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Why Urbanization is an issue of Nepal |
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a. Urban area is increasing: Number of urban areas has increased from 10 in 1952 to 58 in 2001 and 99 in 2011. So far looking at the trend of the urban growth of the country it is observed that the urban areas have been declared as per the political interest rather than fulfilment of criteria as declared in LSGA (1999). Some areas have been classified declassified and reclassified as municipality over the past 50 years and the territorial boundaries of many settlements have been redrawn to include surrounding rural areas to meet the population size criteria. This might have been motivated by the political interest. (ADB, 2006) This increment of urban area is not within the acceptable limit of urban environment. b. Slums are increasing A study by Lumanti shows that slums in Kathmandu has increased from 13 to 62 in 20 years and population has risen from merely 2000 to more than 13000. Slums are usually located near the river and are deprived of basic physical facilities. They are considered to be the illegal settlements by the government hence they cannot exercise facilities being provided to the city dweller despite being resident of an urban area. Therefore facilities of water and sanitation and solid waste management are very poor. Sewages are directly passed to the rivers and same rivers are the dumping sites for slum dwellers. This is not only degrading the quality of environment but since they are also not socially accepted, inter class tension is likely to rise. (Bhatta, 2012) c. Environmental degradation is rapid The rapid and haphazard urbanization is exerting immense pressure on urban environment and municipal managers often do not have sufficient expertise and resources to deal with rapid growth (WB and Environment and Public Health Organization [ENPHO], 2007). LSGA 1999 has given rights and responsibilities to manage the urban environment and provide other services, due to weak institutional capability and inadequate resources those services has not been made. As a result many cities in Nepal are facing environmental problems such as drainage, solid waste management and waste water management. The capital of the country and the most urbanised part of the country –Kathmandu valley is extremely suffering from environmental degradation. None of the rivers in the valley carry clean water, moreover they look like open sewers in the dry season, however most of the waste is washed away in the rainy season. Besides, another major problem of the valley is solid waste management, which itself is not a great problem as still almost 64% of the waste is organic and inert or hazardous waste is very minimal (Dongol, 2012). Hence management of waste really must have been easy for the municipalities, however due to lack of people?s participation and weakness in the system it is a headache to all. With increasing urbanization smaller municipalities will also soon face major problems of environmental management as they have even less resources to deal with these challenges.
d. Initiatives from government sector is inadequate So far many acts, rules and regulations have been prepared for urban development however observing the conditions of urban areas in Nepal, it is clear that many of them have not been adequately implemented. Policies related to urban management has been initiated from 1967(Shelter Policy), however the policy guiding urban development that is NUP came into existence only in 2007. Though the policies are developed besides some major initiatives like land pooling, urban environment improvement programs and implementation of building bye laws, most of the policies have not been adequately implemented in the field. An example of it is the urban congestion and urban sprawl in the Kathmandu valley. According to Sharma (2012) municipalities lack 41000 million rupees for the infrastructural development of 58 municipalities. Though Decentralization Act was gazetted in 1982 the process of decentralization has not been observed as yet. Urban primacy of Kathmandu valley still prevails with rapid urban population growth. Municipalities are said to be being declared to decentralise, but most of them seem to be outcome of political interest more than the fulfilment of criteria given by LSGA 1999. This implies infrastructure is not adequate in these areas which will directly cause unplanned exploitation of natural resources, degrading living environment in urban. |
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28 Comments
thanks for highlighting about issue of Nepal
Posted 30-07-2013 15:55
nice
Posted 22-07-2013 20:00
indeed !
Posted 22-07-2013 20:00
thankz for sharing !
Posted 22-07-2013 19:59
you are right Dhiraj, Kathmandu has been hit badly by haphazard urbanization and we all are responsible for it..
Posted 14-07-2013 09:52
indeed Manoj, i expect you to add some of the points in this..
Posted 14-07-2013 09:51
thank you very much Prateek...
Posted 14-07-2013 09:50
hopefully binita, but you know the problems of urban are piling up, some initiatives are being undertaken by the government however they are not being effective as expected..
Posted 14-07-2013 09:49
Kathmandu is the most affected:(
Posted 13-07-2013 15:35
yes a great issue in Nepal, a great concern
Posted 13-07-2013 02:12
Nice report.......
Posted 12-07-2013 16:51
Really informative. Hope this issue can be controlled soon in Nepal with proper implementation of policies.
Posted 09-07-2013 23:19
thank you Abhishek, you are like my third eye, I know you are always there brother. can you please add some suggestion what more i can include in this?
Posted 09-07-2013 22:55
Thank you Christy, yes these issues should be addressed but like Karuna said, this political instability is causing lot of trouble for us.
Posted 09-07-2013 22:53
very true balancing act is requires but UNmesh can we really blame unmanaged urbanization a cause for disaster in Uttarakhand?
Posted 09-07-2013 22:50
thank you Kauna for appreciating..
Posted 09-07-2013 22:48
thank you Karuna, Yes political stability is a known factor that has induced wrath in our country. I will incorporate that as well, but not getting proper evidences. we all know that it is due to political instability but trying to get some authentic data, till then i decided not to add that point.
Posted 09-07-2013 22:45
yes Sabina there are many policies that should have guided to managed urbanisation in the country but you have seen the condition..my aim through this paper is to show that we still do have chances to develop properly managed urban areas..
thank you for your comments..
Posted 09-07-2013 22:42
you are most welcome, Arushi, you are always welcome to add some more points if you like, I am trying to make a good research paper in this topic so that every one can understand urbanization scenario in Nepal. your suggestion will be valued..
Posted 09-07-2013 22:35
Best of luck for your thesis brother. Always ready to help u in the environmental protection activities and actions
Posted 09-07-2013 22:00
You are right, Pratap. And without solving it in the optimal way, the growth of country would be limited. Thank you for well-elaborated article :-)
Posted 08-07-2013 08:14
Everywhere it is an issue...look at the disaster at Uttarakhand...Balancing act is required
Posted 03-07-2013 19:11
Yes, urbanization is a problem in many countries. Thanks for the report
Posted 03-07-2013 01:52
BTW your report is very good, thank you for sharing..
Posted 02-07-2013 17:27
I agree with Sabina, if we see we have many policies that can guide the urban development of the country. but unfortunately those are no being implemented. also I think you should add political instability as a major reason for haphazard urbanization in the country.
Posted 02-07-2013 17:26
Thank you for the informative report Pratap.Unlike many developing countries urbanization has become a major issue of Nepal so implementation of policies will be crucial to address this issue.
Posted 02-07-2013 16:53
Thanks for sharing with us this issue of Nepal.
Posted 02-07-2013 13:25
this is another part of my Issue paper: Urbanization :Issue of Nepal. hope this will also give some insights on reasons for urbanization being a problem of Nepal
Posted 02-07-2013 10:02