Kathmandu a bowl of sickness and death

It is sad to write on the city that I have lived for the past twenty years of so, but some needs to do so, so as to make the other world aware and for the local authority to make the city a more hospitable place to live.

Presently the city is has become a bowl of sickness and death as the population is on the increase but the amenities are not keeping space with it. Further more there is an increase in the vehicles used on the roads which has increased the pollution levels beyond proportions.

Now, Kathmandu is in a valley, surrounded by hills on all sides and the pollutants do not have the means to easily dispersed. So there is a dangerous level of concentrated toxic chemicals detrimental for human living. This use to be sequenced by the vast array of trees in the valley but unfortunately of late these trees have made way for buildings and other human activity.

Bearing the vast increase in housing in the valley, people who do not own their own homes have to make do by living in confined spaces as most of the people actually living in Kathmandu are from out of it. The owners of these homes make hay while the sun shines charging hefty house rent rates making a family of five of more live in one room and sharing the toilet with other families living in the same floor.

There is always a tussle between these family and the condition is similar to the industrialization era of Europe and Britain in the last century.

Water is another cry. Nearly seventy per cent of the population does not have access to safe drinking water which as always are the ones living one rent. The water which comes is under lock and key for the landlords consumption. The tenants have to fetch water from sources which at times has been adulterated by chemicals.

Next is the hygienic conditions of the roads. The sewage and water supply pipes are cracked at places where the two mingle with each other and comes to the cracks on the surface of the road. To compound it all, there are piles of garbage left on the road waiting to be picked up by the local authorities all the while making it a haven for road dogs and their territorial gang fights.

The roads are in no better conditions. There are pot holes and dust spewed up mingled with the dried waste from the garbage and sewage. Vehicles and motorbikes use the road with impunity where it is a common sight to see an accident any moment.

All in all Kathmandu, has become a hazardous place to live in presently which makes it a bowl of sickness and death. Much has to be done to mitigate a disaster in the making.

Steven William Pitt