Power play

It is an irony that Nepal a country that is among the richest in hydro-power resources is not even producing sufficient electricity to meet its domestic needs. Time and again, pledges are made by successive governments to generate more electricity through hydel projects, but they remain mere rhetoric to thaw disgruntlement of the consumers. It is not that there are no foreign and domestic investors interested in investing in the hydel projects, small, medium and large, but for some reason or the other the investors back away due to obstacles put forward in their construction and operation. As a result, only the hollow commitments made by the leaders to generate electricity are left. In the process, not only are the consumers affected but industries cannot operate to full capacity and are also compelled to shut down. The deficiency in electricity supply is evident considering that although demands stand at over 1000 MW of electricity, there is an installed capacity to generate only 700 MW in the country. To make matters worse, during the dry season the various electricity generating plants are capable of producing only 400 MW of electricity. It is a huge demand and supply gap.

This has indeed made the life of the consumers miserable with protracted periods of power outages. This year it seems that the consumers will have put to up with as much as 19 hours of load shedding every day, which is indeed hard on them. Under the circumstances, the future of the Nepalese people cannot be very bright. Since big hydel plants often take a long time to construct, the need is felt to install diesel plants, which can be built in a relatively shorter period of time than hydel projects. However, the major drawback is that they are very expensive, which an impoverished country like Nepal can ill afford. But, given the urgency in meeting the power needs there might be no alternative other than to install the diesel plants which guzzle expensive fuel in huge amounts.

Thus, in order to cope with the deficit in electricity supply, the government is mooting to generate up to 200 MW of electricity by using diesel plants, and reduce the load shedding hours. Incidentally, diesel plants are already producing a substantial amount of electricity in two industrial districts. The one installed in Duhabi generates 39 MW of electricity and another one at Hetuada 14.4.MW of electricity, it is reported. Now, the government is resigned to install diesel pants to meet the energy needs which could be a costly affair, costing as much as Rs. 12 billion, according to reports. Moreover, the diesel guzzling 200 MW plants would consume 700 thousand litres of fuel every week, which makes it sound like a white elephant. This raises serious doubts on its sustainability in the long term, with fluctuating government policies and priorities. Therefore, the diesel plants should be taken as only stop gap measures or a back up. The hydro-power projects ought to come to the forefront as they are environment friendly, and they reduce foreign currency outflow on fossil fuels.

Under-utilised

The findings of the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC), from a study of five districts, point to a glaring lack of awareness among pregnant mothers of the transport allowance for them to visit health facilities. The beneficial government scheme to provide such an allowance seems to be for the most part unutilised, and the would-be-mothers do not take advantage of the scheme to visit health facilities. This is due to the fact that the government line agencies related to health service delivery has not publicised this well-enough among the target population. The provision of the transport allowance is meant to encourage pregnant women to visit health facilities, and regular check-ups can ensure that infant and maternal mortality rates are reduced to the minimum, which is quite high at present.

The research findings make it of utmost importance for the Health Ministry to generate awareness about the incentives that it provides to pregnant women so that such government investments in health results in their and to-be-child’s well-being. It would also lead to the optimum utilisation of the government health services and healthy mothers and children.


EDITORIAL-Himalayan.