By Narayan Prasad Mishra
We had an American couple in New York whom my beloved wife Shanti Mishra and I called Dad and Mom. They were Robert and Lois Winter, the parents and father and mother-in-law of our very close and dear friends, Nancy and Douglas Hatch, whom we regard more like our relatives than close friends. They were peace corps volunteers at Tribhuvan University in 1970. We worked together and loved each other very much. As a result, they gave their daughter’s name Shanti Ruth Hatch after the name of my wife Shanti when the baby was born in Nepal in 1970. Pragya, our daughter, and Shanti, Kamala, and Allision – Doug and Nancy’s three daughters are enjoying life together as inseparable sisters. They are our relatives of love and heart, not blood.
Robert Winter, with his wife Lois, was in Nepal in 1970. He was astonished to see many electric and telephone wires mingling on the electric poles at that time; as an electrical engineer, he could not believe it and took many photos. I cannot imagine what he would think if he saw the mingling of countless wires of electricity, telephone, t.v, etc., on the poles these days. Unfortunately, they are not in this world.
Now, fifty-three years after 1970, we are happy to see that our government is planning and implementing to put the various kinds of wires scientifically underground. The underground drilling work has been going on in Kathmandu for this purpose. That is a piece of good news for all.
However, as I watched the work done on the street, many questions and worries arose in my mind. This is undoubtedly appreciable work for beautifying the city, and the plan has many other advantages of securing it from wind, storm, and rain.
From a layman’s perspective, one would think that the government must have an organized plan with proper planning of the space needed to place all the necessary underground lines – Sewage, Water, Electricity, Telephone, Internet, Fiber, etc. However, watching the work being done currently with all the mishaps, it doesn’t appear that way.
A picture of underground electric line work done breaking the drain at Kuleshwor.
Because of the lack of enough space for the work, I have seen how the present underground drilling work for electricity has been disturbing and damaging other lines more often – sewage, water, etc. I could not get water for a month as the ongoing work damaged my water pipeline and disconnected it. I see there is still water leakage around, and I do not know if they will fix it, and this may create a big problem for me later. The area also got stinky as the sewage pipe was damaged. These are just a few examples of what I experienced personally. If the work is done like this, that might be a big misfortune for many other services. We may have bigger problems later.
In this context, I want to draw the attention of all the concerned offices and officers to think over the necessary spaces on the road for planning the work. The planning and underground with sewage, electricity, water and telephone are undoubtedly praiseworthy work we often see in developed countries. However, just copying the work from others without meeting the requirements necessary for the purpose will not bring a good result. We must understand this.
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