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Nepal re-imagined!

Roads are being built in Nepal at an alarming rate - changing the face of the rugged hills and mountains forever.

By dZi Foundation

February 18^th, 2019

before and after

The two photos below are taken from the same spot. This is where dZi staff often rested during the day-long walk from Sotang to Chheskam that we have repeated countless times.

The last time we walked the trail, we found that the stone resting places - chautara - were gone. Indeed, the entire trail was gone - replaced by a dusty and rough road, dug within the past few months. Looking across the landscape, our beloved hills now sport countless segments of young roads, meandering with no real sense of order.

Instead of counting how many hours until our walk is completed, we pass the time by counting the number of jeeps and trucks that pass us by and try to hitch a ride. We love walking, but our legs automatically betray us when a vehicle comes into sight.

Photo taken during one of our travels before the roads had come in.

Our legs are not the only things that are affected by this dramatic change. The landscape has paid an irredeemable price - as is illustrated in the photos below. The beautiful rice fields of Cheskam have been half-obliterated to make way for the new road.

A universal shift

Our partner communities are not exceptional in this regard. Across Nepal's hills and mountains, roads are being built at a frenzied pace. Previously isolated communities are gaining access to communication and transportation at a rate we could never have imagined. Gradually, the iconic suspension bridges, mule trains, porters, and chautaras will become a relic of the past.

Our traditional way of life has held on for many generations, but it is now giving way to inevitable modernity.

Constant change

Roads are not the only things changing the face of Nepal. Living here, it feels like everything is completely topsy-turvy. In 2008, we ousted our active monarchy. In 2016, still reeling from our devastating earthquakes, the parliament adopted a federal system of governance which aims to decentralize power, and strengthen local governance.

After a sweeping restructuring, Nepal divided up some previous district and local units and consolidated others. We went from having 3,000 local 'counties' to 481 Rural Municipalities, 246 Municipalities, 13 Sub-Metropolitan and 7 Metropolitan areas. Local oversight comes from district and provincial governments, and the federal capital is retained in Kathmandu.

New Province Map of Nepal from Wikipedia

After the restructuring, Nepal held historic local elections - for the first time in over 20 years. As new elected representatives took office they found themselves in charge of massive budgets and responsibilities. In the past, government budgets tended to rarely reach the local level. Now, the local government units have ample funds with less restrictions, as well as the right to collect revenues through taxation and other means.

So far this year, almost 90% of all local budgets have been used to improve infrastructure - mainly roads.

Desire for Progress

For the longest time, roads and electricity have been the two biggest aspirations of people in our working areas. They believe, rightly, these are the fundamental pillars to usher in "development" and progress in the conventional sense. Over the past decade, low-cost micro hydro power schemes (supported largely by renewable energy support programs) largely solved the electricity problem. But roads remained out of reach - until now.

When we begin working in a new partner community, we always start with a "visioning session" - where we dream together what a prosperous future 10 years down the line would look like. Roads have always featured prominently, winding like snakes across hand-drawn dream maps. Now, that the local governments are receiving twice (or sometimes as much as 5 times) the funds they previously expected, they don't need to wait any longer.

In our working areas of Khotang and Solukhumbu, Rural Municipalities have already spent more than 50% of their total budget on roads - evidenced nearly everywhere we walk. This change has been welcomed with much fanfare and happiness by local community members.

In March 2018, our staff witnessed the very first vehicle ever to arrive in the village of Bung. People from all over the community had come to witness this event, marked with confetti, music, dancing and speeches. They even marked the place as "0 point Bung" - indication of a bus station in the making.

Silver Lining

Roads are hard on the eyes and the environment. But they do bring crucial benefits - daily essentials like food items, clothing, and construction materials are available at much lower prices. Since goods no longer have to be carried exclusively on the backs of porters or mules, a wider variety of goods are also available.

For the first time, some households along the road are using clean LPG gas to cook with - abandoning their time-consuming firewood stoves.

Convenience

When we left Kathmandu to work on projects in Cheskam, we would plan on an arduous 3-day journey: a full 15-hour day of driving and two days of walking on foot.

Now, the center of Chheskam is accessible by road, and our 3-day trip has been cut in half. Similarly, our partner community of Rakha Bangdel (a 7-day walk from a road when we began working there) can be reached in a single 13 hour push from Kathmandu.

The roads have made local travel much easier and more convenient. Visiting relatives and friends, accessing government services in the cities, and running errands is made much more possible by the availability of vehicles. Gone are the days of walking long miles with heavy backpacks to accomplish the most minor essential tasks.

Most importantly, perhaps, is that when community members require medical attention they can now afford to reach hospitals, and to arrive there much sooner. Earlier, people needed to choose between prohibitively expensive helicopter rescue or being carried on someone's back over long and dangerous trails. Many people simply chose to suffer at home because they could not afford either option.

More Efficient Projects

New roads have also made a huge impact on our work as well. Every year, we transport tons of heavy materials including rebar, steel trusses, 50kg bags of cement, plywood, glass wool insulation, and thousands of meters of pipes into our remote working areas from suppliers all across Nepal.

Previously, all of these goods were carried by dozens of mules or on the backs of porters. Now we can get materials closer to our project sites for much less cost. While there are still many remote settlements that do not have road access yet - still requiring us to utilize porters and mules - the overall logistics have eased significantly.

Easier access to outside Goods

As building materials arrive more easily, so do outside products that are changing the patterns of local consumption. Processed foods such as soda, instant noodles, and biscuits are much cheaper and more abundant.

Until recently, our partner communities more or less grew all of their own food items - including rice, millet, and vegetables. Now, the roads are bringing in bulk food items such as rice, potatoes, onions, and tomatoes more cheaply than they can be purchased locally.

Trash by the side of newly dug roads from the nearby market of Bung

Connectivity

As we mentioned earlier, the countryside of Nepal is changing in nearly every way. Some for the better, others not so much. Currently, the number of mobile phone users in Nepal is 34% higher than the total population of the country. This means that many people are using multiple phones to take advantage of services from multiple companies.

Even though, officially Nepal has only a 66% literacy rate - internet penetration was 63% in 2018. There are about 8 million Nepali Facebook users living inside Nepal, with a few million more residing outside of the country.

With the growth of cellular and internet access, communication is much easier. Our staff use their cell phones to organize community meetings, report back to us on projects, and to send photos and formal reports (often over Facebook Messenger). But, of course, this comes with the same challenges faced by so many across the globe - constant distraction, limited privacy, and increased expense.

Unanticipated Consequences

At the pace that Nepal is changing, no one can say for sure how it will look in 5 years from now. Ten years seems impossible to imagine.

Most foreigners have an image of Nepal that includes long and remote treks through pristine mountainsides. But even the most popular trekking routes are now threatened by roads dug over the trekking trails. The popular Annapurna Circuit Trek which previously took over two weeks to complete can now be completed in a week. This shortens the stay of tourists significantly, and reduces the overall local economic benefit by the same degree.

Most of the new roads are not built with any engineering or safety considerations in mind. With the growth of roads, the number of road accidents has skyrocketed. In only 5 months between July to December, 2018 - 1,176 people were killed across Nepal in what police called ‘road traffic accidents.' Road accidents are now the fourth leading cause of death in Nepal.

Careless construction of roads has led to countless landslides, not to mention the loss of forests, habitat destruction for wildlife, siltation of rivers, and the loss of productive farmland across the nation.

Despite our remarkable levels of local ownership and investment, our projects have also suffered from the roads and other changes. New roads have dug up drinking water and irrigation systems that community members spent weeks installing. Overnight, farmers found that their precious fields, cash crops, and fruit trees have been mercilessly dug up and uprooted.

Uncertain Future

Suddenly, we find ourselves faced with a major question. Will anyone want to stay in our partner communities for the long run?

With the new roads, out-migration towards areas with better hospitals, schools and amenities is sure to increase over time. Nepal's economy strongly relies upon the influx of remittance funds from abroad, and there are cases where entire villages have picked up and moved to more convenient locations near cities - empowered by these new sources of cash.

Even as modern facilities come into rural communities people are still migrating out - leading again to the question - who will stay behind?

The local reality

This change is demand-driven. Simply put, people want it.

While many across the globe want Nepal to remain a pristine facsimile of 'Shangri-La' that is untouched by the ills of modern and Western civilization - this is not how people here aspire to live.

After countless decades of physical, political, and social struggles, the average Nepali citizen finally has the power to realize their aspirations like never before.

Though the process of change may not have been the smoothest or most scenic, the Nepali people alone have the right to define what prosperity looks like to them, and what they want to do to make their lives better. We have witnessed, and weathered a violent civil war and a tumultuous transition and restructuring. We have weathered changes often too fast for our liking, but we understand that this is indeed the nature of change. We know that whatever is coming next, with our communities and our resilience, we will land on our feet.

It is an interesting time for Nepal and for us - to say the least. It is ripe with uncertainty and trepidation, and such limitless possibilities. As always, dZi is here as a listener and a supporter - ready to join hands with our communities to usher in a new era of prosperity and benefit, on their terms.

We have a vision and a hope for a Nepal that retains the tremendous natural beauty that inspires us all. One where vital infrastructure can complement the geography, and to help everyone have access to the basic human services that so many of us take for granted. We imagine a Nepal that is more prosperous, more well-equipped and much more easily accessible.

But even as we dream of the future, the pace of reality is overtaking our imagination. It's a wild, human, and important ride - one we're grateful to be on.