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Surkhet: Even though the gov­ernment has started provid­ing pregnant women monetary incentives to deliver at approved healthcare centers, 30 per­cent women of Surkhet district in western Nepal still deliver babies in unsafe cowsheds. In this part of Nepal, there many families that still consider preg­nant women ‘impure’ and rele­gate them to cowsheds for the nine months of pregnancy.

“These unhygienic conditions led to many still-births,” says Basanta Shrestha, the informa­tion officer of District Health Office. Even though women who do go for check-ups get Rs 400 in incentive money, around 30 percent women in the district come fewer than two times, and often deliver in the sheds. APEX BUREAU

When she suffered from pro­fuse menstrual bleeding, 22-year-old Ruma Tharu was brought to Bheri Zonal Hospital on January 5. She needed blood urgently, and was given O+. Medical attendants informed Tha­ru she would need another pint of blood the following morning, which her father Raju Tharu procured from a blood center run by the Nepal Red Cross Society. However, the blood that the center gave to Tharu was of B+ category. Soon after, Ruma started developing blisters all over her body. Both her kidneys stopped functioning. Ruma’s family staged a protest. The hospital suspended the nurse who had administered the blood. Ruma was brought to the capital and she survived. But she has become extremely weak.

Locals says the 150-bed Bheri Zon­al Hospital is marred by political interference, staff negligence and general mismanagement. Its ser­vices are increasingly brokered by middlemen. Many are compelled to seek treatment at expensive private hospitals.

It was only a month ago that the hospital administration caught a middleman who was sweet-talking patients into seeking private medi­cal services. But no action was taken against him. Reportedly, he was close to a senior hospital staffer.

The hospital is one of the few pub­lic hospitals in western Nepal with a cardiology department. But its echocardiogram machine, worth some Rs 8 million, has been broken for seven months. An echocardio­gram examination costs Rs 850 at the hospital, but private hospitals charge over Rs 2,000 for it. Similar­ly, a TMT machine bought one and a half years ago for Rs 1.3 million is also kaput. Dialysis services, which the hospital was supposed to pro­vide starting a year ago, only began two months ago.

Poor service quality owes to the carelessness of the Hospital Devel­opment Committee, alleges former committee chairman Bed Prasad Acharya. But Bir Bahadur Chand, medical superintendent at the hos­pital, claims that there has been steady progress. “Staff shortages have caused some problems, but specialized services have been improving. There hasn’t been any negligence.

What about the broken echo­cardiogram machine? “We have brought in technicians to repair it. It should be up and running a few days,” says Chand.

The hospital has had eight heads in past nine years, an apparent sign of excessive politicking. It was only in October 2016 when Chand replaced Dr Shyam Sundar Yadav, who is credited with important reforms in the hospital’s functioning. The appointment of Chand, a junior radiologist, has not gone down well with the staff and is apparently against the Health Guidelines, which stipulate that only someone from the ‘General Health’ category can be appointed medical superintendent.

Usha Shah, who currently heads the Hospital Development Commit­tee, blames it all on lack of funds. “We are committed to quality care. We have asked the government for additional resources,” she said.

By Govinda Devkota

Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, has drawn 276,620 tourists in the two months of January and February, accord­ing to the Lumbini Development Trust. This is almost 100,000 fewer tourists than in the first two months of 2017, when 376,600 visitors had come to Lumbini.Of the 276,620 tourists visiting Lumbini this year, 223,016 were Nepalis, 24,095 were Indi­ans while 29,509 were from other countries, according to the trust’s information officer Rajan Basnet. While the number of Indian tour­ists increased slightly this year, the number of Nepali tourists went down considerably. The number of tourists from other countries also declined. According to Basnet, tourists from over 50 countries have already visited Lumbini this year. In this period, besides India, Thailand has sent the most number of foreign tourists (7,928) to Lumbini, followed by Myanmar (6,689), Sri Lanka (5,733), China (2,821) and South Korea (1,406).

Tourist arrival had suffered in 2016 because of the twin effects of the earthquake and the blockade. It picked up steam in 2017 only to slow down this year. “Most tourists to Lumbini come via the Nepal-India border. Although their primary destination is Lumbini, they don’t stay here overnight,” said Achyut Guragain, vice-chairman of Nepal Tour and Travels Asso­ciation. “That’s because they come here with Indian guides, who tell them that although Buddha was born here, other significant places associated with his life all are in India.

As a result, local businesses haven’t been able to flourish as much as they would if the tourists stayed here longer.”

 By Salman Khan  

After a slow start, construction work on the international airport in Pokhara in western Nepal is moving ahead at a brisk pace. According to the Chinese govern­ment-owned construction company CMC, 6 percent of construction has been complet­ed. In the first phase, CMC has begun leveling the land. The work picked up steam after 20 pieces of equipment such as trippers, rollers, excava­tors and dozers reached Pokhara from China. As many as 20 additional pieces of such equipment will soon arrive in Pokhara via the Kolkata port, according to Krishna Chapa­gain, CMC’s public relations officer. Earlier, 45 pieces of such equipment were being used for the construction.

Along with new equipment, 35 work­ers have also been added. Although construction started seven months ago, it has only been four months since work on the main site began, and in those four months, 35 percent of the annual construction target has been met, says Vinesh Munankarmi, chief of the Pokhara Regional International Airport Project.

“During the monsoon, we worked on the ter­minal building and the runway; now land level­ing is going on at a swift pace,” said Chapagain. He claims that the pro-activeness shown by the local government and local residents has expe­dited the construction and that 80 percent of the work will be completed by Jeth (May/June). “Barring mishaps, the airport will be built and handed over to the Nepal government before the 2021 deadline,” he said.

Model for success?

The government had awarded the contract to CMC in May 2014 under an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) model. It stip­ulates that the construction must be completed by July 10, 2021, failing which CMC will have to pay a fine to the government. KP Sharma Oli, during his first term as prime minister, had laid the foundation of the airport on the first day of the Nepali year 2073 (April 13, 2016). He had signed a bilateral loan agreement on the air­port’s construction during his visit to China in February 2016. The work on the airport began after the Exim Bank of China loaned Rs 22 bil­lion to Nepal government for its construction.

The international airport is being built over 3,700 ropanis (462.5 acres) of land at Chhinedanda. The government undertook land acquisition in two phases. It will start paying compensation for 60 ropanis of land starting next week, for which it has already allocated Rs 1.5 billion, according to Munankarmi.

The 4D model airport, which will have a 2,500m-long runway and which will meet ICAO standards, will be able to accommodate medi­um category aircraft like Boeing 757 and Airbus 320 that can carry up to 200 passengers.

By Krishnamani Baral