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According to media reports, some 45 people died from flooding and landslides in mid and western Nepal due to torrential rains last week. The death toll is expected to rise, as more rain is forecast and many villages are marooned by floodwaters. Rescue crews are finding it hard to reach some areas that remain inaccessible due to damaged roads. Dadeldhura and Accham, two of the poorest districts, which are hard to reach even in good weather are the ones most severely hit.
As a popular proverb goes, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me,” Nepal has been fooled many times over and yet there is no feeling of shame. Every year, the monsoons cause flooding, landslides, misery, death, destruction and hunger and yet, surprisingly there are no advance preparations or preventive measures to combat it, as if natural disasters are totally natural and somehow the poor deserve it for being poor and ignorant.
There was a time, not very long ago, when Nepal used to have miles of dense forests, undisturbed and protected. They formed a natural layer of protection against raging rivers and landslides. Forests also balance the environment, preventing soil erosion, which helps agriculture and local ecosystems.
But with the promise of rapid development, these precious national treasures have been squandered. Forests have been cleared for housing, construction projects and agriculture with little or no thought for the environment.
Successive governments paid lip service to preserving Nepal's natural beauty and little was done to protect forests. Deforestation is so rampant that presently only 29 percent of the country's forests remain. So, it is no surprise that every year swollen rivers cause so much havoc and destruction because there are no forests standing to block their way.
The same goes for landslides. Uncontrolled population growth and rapid urbanization has pushed people to cut trees and build houses in their place.
Outside of Kathmandu valley, hills that were once covered with trees and vegetation are no longer in sight, their place taken by houses. When rain comes, there are no trees to hold the land and it slides down taking houses and people with it.
In some parts of the country, community efforts keep a close guard on surviving forests and actively police the area to keep loggers and unauthorized firewood collectors out. This is a remarkable public effort but unfortunately pales in comparison to the scale of the problem.
The solution to Nepal’s rapid deforestation lies in finding new energy sources and empowering villagers and communities who live near forests to manage resources in a sustainable way. In addition to encouraging management of forests and their sustainable growth, stronger law enforcement action is also required against loggers and those who deliberately start forest fires.
According to the World Wide Fund For Nature, finding new energy sources is important because 87 percent of Nepal’s domestic energy is produced by firewood. This is because other energy sources are expensive and in remote villages they are harder to get.
If the country invests in solar energy and biogas, it could provide citizens with cleaner energy sources. Since the startup cost in this case is high, there needs to be substantial government involvement to encourage participation.
Once the people realize how important forests are, they will organize ways to protect them. Having more forests will cut down the severity of flooding and landslides in Nepal, and hopefully a day will come when no monsoon will bring tears of misery.
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(Bhumika Ghimire is a freelance reporter. Her articles have been published at OhMyNews, NepalNews, Toward Freedom, Telegraph Nepal, Himal South Asian and ACM Ubiquity. She is also a regular contributor to News Front Weekly, in Kathmandu, and Nepal Abroad, in Washington D.C. She can be reached at bhumika_g@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Bhumika Ghimire.)
