Sarwagya Raj Pandey
We are all aware of the ongoing construction work in and around Biratnagar Sub metropolitan city (BSMC). The much hyped about Secondary Towns Integrated Urban Environment Improvement Project (STIUEIP) was commenced on October 2014 but due to various developmental and political bottlenecks missed its prescribed deadline of May 2016. It is not unknown to many that the recent developmental activities in the cities have thrown the life out of gear for the Nagarwasis (the city dwellers as frequently mentioned by media and BMSC officials). The haphazard planning and slow pace of construction have attributed to numerous accidents regularly. Also the unmanaged disposal of construction debris has effectively converted the city into a Dirt mine, with sudden gusts of winds blowing away dust that takes hours to settle down. This particular problem has also poised a great risk of pulmonary and respiratory illness, especially amongst the elderly and the children. Last month, a highschool boy made headlines when en route to final examination he accidentally fell into a pothole and still attended the exams drenched in mud. It is ironic that only last month in a glitzy ceremony attended by many dignitaries from across the country, Biratnagar was declared the “first Bal Maitri” city in the country. Bal Maitri is a Nepali term for Child Friendly. But it is that same city where on most mornings one can find school buses stuck in ditches and mud holes created due to the construction activities. Sign boards, which are mandatory to be put up in construction sites are missing. An RTI plea relating to this was also filed to the Project Manager of STIUEIP but the problems persisted even after assurance from the Project Manager and BSMC officials that boards would be placed within a week.
Its been months and there are unwarranted holes all around the city without any warning signs and regular mishaps have become a common phenomenon. Even after severe criticism from different quarters, the contractors and the BSMC officials write off the present circumstances as “cost for development.” What is the use of bearing the cost over and over again if we can’t learn to avoid it the next time. Such problems, which are easily avoidable even in neighbouring countries like India by effective planning and co-ordination, repeat everytime in Nepal. Same problem was faced during the ring road construction (which is still ongoing after nearly 2 decades) and the road expansion drives in the past. But the officials at BSMC seemed to have taken little from their past experience. One of the main reasons for not learning from our past mistakes could well be the inherent tendency of many bureaucrats to out rightly lie in the progress report to appease the donors. It is no secret that many projects undertaken in Nepal looks something on paper and something else in reality. There are many factors pertaining to this situation. One of them is the unsuitable political atmosphere. However progress report is a very sensitive document and a lot depends upon that document. However if you choose to look at the page number 17 of the Secondary Towns Integrated Urban Environment Improvement Project Progress report for the month of April, 2016, one can notice how much lie the officials involved in writing the reports have included in the documents. The document clearly states that the Precast concrete units for sewer lines have been effective and efficient. While the statement in itself may be true, but the reasons established to support this statement is very uncomfortable to believe for a citizen living in Biratnagar for few months. The report states that by using precast concrete they were “able to open the traffic at the shortest possible time and in the business centres (presumably Bazaar areas and Chowks) the works were efficient and effective.”
For a person travelling everyday around these construction sites this fact could come as a shock. The report further claims that this has “reduced the disturbances to the local people and road users, dumping of construction materials, workers and working for long period. This is found to be environment friendly too.” These statements come in the progress report of April during which time the construction works began in city area and highway and so began the hours long traffic jams never before experienced in the 100 year old history of Biratnagar. Also the air quality worsened and the complaints for eye, nose and pulmonary diseases increased around the city. Yet, the officials working in the project dared to use words like Environment friendly, efficient, effective and shortest possible while in reality people were languishing in mud riddled roads, breathing dirt and dust filled air, stuck in long traffic jams and so on. Such act of bluffing in Progress report will have far reaching consequences not only in the health of the people of Biratnagar and its infrastructures. Worse such reports could be taken into consideration while framing future plans for other cities in Nepal and around the world since this is a Asian Development Bank backed project. Hence our officials could be passing off bad examples as successful ones for the rest of the world. Sadly there is very little we as a citizens could do. Maybe as a responsible citizen we can pay little more attention and do our bit to point out the discrepancies in such report.
If we pay more attention and treat all the reports with certain level of scrutiny, perhaps it will force the officials to act responsibly. After all, this is a matter of serious concern because we are allowing bad examples from our mistakes to be repeated in some other place in future, And as a responsible human, we ought to at least make sure no one has to suffer the same fate as we did. That is how humanity evolved; We learnt from our mistakes.
