Nepal

Kathmandu, September 11

Kathmandu Metropolitan City was declared an Open Defecation Free zone during a closed door meeting at the office of KMC yesterday despite reluctance of Mayor Bidhya Sundar Shakya.

Multiple sources told THT that Mayor Shakya was not ready to declare the metropolis an ODF zone, fearing it would be a ‘subject of ridicule.&

A high level government official at Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management said Mayor Shakya did not even want any research works on open defecation in the capital city. &After convincing the mayor a research committee was formed, which submitted its report giving green signal to declare KMC an ODF zone,& according to a source at KMC.

Head of the Kathmandu District Co-ordination Committee Shiva Sundar Rajbaidhya had handed over ODF certificate to mayor Shakya amidst handful of personnels.

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration in the first week of July had issued a circular to all local levels, including Kathmandu Metropolitan City, requesting them to expedite works to declare themselves as ODF zones. The government has set a deadline of September 30 this year to declare Nepal an ODF country. It has been found that the government was pushing hard to local governments to declare themselves ODF. Sanitation head of the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management, Devendra Jha said, &As per the ministrycirculation, we don&t have much time left to declare each local level ODF.&

The research committee formed bythe KMC reported that every house inside KMC had toilets, and people did not practice open defecation, according to Jha. Every house in an area needed to have at least one toilet as a minimum requirement to declare it ODF, said Jha.

KMCmove to declare Kathmandu ODF has, however, started drawing flak from people and right activists as the metropolis lacks public toilets, and open defecation has been persistent in the city.

Experts said availability of public toilets was one of the prerequisites to declare big cities like KMC an ODF zone. Ashok Maharjan, an urban environmentalist said, &Local government was found least bothered to build more public toilets. Declaring KMC as ODF zone in its current state is ridiculous.&

Prakash Amatya, an expert on water and sanitation suggested KMC to make agreements with local businesses, shopping malls and petrol pumps to allow general people to use their toilets. KMC was the last out of total 11 local governments in Kathmandu district to announce itself ODF zone. Since the KMC has now been declared ODF zone, the DoWSSM is planning to announce Kathmandu district an ODF on September 17.

The post Declaration of KMC as ODF zone flayed appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

Kathmandu, September 11

The Embassy of the United States in Kathmandu today said it was waiting for Nepal governmentofficial clarification on a Chinese foreign ministry statement issued yesterday that said Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Co-chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal had said Nepal did not endorse the US& Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Nepal Firmly adheres to the non-aligned policy and does not endorse the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy, and it opposes any attempt to stop Chinadevelopment, the Chinese ministrystatement has quoted Dahal as saying during his meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kathmandu yesterday.

According to the statement, Dahal said Nepal was committed to the one-China policy, not only verbally but also in action, and would not allow any external forces to engage in anti-China activities in Nepal.

Following the Chinese statement, the US Embassy said it had asked its embassy in Beijing to verify the statement. &If true, it is bewildering that we now learn about Nepalpositions from statements issued from Beijing,& said US Embassy Spokesperson Andie De Arment in a statement.

However, an aide of Dahal said that the Indo-Pacific Strategy featured in Dahal-Wang talks, but there was nothing negative about the Indo-Pacific Strategy in Dahalstatement.

&Dahal said during his meeting with Wang that the government and the ruling party does not endorse any such strategy of any country if that is against our neighbours or if that is not in Nepalnational interest,& the aide said.

&I think the statement does not say anything negative about the Indo-Pacific strategy,& the aide added.

The post US embassy ‘awaiting& government clarification appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

Kathmandu, September 11

The Meteorological Forecasting Division has predicted active monsoon conditions throughout the country for the next few days.

A meteorological analysis issued by the MFD today said the axis of the monsoon trough situated over the eastern part of the country was a bitlower than its average position, and was likely to trigger moderate to heavy rainfall, along with thunder and lightning. &Furthermore, monsoon low pressure areas developed over the Bay of Bengal coupled with humid winds are feeding moisture to parts of Nepal. These conditions will continue until Friday,& the MFD said.

In South Asian countries, including Nepal, the monsoon picks up more moisture from the Bay of Bengal. As there is high risk of landslides, the MFD has appealed to those travelling in hills or living in landslide-prone areas to stay on high alert. An advisory published by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology on its website said monsoon rain would lash a few parts of the country in the next 24 hours and warned against the risk of flash floods in rivers with rising water level.

&There are chances of flash floods in the Kankaki, Koshi, Kamala, Bagmati, Narayani, West Rapti, Babai and other major rivers, and in the rivers traversing through Provinces 1 and 2 for the next three days,& the advisory said. It has also alerted against possibledisruption of roads and air transports in hilly regions. The DHM issues flood forecast bulletin at 7:00am every day. Under special circumstances, it may issue alert warningat any time. The DHM said flood and weather forecast was provided to National Emergency Operation Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs, before publishing it on the website. The forecast is circulated to all the ministries, departments, Nepal Red Cross Society and organisations working on disaster risk management, besides publishing it on social media.

If water level of rivers reach or is likely to reach the red mark, generalpublic of the concerned areas will be alerted through SMS by Nepal Telecom and Ncell, according to DHM. Nepal receives an average of 80 per cent of annual rainfall during the monsoon, which originates from the Bay of Bengal and moves along the southern flanks of the Himalayas, bringing rains to Nepal. Average annual rainfall in Nepal is 1,600 mm, but it varies from place to place depending on climatic conditions.

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Kathmandu, September 11

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today went to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital and got catheter removed from his neck.

According to TUTH Cardiologist Arun Sayami, catheter (a kind of tube) was inserted in PMvein in the neck area when he underwent plasmapheresis at Singapore-based National University Hospital, last month. Sayami said catheter was removed from the PMneck today as per the advice of the doctors.

&Catheter cannot be removed immediately after plasmapheresis nor can it be left in the patientbody for a long time,& he said, adding, if catheter was left in patientbody, then that could cause infections.

Plasmapheresis is a process in which unhealthy plasma (with antibodies) is taken out and fresh plasma is transfused into patient.

Prime Minister Oli had undergone a kidney transplant surgery 12 years ago. He has been visiting various hospitals in foreign capitals for health check

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