KMC's sanitation campaigns fail to keep city clean

KATHMANDU, Dec 7: Every day Dambar Bahadur Naral, a security guard at the Nepal Medical Association, has to clean away the refuse pile dumped in front of his office to open the main gate. 
It has been his daily routine in the last 13 years. Naral is fed up with the negligence of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) office, a major body to maintain wastage in Kathmandu city. 

“I joined this office some 13 years ago and I have been cleaning the refuses from the first day of my job,” said Naral. “The problem of refuse is always same here. If the KMC office does not maintain the wastage of the capital city, then what is the office for?”
Naral, 52, said that along with the KMC office, nearby hotels and other shops are also responsible for the piles of refuse in front of his office. “They use this place as a dumping site and sometime the rickshaw which is operated by the KMC office, to collect the refuse, also dumps the collected refuse here only,” he added.
“Once we had submitted a letter to the KMC office, requesting them to clean the road and collect all the refuse,” said Naral. “As per our request letter, they sent garbage truck and collected all the refuse. By then, they did not come again which means we have to send letters regularly in order to clean the refuse.”
Like Naral, Januka Adhikari, 30, is also facing the problem of wastages. Adhikari, who has been operating her cosmetic shop on a pulling cart at Kalanki, is compelled to run her shop near the pile of refuse as that place is the closest to her room.
“I have been operating here for the last one year and I have not seen any garbage van collecting the refuses from here,” said Adhikari. “But I have seen people throwing wastage. The concerned authority should collect the refuse regularly so that people would not have to face so many problems. Not only me but all the people who cross this road have been facing the same problem." 
According to her, the refuse could be harmful for children´s health as well. So, the concerned authority must collect the refuse timely. 
Tons of wastes have piled up on many street of the capital city. Despite the fact that the KMC office has been organizing special cleanliness campaigns, the problem of waste is still the same. 

The KMC office is organizing a seven-day cleanliness campaign from today to mark 18th anniversary of its establishment. Some of the officials gathered today and organized various plans along with cleaning the capital city. Similarly, they have also informed all the wards of Kathmandu to carry out cleanliness campaign in their respective wards. The KMC office will celebrate its anniversary on December 14. 
“We have organized a cleaning campaign on the anniversary of our office,” said Rabin Man Shrestha, chief of Environment Management Division at KMC office. “Our campaign will help to increase awareness among the people.”
The KMC office has organized a number of such campaigns in the past but none of them have had any noticeable effect on the cleanliness of the capital city.
source: myrepublica.com

Air pollution giving Capital denizens a cough

KATHMANDU: The ongoing road expansion drive has given rise to various respiratory disease in the Kathmandu Valley. 

According to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, it has recorded 831 patients of pneumonia, 676 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 114 of asthma and 144 of bronchitis since July. 

“Number of people suffering from various respiratory diseases has doubled since the road-widening drive began,” said Dr Dirgha Singh Bam, a former health secretary. “Though the government’s road expansion initiative is appreciable, it has not been well-organised.”

According to World Health Organisation, air pollution is a significant risk factor for multiple health conditions, including respiratory infections, heart diseases and lung cancer.

Air pollution causes breathing difficulty, pneumonia, asthma, bronchitis, skin diseases, allergy, wheezing and coughing problems. The problems caused due to air pollution is broad, however, it mostly affects the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. 

“The government could have prevented this problem by expediting the road construction and carrying out the works at night,” Dr Bam said. 

According to WHO standards‚ the level of Particulate Matter10 should be 20 microgram per cubic metre (µg/m3). The Ministry of Environment informed that the PM-10 concentration in ambient air was recorded at up to 699 µg/m3 against 120 µg/m3, the national ambient air quality standards in Kathmandu in March. 

The air pollution in Kathmandu is mainly attributed to vehicular emissions. The Metropolitan Traffic Police Division says that on-duty traffic cops can be taken as indicator to the adverse health hazards triggered by the air pollution as they perform duty by standing at least 18 hours on the roads daily. 

According to statistics, an average of four traffic cops are taken ill daily due to exposure to dust particles and exhaust, prompting the MTPD to organise health camps from time to time.

Source: The Himalayan Times
5th December, 2013

Nepal’s Female Community Health Volunteers have paved the way for groundbreaking ideas in the health sector

DEC 05 -

Today, December 5 marks an important milestone—the 25th anniversary of Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHV).  The idea was simple enough in theory. With the assistance of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations, a cadre of female health practitioners would bring health education and medical outreach services to families throughout the country. In practice, the challenges were enormous, not least Nepal’s underdeveloped infrastructure and extreme geography.  

Now, 25 years later, I can confidently say the project has been a huge success.  Since its inception in 1988, the FCHV programme has proven to be a key factor in Nepal’s dramatic reduction in maternal and child mortality.  Today, there are about 52,000 FCHV members working across the country’s 75 districts.  They are a vital pillar of Nepal’s public health sector and have saved the lives of tens of thousands of people who would otherwise have died from unnecessary causes.

December 5 is also commemorated worldwide as International Volunteer’s Day. And who better to be honoured on this day than Female Community Health Volunteers, who serve as Nepal’s frontline public health workers? In congratulating these special, dedicated women, let me cite a few of their most impressive achievements: