On Nepal monsoon disaster losses, House switches to diplomatese. That's tantamount to keeping mum

Introduced without much fanfare, this column aims to offer a cursory reading of news reports appearing mainly in the Nepali print media. Though no big name in the Nepali media firmament, yours truly will try through this forum to offer an unbiased and insightful analysis of the stories by not discriminating against any publication big or small. The effort will be on coming up with this column daily, though yours truly admits that the task will not be that easy for a juggler. Hope you all will be with yours truly through thick and thin. 

Kathmandu: A team from the State Affairs Committee of Nepal's Parliament has made a kind of groundbreaking 'discovery'. 

On the basis of a recent field visit conducted to different affected parts of the country, the committee has come to the conclusion that India-built dams are to blame for inundation of Nepali territories. 

Apparently, this is understatement of the problem that Nepal has been facing for decades. 

Every monsoon, swollen rivers and streams gushing southwards from the north ram into water regulatory structures that India has built at no-man's land in violation of international practices and good neighborliness. With the natural flow obstructed, floodwater gushes into Nepal with increasing ferocity, leaving behind a trail of death, devastation and loss of properties worth a fortune. 

The degradation of the Chure and the Shivalik ranges resulting from unchecked mining for construction materials like sand and boulder may too have contributed to this recurring environmental and humanitarian catastrophe. But the fact is that criminal elements from across the border are mostly behind smuggling of these materials to India to feed the construction frenzy going on there. So, we are at the receiving end of this environmental exploitation and the mostly man-made disasters. 

This environmental crime, this crime against humanity, this very unfriendly behavior towards Nepal has been going on unabated, thanks to a meek, weak and subservient regime that appears bent on putting the interests of a big neighbour above national interests! 

Amid all this, all that parliamentary committees like the SAC can do is come up with the oft-repeated line: Nepal and India should take 'diplomatic' initiatives to resolve this problem. 

Naturally, a subservient committee cannot prod an equally subservient government to press India for demolition of illegal water regulatory structures built along the border through bilateral talks. It cannot suggest the government to seek demolition of such structures by using international fora if the talks don't work. All it can do is to pretend not to know that India is capable of protecting life and properties on its territories by localising the negative impact of monsoon disasters in Nepal. 

Even as the spell of disaster continues and losses keep mounting, all that the Nepali state can do is issue flood warnings and urge vulnerable populations to move to safer places that are few and far between. This is not to undermine in these trying times the praiseworthy role that security forces have played through search and rescue operations by putting their own lives in line. 

But the Nepali state as a whole has appeared very very helpless when it comes to a) taking disaster mitigation measures b) protecting lives and property during disasters c) making the inconsiderate neighbour mend ways by threatening to internationalise this problem if bilateral engagements do not work.    

At this juncture, all that the Nepali state can do is stress the need to take diplomatic initiatives for alleviation of the problem, even as monsoon disaster losses mount with each passing year, it appears.

In other words, that means letting the neighbour submerge more and more of our farmlands, kill more of our peoples and cause further loss of our infrastructure year after year after year by allowing the construction of water regulatory structures that obstruct the natural flow of rivers originating in our territories.