with little checks and control resulting in more for violence against civilians. Finally, in order to meet an artificial timetable of ‘Afghan owned’ security, an Afghan army was built in a hurry despite obvious evidence of its weaknesses: the lack of adequate command and control structures, and inadequate training. Reports of high rates of recidivism, and drug addiction in the ranks were ignored in pursuit of the goal of filling the numbers. Over the years the Taliban regrouped and began to expand its footprint, enabled in some measure, by local discontent, access to safe spaces across the Pakistan border and the ‘live and let live’ deals struck in many areas.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/farewell-danish/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Farewell, Danish</a>, Navesh ChitrakarIn the past several years large parts of the country have been under the control of the Taliban or only nominally under the control of the government. In many areas, deals had been brokered for a holding pattern whereby neither side would engage in operations, thus leaving the local population the space to lead relatively peaceful lives. All of this was known to the US administration as it prepared to leave. What they had not counted on perhaps was the speed with which the government would fall. A more convenient gap would have allowed them to distance themselves from the disastrous political fallout a little better, and made their efforts to gas-light an entire country appear a little more tenable.As it is, the rapidity of events has left the emperor with no clothes, its usurpation of Afghan airspace to remove its own citizens while holding Afghan civilians at bay at gunpoint is now the last lingering image.What nextThe uncertainty that has come with the Taliban taking power is fearful, and the fears very real. But the truth is that no one yet knows what kind of governance will emerge under Taliban 2.0 Will women be allowed in the public space? Will they have to adopt diktats on a dress code that will force them back into burkha? Will independent media be allowed to function? Will the Taliban seek to replicate the image of the state that they created between 1996 and 2001 when they controlled almost the entire country? Will they, as they have stated publicly, respect the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/i-may-not-be-alive-by-the-time-i-am-evacuated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rights of women </a> ncluding their right to education? Already these rights are being caveated by talk of ‘within Islamic law’ which is open to wide interpretation. What will the Taliban attitude be towards the minorities, especially the Shi’a Hazara communities some of which were massacred when they were last in power? <figure><img width="480" height="640" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd7f9c7e80680e0a0be9jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>For a section of the media, ‘the terrorists have arrived’. And while the desperate images from the airport tell an important part of the story about the arrival of the Taliban in power they do not tell it in its entirety. Most Afghans did not want the return of the Taliban, but many urban, educated Afghans used to freedoms are staying on, deliberately and consciously, willing to consider and find ways and means of navigating the new realities. They are willing to unpick the issues and tackle them to try and create the space for living their lives, and all of us should be doing that too rather than treating Afghanistan and its people as a lost nation, or the situation as ‘game over’. The Americans have abandoned Afghanistan and the Afghans. It is time we in the region abandon the American approach towards Afghanistan as a nation to be lost or won, to be inducted into the empire of allies or rejected as an ‘enemy’ country.With the fall of the Afghan government and the takeover by the Taliban, much of the strategic discourse in the national media of the neighbouring countries has been an accounting of winners and losers, a zero-sum game that tallies the increasing influence of one country and the reduction of another’s. One popular narrative suggests that the return of the Taliban will lead to an Afghanistan-China-Pakistan nexus and that India has lost out.It might be more pertinent from the viewpoint of strategic policy to look not just at the convergence of interests but also at the divergences. China would like to see stability that will allow it economic engagement with Afghanistan. It has already invested heavily in the country’s mineral wealth and has been waiting to reap it. Neither China nor Russia would like to see unrest on their borders/near borders. China’s boundary with Afghanistan borders Xinjiang, and China has been critical of the way the US has withdrawn troops rather than happy about the exit of its strategic competitor. Russia has been deeply concerned about the problem of drugs flowing from Afghanistan, and even collaborated with the US in counternarcotics measures. Iran and Pakistan will both bear the brunt of the exodus of refugees from Afghanistan and while Pakistan has provided safe sanctuary to the Taliban, allowing them to grow in strength and capability from the safe havens, the Taliban in power in Afghanistan may make it more difficult to operate against their own home-grown terror networks. <figure><img width="1000" height="750" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd819c7e80680e0a0beajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="1000" height="750" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd849c7e80680e0a0bebjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Until now, regional political power has been exercised at the behest of the Americans with countries it considers to be inimical kept out of the way. That template will have broken down with the American departure, and political change in Kabul. But a regional approach based on common interests, short, medium and long-term can be found only if the countries do not look for the zero-sum approach. And, what about all of us in the region? Can we leave it to our governments? ***Afghans and Afghanistan are us“We are not Americans,” the young Afghan man told me angrily, and, I thought, patronisingly. It was 2004 in Kabul and we were in the middle of a fierce debate on independence of media and women’s rights, the two issues which have come to the fore in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover of Kabul. The young man, R, was insistent that all this talk of rights was an American imposed program, alien to the culture of Afghanistan. “Nor am I American,” I answered, emphasising that my footprint was firmly in the region. My shift to a regional paradigm changed the tone of the conversation that day, and we were able to have a discussion based on substance rather than on stereotypes. I was to find this again and again as I navigated through the complex space of a country emerging from years of isolation, one, which seemed, then, to be on the brink of a more hopeful future. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-repatriation-from-kabul-starts/">Nepali repatriation from Kabul starts</a>, Nepali Times <figure><img width="1000" height="750" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd879c7e80680e0a0becjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>To me it seemed as though the complexities of the country and the opportunities, its strengths and its problems mirrored ours, different certainly in scale and acuteness but nonetheless familiar and tractable. The problems facing Afghan women had not disappeared with the removal of the Taliban. Some areas experienced much greater freedom, and some faced more problems. The most brutal interpretation of Sharia was gone, but it still took presidential diktat to save an Afghan from execution for perceived blasphemy. Over the eight years that I lived there, I also saw a growing erosion of support for women’s rights. An Afghan woman activist was denied appointment as a minister by the parliament because her work for safe houses for women was considered immoral. Women were still being incarcerated in Pul-e-Charkhi prison outside Kabul for the crime of running away from abusive homes. They were guilty since, as possessions of the family, they were considered to have committed a theft against their family by running away. Women ran radio stations and became TV anchors. In some places they were also forced to leave the radio stations they had joined as their voices on air were considered unbecoming by their families. The space which had opened up after the removal of the Taliban was full of possibilities. It was also full of struggle. It also felt familiar, the way it did in many parts of India where many women like me had many more rights than others did. It felt familiar the way it did in the villages of Haryana where I had reported from homes where Hindu women observed deep purdah as many Afghan women continued to do. In Kabul I wore the same head covering I had worn in many villages in India on my reporting trips and received some lectures from western women journalists on how I was supposed to show the way to Afghan women by discarding it. When some of the women’s rights started being eroded under the growing clout of the ultra-conservative militia leaders they had put in power, western diplomats started to talk about cultural relativity. I found myself asserting that I came from a similar culture but that the rights to life, liberty and safety were neither relative nor negotiable. The reigning narrative of the Taliban was one of oppression of religious minorities. Except that in the popular narrative it was oppression of non-Muslim minorities - the Hindus and Sikhs. What I found in Afghanistan was different. One of the first de rigueur interviews as an Indian journalist was with the leaders of the Sikh community in Kabul’s Karte Parwan area.  <figure><img width="500" height="668" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd8a9c7e80680e0a0bedjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The Sikh leader complained about the deterioration of security after the departure of the Taliban. They said their religious rights had not been impinged upon by the Taliban whose focus was on making Muslims observant of all the religious practices. I thought about that today when I heard the Indian government had decided to discriminate on religious grounds, and offered help only to the Hindus and Sikhs of Afghanistan. I thought about the outcry over independent media in Afghanistan today when I read about journalists in Srinagar being thrashed while reporting on the muharram procession.I knew about the outrage of the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. When I travelled to Bamiyan valley I also saw the areas where communities of Hazaras had been massacred around the same time, with much less international comment. I had gone to live in Afghanistan in 2003. In 2002 I had marched in the streets of Delhi and organised meetings after the state-assisted massacres of Muslims in Gujarat. I would not have been working in Afghanistan had the Taliban still been there and I could see the young Afghans I worked with and met amazed at the opportunities.They would show me their ID cards from the Taliban times, long bearded and morose, laughing at how much older they had looked then – but it also felt familiar, like the struggles of much of our region against femicide and infanticide, against horrific dowry deaths and religious discrimination, against the use of state power to brutal ends. It didn’t feel like another planet the way it seemed to do to some westerners. The truth is that long before the Americans abandoned Afghanistan, we in the region, had relinquished our claims to a shared kinship based on geography, history and culture, looking at the country as a mutation of our worst fears, and one can draw a line, perhaps not straight, but jagged, from there to what we see today. But now, perhaps, it is time. It is time we in the region not leave it to our governments, and to claim Afghanistan and Afghans as one of us.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/who-will-rescue-nepalis-from-afghanistan/"> Who will rescue Nepalis from Afghanistan?</a>Aunohita Mojumdar is a Southasian journalist. She lived and worked in Kabul for 8 years.

Afghanistan abandoned

<figure><img width="960" height="640" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151112/636d06c19c7e80680e0a5f7fjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>The 1.5 million doses of the Johnson &amp; Johnson vaccines by the United States under the global COVAX facility has arrived in Kathmandu via a Qatar Airways flight on Monday morning. With this, the US has now become the largest single-country donor of Covid assistance to Nepal.
US ambassador Randy Berry and Health Minister Krishna Gopal Shrestha were at the airport to receive the consignment, a total of 1,534,850 doses. A formal handover took place later at Prime Minister K P Oli's residence in Baluwatar.
“These vaccines will not only save lives and help Nepal emerge from this pandemic, but they will also help to recover economic losses and regain the opportunity to safely visit with our friends, families, and neighbours,” said Berry speaking at the arrival ceremony.
The Health Ministry is considering inoculating migrant workers waiting to leave for their jobs at the destination countries with the single-shot jab given that they can’t return or wait for the second dose. A preliminary report also suggests that people in the 50-54 age group will receive the shots. There has been no official confirmation yet. 
It is yet unclear if the J&amp;J vaccine is part of the 2,000,000 allocated by the COVAX for 20% of Nepal’s population. The World Health Organisation’s COVAX initiative has so far delivered 348,000 doses of the Covishield AstraZeneca vaccines to the country and is sending its next consignment to Kathmandu by August.
The 1.5 million J&amp;J doses are a part of the 7 million pledged by President Joe Biden to South Asian countries last month, of the 1 billion doses from the G-7 promised at a summit in the UK last month.
The Biden Administration has already shipped 1.5 million doses of the Moderna shots to Pakistan and the first consignment of the 2.5 million it set aside for Bangladesh. The United States also announced 500,000 doses of Moderna jabs to Bhutan.
According to the US embassy, since the beginning of the pandemic, the United States has delivered nearly $70 million for Covid-19 assistance to Nepal. This includes $55 million mobilised by USAID for oxygen cylinders, breathing devices, Covid-19 testing, contact tracing, treatment, personal protective equipment, and infection prevention.
Similarly, the United States Department of Defense has provided over $7.3 million for isolation and disaster camps, oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, and non-invasive breathing and oxygen therapy devices, telemedicine equipment, handwashing stations, and medical equipment and gear for health clinics and health care workers.
The United States has also pledged $4 billion to support COVAX with the purchase and delivery of Covid-19 vaccines to 92 low- and middle-income countries.

Johnson & Johnson in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131116/636cec219c7e80680e09ad49jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Illustration: DIWAKAR CHHETRI</figcaption></figure>Nepal's prolonged political deadlock has not just affected the country’s response to Covid-19, it has also delayed the implementation of an American-aided project to upgrade Nepal’s electricity transmission grid.The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">controversial</a> Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project is the biggest single bilateral grant for a specific project in Nepal by a foreign country, but <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-millennium-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has become the focus of an intense power struggle </a>rival parties, and is tangled in regional and global geopolitics.A big part of the $500 million MCC grant is ear-marked for the Kathmandu-Hetauda-Butwal 400KVa transmission line which will eventually evacuate electricity generated from existing and new <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/decentralising-hydropower/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hydropower plants</a> on the Budi Gandaki, Trisuli, Kali Gandaki, Marsyangdi, Kosi, and Tamakosi corridors, and link it to Gorakhpur in India. A smaller component of the project will upgrade arterial highways. The Nepal government is putting up another $130 million as a counterpart fund.However, critics in Nepal see the MCC as America’s strategic counter to China’s Belt Road Initiative. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">comment by US Under Secretary of State David J Ranz</a> in 2019 that the MCC was indeed a part of the US <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/between-two-oceans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Indo-Pacific Strategy</a>added fuel to the fire.Sandwiched between India and China, Nepal was already in a strategic tight spot, but a recent flare-up in Sino-Indian tension and US-China rivalry have caught Nepal in the crossfire. In addition, opponents of Prime Minister K P Oli have weaponised the MCC and used the project to weaken his position.But Nepal’s energy planners say that even if the MCC is delayed or cancelled, the country will have to find alternatives to build the transmission lines.“We cannot afford this uncertainty we must have a Plan B in place, otherwise we will face a huge problem. There will be all this electricity being generated in the next few years, but no way to take it to consumers,” says Hitendra Dev Shakya, who heads the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). “We have to build the transmission lines with or without American aid.”The reason behind the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-millennium-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">transmission line being prioritised</a> is to send the electricity produced from throughout Nepal, and any future monsoon surplus can then be exported to India and the same lines can be used to import power in winter if required.New projects with a generation capacity of 330MW are under construction on the Bhote Kosi in Rasuwa and Nuwakot. A further 500MW will be generated from other hydropower schemes whose construction was delayed due to the pandemic.New 220KVa transmission lines are ready to bring that electricity to Kathmandu Valley, but they only have the capacity to carry the new load from projects now under construction. But the NEA has already made Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) to buy about 6,000MW of electricity from private operators, and the distribution of that power will depend on the MCC-funded distribution system. The NEA says it urgently needs another transmission link to bring power from plants on the Tama Kosi to Kathmandu and to eastern Nepal via Hetauda.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131116/636cec259c7e80680e09ad4ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="880" height="840"><a href="https://www.mcc.gov/where-we-work/country/nepal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The MCC</a> was set up in 2004 by the US Congress during the George W Bush presidency to help developing nations reduce poverty through financial aid. Since then, as Sino-US tensions grew it has taken on a strategic dimension as the two powers compete for global connectivity. The $500 million MCC grant to Nepal was sanctioned in 2017 to improve Nepal’s energy and road infrastructure.Nepal was suffering 18 hours of power cuts a day when the agreement was signed, and after much deliberation, Nepal’s planners, politicians and bureaucrats decided that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-millennium-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">transmission lines were the most urgently needed</a> since powerplants were already under construction. The generated electricity need to be taken to load centres, this would increase the renewable component of Nepal’s energy mix by replacing imported petroleum, and finally, to export any surplus to India.Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/post-truth-politics-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Millennium Challenge Authority Nepal (MCA-Nepal)</a> has been set up and the office has already finalised the design of the 315km transmission line of 400KVa capacity with three new sub-stations. But the delay in Parliament’s ratification of the project means it cannot issue tender bids, and this will put 2,600MW of electricity at risk of being wasted in eh coming two years.<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17959" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Khadga Bahadur Bista</a>, the CEO of MCA-Nepal estimates about it takes up to five months to select a contractor even if the project is ratified by Parliament, and after that, it will take another nine months to start construction.“We are all set to kick start this project and are ready to call for international tender bids, but due to it still pending in the Parliament we have not been able to make progress,” Bista told Nepali Times. Just Do ItThe NEA says that Nepal is now generating 1,400MW of electricity, and this is set to more than triple in the next three years to 5,000MW, with the largest hydropower project so far in Nepal, the 456MW Upper Tama Kosi coming on stream in July, if it is not delayed again by the lockdown.Other hydroelectricity projects totalling 2,500MW are planned are in the financial negotiations stage, they are set to come into operation by 2026.But the more urgent need is power transmission to accommodate the new projects in the next three years as Nepal struggles to keep up with demand. The current peak demand is 1,150MW, which drops to 700MW at night. Generation capacity also fluctuates during the monsoon and dry season between surplus and scarcity because most of the hydro projects are of the run-of-river type without large reservoirs.To avoid electricity from going to waste during the monsoon, Nepal can export the surplus power to India, and import in winter. The agreements are in place with India to facilitate power trade, but current transmission lines cannot bear future load. The MCC-funded transmission lines are also required for domestic distribution and grid management.The present Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur crossborder transmission line connects India and Nepal but can only handle 1,000MW each way, but practically it can only bear 800MW. This means by late next year, Nepal’s new surplus monsoon electricity is sure to go waste.This will not just be a wasted opportunity for Nepal to reduce its trade imbalance and partly pay for its winter power import from India, but also affect private hydropower investors in Nepal. This scenario can be avoided if the proposed 400KVa Butwal-Gorakhpur transmission line.The catch here is that the NEA has signed an understanding with the private hydropower investors that it will buy electricity they generate only if the surplus can be exported to India. Any delay in building the Butwal-Gorakhpur transmission line to India, therefore would ultimately impact Nepal’s own private power producers. This put their investment at risk, affect the banking sector, and ultimately Nepal’s overall economy.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131116/636cec279c7e80680e09ad4bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="946" height="526"><figcaption>Illustration: BHANU BHATTARAI</figcaption></figure>Critics of the MCC have pointed out that exporting power to India is not a priority, and Nepal should use power from the new projects to foster value-added energy-intensive industries in Nepal itself. However, the MCC transmission lines will be needed even to feed power within the country.In addition, at the rate power demand is rising in Nepal, even if 5,000MW is generated in the monsoon, the capacity of the run-of-river schemes will drop to one-third in the dry season – as it has done during this year’s winter drought. The higher capacity transmission lines are therefore required to import power from India until such time as Nepal’s generation capacity in winter is augmented with storage projects like Budi Gandaki.NEA’s Shakya says the MCC project will form a backbone of Nepal’s electricity grid, and by linking it to the Indian grid it will be more robust and flexible, allowing load sharing and management. The MCC-funded transmission lines are also critical for meeting Kathmandu Valley’s future demand growth, to transfer power generated in eastern Nepal to the western half of the country during the monsoon, and from west to east in the winter.Fortunately, electricity supply and demand in Nepal and India complement each other. In summer, when demand rises in India Nepal has surplus power, and in winter when Nepal’s supply cannot meet demand, it can import from India.The same is true within Nepal. There is a nearly one month lag between the time the monsoon arrives in eastern Nepal in early June, and by the time it starts raining heavily in western Nepal in mid-July. This means projects in eastern Nepal are already operating at full capacity, and the surplus electricity can be sent to western Nepal where it is still dry – if there was the necessary east-west transmission system.“The risk that we will have to face in the coming years if this project does not materialise will be unimaginable,” Shakya warns. “If these transmission lines are not built through the MCC grant, we have to immediately start moving towards an alternative.”Good connectivityNepal signed the MCC Compact Agreement in September 2017 which allowed the MCC Board in Washington to release the grant amount of $500 million (Rs59 billion) for the development of Nepal’s electricity transmission line and road infrastructure. But everything has been stuck for more than a year because a provision in the agreement that required ratification by Parliament.The Americans insisted on this clause so that the project would be valid no matter which government was in power in Nepal, but that is also the reason that the MCC has become a punching bag for those against Prime Minister Oli—even though his predecessors in other parties opposing the project were in government when the agreement was signed. The NC leadership which is now in the opposition, as well as NCP leaders that included the Maoist Centre and UML, who are vehemently getting the MCC scrapped today were involved in approving and planning the project.Foreign affairs experts explain that the MCC has been caught up in domestic oneupmanship between Nepal’s leaders and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/covid-19-and-the-new-great-game/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">international geopolitics</a>. Nepal’s politicians have a tendency to be north-facing or south-facing, or both, and are generally not able to work together for the national interest. This is made worse by the absence of trust, and a lack of dignity.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131116/636cec2a9c7e80680e09ad4cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="1000"><figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>The US side has informed the government that the MCC grant is not open-ended and the deadline is looming. However, the MCC has also suffered collateral damage as Prime Minister Oli dissolved the Lower House on 20 December, and then ended the winter session on 19 April. The Special Session has been called for 10 May as Prime Minister Oli seeks a confidence vote. If he loses, the country will go for early elections in six month’s time. The budget session of the House could pass the MCC, but with the intense political polarisation, it will not be easy.Despite the agreement being signed by both governments, therefore, it is languishing because of Nepal’s internal dynamics. The main objection from the detractors is that it is a part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States, and that several provisions of the agreement undermine the sovereignty of Nepal.Bhim Rawal, a staunch anti-Oli UML leader, as well as Pushpa Kamal Dahal and other Maoist Centre leaders are against the agreement being ratified by Parliament, more because of their opposition to a project Oli is pushing than other reasons. A committee constituted under the convener of UML leader Jhalanath Khanal and others had recommended last year that the agreement be passed with amendments.Though the project has still not got off the ground, it has already spent about $3 million for preparations, which the US and Nepal government have shared half-half. It was used for the mapping and design of the transmission lines, the pylons, sub-stations, and preparing tender documents.The EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the overall project is in the final stages. The task of acquiring the land under the project in Ratmate of Nuwakot, where the sub-station will be constructed is nearing completion. The Nepal government has allocated Rs10.3 billion this fiscal year for MCC, but till mid-December only Rs140 million had been spent.

Power politics delays MCC in Nepal

The daily 10-hour curfew at Tribhuvan International Airport from 8 November that will last five months has affected tourism during Nepal’s peak season, with some hotels and trekking agencies here reporting cancellations into spring next year. The reduced hours at Nepal’s main aviation gateway till 31 March means that a third of all flights have been cut. This has also caused ticket prices to surge by up to eight times of normal fares. For example a Kathmandu-Delhi ticket that used to cost Rs12,000 is now listed at Rs50,000, and even then seats are not available.&nbsp; “Especially if they are here to trek, change in flight dates can cause tourists to miss their connections,” says Jagan Timilsina, who runs a trail running and outdoor education business. &nbsp; Pokhara is feeling the brunt as hotels report last-minute cancellations for November because of flight disorders. Some hoteliers also say although there have been some cancelled trips, most itineraries have been rescheduled.&nbsp; Hari Prasad Sharma Gaire of the local chapter of the Hotel Association of Nepal says the Kathmandu airport closure should have been timed for the off-season. He told us: “Starting construction during the peak tourist season was a mistake and will cause the tourism industry to lose a lot of business. The upgrade could have been spread out over a longer time but closed for fewer hours at night so that disruption was minimal.”&nbsp; Nearly a third of the 1.2 million tourists who visit Nepal annually come to Pokhara, which is also the gateway to Mustang, the Annapurna treks and pilgrimage tourism to Muktinath. Located by scenic lakes with a range of adventure sports like hot air ballooning, paragliding, canyoning, bungee and ziplines, Pokhara is also popular among diaspora Nepalis. “Besides its own attractions, Pokhara is really the hub for central Nepal, and we have been trying to get visitors to extend their stay here,” says Timilsina, who started out as a trekking porter and rose up the ranks to be an expedition guide and entrepreneur. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111603114_0e071ce63ea9b0a9a7ee76f8c3cea0ff08c6767c41dd09f6bc4413d2db067a60.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024111603114_0e071ce63ea9b0a9a7ee76f8c3cea0ff08c6767c41dd09f6bc4413d2db067a60" data-rendition-name="original" width="3500" height="2333" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara's tourism woes NT"> <figcaption>Tourist arrivals in Pokhara have slumped since the disruptions at Kathmandu airport due to upgrading work. Photo: KRISHNA MANI BARAL/NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVE</figcaption> </figure>  Even without the Kathmandu airport closure affecting tourist arrivals, Pokhara was already suffering from a decline due to many factors like the poor state of the Prithvi Highway, the shortage of luxury accommodation for high-end tourists, and the reluctance of international airlines to start direct flights to Pokhara despite an expensive new airport that was inaugurated two years ago.&nbsp; “There was a lot of initial excitement on the construction of the international airport,” says Timilsina, “but it hasn’t delivered as expected due to politics. People have invested in nearby businesses, and have faced losses.” India has blocked direct flights from its cities to Pokhara because the facility was built by a Chinese company. Although tourists and pilgrims from India hit record levels this year, the poor state of the highways and the Indian bus accident on the highway to Kathmandu in July that killed 27 pilgrims from Maharashtra state dampened arrival figures. Gaire says, “While tourist arrivals to Pokhara are now approaching pre-Covid levels, we haven’t seen the improvement we were expecting. We need a better marketing strategy. What are our embassies abroad doing?”&nbsp; Indeed, Pokhara used to be a favourite destination for Chinese tourists. There was a boom in arrivals from China before Covid, especially after a popular Chinese tv serial was shot on location here. But arrivals from China have not really recovered since the pandemic because of the economic slowdown there. Promoting Pokhara airport to handle direct flights from Chengdu or Kunming could revive Chinese arrivals.&nbsp; Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN) has used the Kathmandu airport closure as an excuse to arm-twist international airlines to start flying to Bhairawa, which has barely been in operation for two years since it was inaugurated. So far, Fly Dubai, Thai AirAsia, Jazeera and Qatar are flying to Bhairawa, but most use it as a hop before flying on to Kathmandu, which does not reduce congestion at Kathmandu.&nbsp; An ideal situation could have been to get Pokhara to run to full capacity while Kathmandu is partially out of action. Pokhara entrepreneurs are puzzled why the CAAN and the national government have not taken more interest in promoting Pokhara as an alternative to reduce the congestion in Kathmandu. Nepal’s football team that was flying to Dushanbe this week couldn’t get tickets via Delhi, and took a domestic flight to Bhadrapur, crossed over to Bagdogra and flew on to Delhi to catch their flight to Tajikistan.

Pokhara’s tourism woes

An excerpt of a conversation between an anthropologist and linguist Mark Turin, PhD and Lava Deo Awasthi, PhD, the first Chairperson of the Language Commission of Nepal. Nepali Times: What is the role of Nepal’s Language Commission and when was it formed? Lava Deo Awasthi: The Constitution of Nepal (2015) created a Language Commission (LC) with the following four core mandates: (a) to develop eligibility criteria for gaining status as an official language and offer recommendations to the Government of Nepal about the official language(s) in each province; (b) to offer recommendations to the Government about measures to be taken for the conservation, promotion, and development of languages; (c) to suggest possible ways of using mother tongues in education by assessing their stage of development; and, (d) to conduct studies, carry out research and perform monitoring functions about the response to the constitutional provisions for the federalisation of languages in Nepal. The Commission was founded in 2016 and I was appointed as the Chairperson of the Commission in September of the same year by the Cabinet of Ministers. What in your own professional and educational background helped to prepare you for the role? I have worked with the Government of Nepal for about 30 years, alongside holding teaching appointments at universities in Nepal. Prior to assuming the role of the Chairperson of the Commission, I served as permanent Secretary to the Government of Nepal and worked as the Chief Administrator of the Central Development Region. I was appointed as Director General of the Department of Education and completed my assignments as Joint Secretary at the Planning, Monitoring and Educational Administration Divisions of the Ministry of Education.&nbsp; In addition, I have taught courses as a visiting professor at Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu University for more than three decades. Later, I also started supervising MPhil and PhD students at the Far Western University in Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur. My PhD project from the Danish University of Education was dedicated to making sense of Nepal’s social construct and commitment to multilingualism, exploring the persistence of monolingual school practices in the face of constitutional promises and state commitments to multilingualism. I conducted a survey of Nepal’s languages and carried out a qualitative study of the Tharu language in the district of Bardia. I analysed language policy statements and explored classroom pedagogies in schools. I documented how teachers showed a tendency to resist change and maintain the status quo because they were not consulted when new educational language policies were introduced. Teachers also exhibited a deeply-held adherence to the Gurukul education system which appears to have been harnessed as a way to resist newer pedagogical ideologies imported from the West. Recognising how engrained these rich traditions of knowledge transmission are, I wanted to know how students’ engagement in the learning process appeared to have dwindled, creating a gap between children’s home languages and the language(s) of the school. Whilst statutory provisions for education in the mother tongue were oriented towards promotion, classroom pedagogies remained resolutely monolingual and exclusionary. The result was that multilingual education policies that had been introduced in Nepal did not result in meaningful changes in classroom practices. My research was also a reflection of childhood traumas I had experienced at the earliest stage of formal education. My home language, Baitadeli, has a strong oral tradition and no written literature. English is my fifth language in terms of exposure and competence, and my home district of Baitadi is well-known for its loyalty to the local language. I had to drop out of school after completing my sixth grade. Staying at home, I received much attention from my family and had much greater exposure to my native language, culture and environment. My overall impression is that dropping out of school had a surprisingly positive impact on my life. The opportunity offered a surprising dividend for me as I gained mastery in my mother tongue and received extensive exposure to folk literature and Indigenous knowledge and survival skills, cultivating my interest in language, culture, literature and local cosmologies.&nbsp; Now that I reflect on it, I appreciate how language has always played a key role in my life. I grew up in a multilingual environment: brought up with Baitadeli, Hindi, Sanskrit, Nepali and English. Language played a major part in my decision to leave school and my later success is closely linked to my competence in several languages. It was rewarding to be at home with my family as I deepened my understanding of native language and culture, which in turn helped me to harness and refine my art of living. Languages matter so much to me because they are both software and hardware. Later, when I was in secondary school, I realised that my command of my home language contributed significantly to enhancing my Nepali and English. I used my mother tongue as a form of linguistic capital to strengthen my competence in both English and Nepali.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111811110_5400ba54792bf9e4854e1c1effde8bf09804e99647f23513700b450cc49adc4a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024111811110_5400ba54792bf9e4854e1c1effde8bf09804e99647f23513700b450cc49adc4a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Dr Lava Deo Awasthi"> </figure>  In your term as the Commission’s first Chairperson, what were your strategic goals and objectives? My first strategic goal was to create an environment conducive to implementing the provisions of the Constitution of Nepal in relation to language. My priority was to prepare a detailed action plan for my six-year tenure in consultation with language stakeholders, including language experts, professionals, activists, Indigenous community members and representatives of relevant national and local-level institutions. The Commission formed a body of high-level advisors to ensure that the Chairperson’s work was well-informed and credible. The advisors to the committee had highly visible professional and social reputations in Nepal and had much experience in the field of language conservation, promotion, research and development. Another strategy we adopted was to establish close institutional linkages with federal, provincial, and local level governments for collecting opinions and disseminating information widely.&nbsp; What critical issues did you have to consider while discharging your duty? When Nepal’s new Constitution was drafted, a number of concerns could not be adequately addressed. These related to the conservation of languages, the recognition of official languages at the provincial level, and the use of mother tongues at federal, provincial, and local levels. These unresolved issues and matters pertaining to the federalizsation of Nepal’s languages were passed on to the Language Commission to address and resolve.&nbsp; Regarding the recommendations for official languages, a five-year timeline had been set by the Constitution. With great effort, we succeeded in having all provinces agree to recognise their official languages as per the recommendations of the Commission.&nbsp; What were your greatest achievements during your term? One of the greatest achievements was that we succeeded in setting a language agenda at all levels. Nepal’s language communities and other stakeholders expressed the view that this was the first time their languages were recognised and their voices heard by the state. People participated in debates and discussed issues relating to language that in all likelihood had never before happened in their lifetimes, at least not in ways that were supported by the state. We encouraged people to speak in their own language(s) and provided translators during plenary sessions and group discussions. Another major achievement was developing criteria for the status planning of languages at federal, provincial, and local levels, and to recommend 11 province-level official languages, in addition to the Nepali language. Similarly, a notable achievement was recognising Indigenous languages spoken by smaller communities, all of whom faced ongoing marginalisation and high levels of endangerment. The Commission identified 9 new languages that had not been reported in the 2011 census, and provided a framework for recognising official languages within a municipality. The commission emphasised the need for documentation and digitisation of languages for developing corpora and archives at national and sub-national levels.&nbsp; Languages of historical importance as well as classical languages were given recognition for their protection, growth, and development. Recommendations were made for the conservation, promotion and development of Nepal’s marginalised languages that are threatened by majority languages and for those languages that hold particular power at local and global levels. Recommendations were also made for how best to safeguard Nepal’s languages from the ever-growing spread of English and other powerful, globalising languages.&nbsp; A further important aspect of the Commission’s work was to emphasise mother tongue medium instruction in schools across the nation. Recognising the role of language in children’s cognitive, socio-emotional and academic development, the Commission suggested strategies for linking schools with ward-level language clusters for use in the classroom. The importance of nurturing and respecting a child’s first language was reiterated in the Commission’s recommendations for children’s learning and all-round development. By the end of my term, a remarkable change could be observed in terms of building trust within and across Nepal’s diverse language communities. A network of language groups and stakeholders across the country proved to be a powerful way of bringing all language communities under one roof for a collective review of and response to the process of federalising language policy. The many language stakeholders across Nepal appreciated the opportunity to work within a coordinated framework, and—feeling empowered by this—seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the initiatives taken by the Commission.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111811114_b45297fdd2fedf17bdb6313e495a1062c0d87f1a19fa5349f871f220b75f93ab.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024111811114_b45297fdd2fedf17bdb6313e495a1062c0d87f1a19fa5349f871f220b75f93ab" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Dr Lava Deo Awasthi NT"> </figure>  What were the most significant challenges for you as Chairperson? One of the major challenges was winning people’s trust in advocating for the mission of the Language Commission. I faced considerable resistance as I sought to emphasise the use of native languages in families and communities. While the Commission advocated for multilingualism and promoted linguistic diversity, the prevailing policy circles and central level institutions had been deeply influenced by a one-language discourse and ideology of Nepali only. The spread of English also poses a huge threat to Nepal’s languages. However, people in power do not seem to see this as a problem. They tend to abandon their own languages in preference for English. The way that Nepal’s municipalities are increasingly introducing English as a medium of instruction at the earliest stage of a child’s school-based education has proven to be detrimental to their cognitive development, socio-emotional wellbeing and academic success. Most of Nepal’s elites have been heavily influenced by the spread of English and remain unaware about its impact on their home languages as well as on the inter-generational transmission of Indigenous languages in the country. I wish that we could have produced more compelling evidence to show the consequences of making poor policy choices for our children’s education. Demystification calls for a collective response. To make change happen across this entire, complex and federalising country was daunting work and left like a race against time. I feel that I could have done more to offer concrete examples in favour of using the mother tongue as a medium of children’s education at the earliest stages of a child’s education. What do you see the Language Commission achieving in the next 5-10 years? The Language Commission will have to ensure that all of its key recommendations are implemented at all levels of government. In 10 years’ time, all seven of Nepal’s provinces will have their official languages in place. These languages will also be recognised as languages of federal business, alongside Nepali. I anticipate that all official languages in the federal and provincial systems will have a national portal for inter-language corpora using machine translation to fulfil their federal, provincial and local level language functions, and that all languages spoken in Nepal will be represented through a digital database in the national archive. The Office of Statistics will monitor the status of Nepal’s languages over time. By the end of the next decade, each municipality in the country will have recognised one or two official languages at the local level, based on speech populations. Other local languages will have received community-level legal recognition and official status to fulfil their functional roles. Languages that are highly endangered or at risk will be entitled to receive state grants for enhancing local level capabilities to encourage families and young learners to speak the language. Incentive schemes will be introduced in municipalities that promote language within the family and at home. Inter-generational transmission of languages will have received welcome and timely attention across Nepal. It is my hope that all schools—public and private—will have introduced mother tongue medium instruction at the earliest stage of school education, at least up to class five. Nepali, English and other national as well as classical and foreign languages will be taught as subjects. The existing policy of English medium education at the early stage of education will be abolished. The Government of Nepal will be held accountable if the number of speakers of any language decreases or if local communities face language loss and greater endangerment. Under the aegis of the Language Commission, a Centre for Language Research and Innovation will be created with world-class facilities for language documentation and archiving in collaboration with Tribhuvan University’s Central Department of Linguistics and other relevant institutions. Harnessing the vastness of Nepal’s linguistic diversity, the Language Commission will morph into a centre of excellence for national and international communities to engage in collaborative language research, to share experiences and document best practices at in service of global linguistic diversity and Nepal’s many Indigenous languages.

Languages are both software and hardware

Nearly 750,000 Nepalis went abroad for employment in the past year, and more than 100,000 left on student visas. Most of them were young Nepali men and women, and the number has been increasing every year. As with other sections of society, Nepal’s security agencies also face a recruitment crisis. Nepal Police opened recruitment for 64 inspectors in September, and received 2,239 applications, compared to 2,718 candidates last year. Police also invited candidates for 256 assistant sub-inspectors this year for which it received 17,756 applications – down from 19,932 last year. It is the same story in the Nepal Army, the number of applicants for the post of Officer Cadet (Second Lieutenant) went down from 6,144 for 400 open seats in 2019 to 4,390 in 2020. Meanwhile, applicants in the paramilitary Armed Police Force went down from 857 applications for 75 posts in 2021 to 536 applicants for 99 posts last year. While the number of applicants appears higher than the demand, the data shows a significant decrease in applications for vacancies in Nepal’s law enforcement agencies. Security personnel are recruited on the basis of rank and age in Nepal, and the age cutoff for entry into Nepal’s security agencies is typically 25 years. Sociologist and migration expert Ganesh Gurung says that the demographic of young, physically fit Nepalis emigrating abroad in search of better opportunities has impacted recruitment into law enforcement and the military here at home. “The returns from working in Nepal’s police and army are minimal, whereas overseas job opportunities are more attractive,” Gurung says. “The work may be physically demanding abroad, but the pay is a lot higher.”  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241116041148_a7e477e0ee2f56acf16c2559fdb24d8f0377f7bc1f9e56138bc40108fc4fa33f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20241116041148_a7e477e0ee2f56acf16c2559fdb24d8f0377f7bc1f9e56138bc40108fc4fa33f" data-rendition-name="original" width="800" height="534" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal Police"><figcaption>Nepal Police</figcaption></figure>  Nepal Police spokesperson DIG Dan Bahadur Karki agrees that the physical and mental demands of a law enforcement job is incomparable to the income that security personnel earn. “A young Nepali who works in Dubai earns enough to build a home in the village within four years, while a Nepali with the same qualifications and physical ability in a security agency here barely makes enough to survive,” says Karki. “Obviously the youth prefer foreign employment.” Security agencies are now worried about the quality of inducted manpower. “There is a difference in work ethic between an applicant chosen from a competitive pool of 50 candidates versus one chosen from a pool of three candidates,” explains Gurung. “Unmotivated employees hamper the overall performance of the state apparatus.” Nepal Army spokesperson Brigadier General Gaurab Kumar KC says recruitment has not been hampered by outmigration: “We have still been getting more than three times the applicants than there are open posts, so we are not yet worried.” Even so, the passing rates of aspirants have gone down for security forces after the Public Service Commission began examinations for military recruitment in 2015. In fact, the Nepal Army complained about the Commission’s involvement in recruitment. Still, the number of vacant military posts tends to exceed the number of passing candidates. Nepal Army’s KC says that the military will not compromise on intake criteria even if there are fewer passing applicants. “Unqualified persons will not be admitted even if there are less-than-required passing candidates. We will re-advertise if that is the case.” But Nepal’s security forces now also have to worry about retention of existing personnel. About 900 Nepal Army, 600 Nepal Police, and 300 Armed police personnel resign every year before the completion of their tenure.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241116041148_b8cd62f70eea3aac7d3d3778615a5b70b1e20550c9bd76321f051f9c766fd2a9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241116041148_b8cd62f70eea3aac7d3d3778615a5b70b1e20550c9bd76321f051f9c766fd2a9" data-rendition-name="original" width="750" height="378" loading="lazy" alt="Armed police forces"><figcaption>Armed Police Force</figcaption></figure>  In 2020, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa recalled almost 1,000 police personnel who had been deployed for the security of VIPs after long-standing criticism that security forces were being misused to cater to political and bureaucratic leadership. However, security personnel have continued to be assigned to high-ranking officials as glorified housekeepers. In December 2022, Rabi Lamichhane’s Home Ministry had instructed its offices to recall unauthorised security personnel assigned to high-ranking officials, following which 500 officers from Nepal Police and Armed Police Force were withdrawn from their details. But the Nepal Army does not have to follow such rules, and the practice of army personnel serving high-ranking active-duty and retired military personnel remains. Conditions here are dire enough that many active duty officers in Nepal’s military and police forces have chosen to leave their jobs to serve in the Russian Army to fight in the Ukraine war. The hierarchical culture and chain of command of politics, bureaucracy, law enforcement and military has also meant that abuse and mistreatment of subordinates is rife in Nepal’s security forces. “Feudalism is alive and well within our security institutions,” says Gurung. “When soldiers and security forces who swore to protect and serve the nation are made to be at the beck and call of politicians and bureaucrats, it is easy to understand why they are disillusioned with their jobs and why they choose to quit and find jobs abroad.”

Job insecurity in security forces

Earlier this month, Nepal received Rs1.6 billion from the World Bank as part of its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/will-nepal-ever-be-paid-for-saving-trees">Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)</a>, rewarding the country for increasing its carbon sink capacity. Nepal is the first in South Asia to benefit from this facility, and it is specifically to recompense the country for increasing forest cover in 13 Tarai districts between 2018-2024. “We are also trying to get another Rs13 billion from the facility while also preparing for free market-based carbon trading in the international market,” says Nabaraj Pudasaini of the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) Implementation Centre. Big emitters of greenhouse gases are under pressure to reduce their carbon emissions, and many have signed agreements to do so by investing in decarbonisation projects in developing countries. Countries that emit more than a specified amount of carbon would be able to buy emission rights from countries that emit less. Nepal is internationally known for its community forestry program which has been largely credited for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/tree-mendous">increasing tree cover to over 45%</a> in less than three decades. But this achievement had not been adequately recognised or rewarded internationally before. Forests, especially in the tropics, absorb and store large amounts of carbon while releasing oxygen in a process known as photosynthesis. <a href="https://www.fao.org/forest-resources-assessment/en/">Preventing deforestation</a> and increasing canopy cover is considered a much more achievable goal than reducing emission in the scale necessary to limit global average temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. COP11 in Montreal in 2005 first proposed reducing carbon emissions by improving forest quality by halting degradation. By 2015, a new mechanism of financial assistance was created to help less developed countries with sustainable management of forests <a href="https://www.un-redd.org/">(called REDD+)</a>. Under this new mechanism, countries receive aid based on their efforts to prevent forest degradation and increase carbon sink, and in 2021 the World Bank was entrusted with implementing it. Nepal’s FCPF receipt this month was calculated on the basis of 2.4 million tons of carbon stored at a rate of $5 per ton. In the second phase, Nepal will receive more than Rs4 billion within the next year for storing an additional 7 million tons of carbon. Eighty per cent of this amount obtained from carbon trading needs to be spent on local beneficiaries and indigenous communities.&nbsp; But carbon trading is not easy, Nepal needs to prove that protected forests will not be destroyed in future.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241121091132_c8a381c9a95aa86fec558951650d97bb87914741f01766982ba2b086af001f16.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241121091132_c8a381c9a95aa86fec558951650d97bb87914741f01766982ba2b086af001f16" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="999" loading="lazy" alt="Greenbacks for greenery NT "> <figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  Explains carbon trading expert Yugan Manandhar. “Forests should be handed over to the community and shown that they are managed sustainably. Proving this will be particularly challenging; forest encroachment and degradation is rife in the Tarai.” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke">Deliberate forest fires</a> have also added to the challenge because they increase carbon emissions and reduce the sink capacity of forests. The basis for the amount that Nepal received was set five years ago by calculating the carbon reserves of forests in the 13 Tarai districts. In the meantime, sustainable forest management, tree plantation, forest destruction and erosion control were prioritised to increase carbon reserves in those forests. Nepal is signing another carbon trading agreement during the ongoing Baku climate conference. The <a href="https://www.leafcoalition.org/">Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF Coalition) </a>proposes to sell the carbon stored in the forests of Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces. For this, Nepal signed the letter of intent three years ago at COP26 in Glasgow. The target is to store 70 million tons of carbon in 32 million hectares of forest in the three provinces per which Nepal will receive Rs13 billion in four years at $10 per ton with provisions to increase the rate if various conditions are met. However, the agreement in itself doesn’t guarantee the amount. According to the targets set by Nepal, forest degradation should be stopped and carbon reserves increased by protecting tree cover. Preparations are also underway for clean air carbon trade because it has offset fossil fuel use by introducing 30,000 electric vehicles. Nepal has been selected for the first round to receive $40 million within one and a half years through the Clean Air System of the World Bank. Given that most of Nepal’s energy mix is from biomass, replacing them with electric stoves can significantly improve health by reducing indoor pollution as well as strengthen the country’s capacity for carbon trade. “Nepal's goal now is to sell carbon in the free market where carbon credits are bought and sold based on supply and demand in an open and transparent manner,” adds Pudasaini of the REDD Implementation Centre. “Nepal can now set its own price and bargain with interested buyer countries and organisations.” Lately, India has been discussing setting up a carbon market. Nepal has exported Rs12.72 billion worth of electricity to India so far this fiscal year, which can be traded under Nepal’s carbon market. “Carbon trading can create significant economic benefits for Nepal, which will help reinvest in development and environmental protection projects,” says Manandhar. “But we must prioritise sustainable management of forests, cutting older trees and allowing regrowth as well as promoting electric stoves and electric vehicles.”

united-states