Nepal

Kathmandu, July 28

Meeting of the central secretariat of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) scheduled for today to decide the names of the heads of various departments did not convene as its senior leaders demanded more time for doing necessary homework.

The co-chairs of the party Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Puspa Kamal Dahal have said that they needed more time to finalise the names of various department heads, according to a NCP leader. Oli and Dahal have been competing to appoint their close aides as the head of the School Department. Oli wants to appoint Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokharel and Dahal favours Narayan Kaji Shrestha for the post. Former CPN-Maoist Centre is not in favour of Pokharel because he advocates for peoplemulti-party democracy as the ideology of the party. Peoplemulti-party democracy was the party ideology of the former CPN-UML party.

The party has total 32 departments. As per the agreement between both the co-chairs, former CPN-UML will head 18 departments and CPN-Maoist Centre will get 14 departments. The party has tentatively decided on the names of the departments too, but the head of School Department remains undecided as leaders from both the factions are claiming the department.

The post Nepal Communist Party meet cancelled appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

Kathmandu, July 28

A national conference on ‘Rainwater Harvesting for Livelihood, Community and Ecosystem Resilience&, concluded today, adopting a seven-point declaration on utilisation of rainwater.

Rainwater harvesting is accumulation and storage of rainwater for reuse, rather than allowing it to run off. Harvesting of rainwater simply involves the collection of water from surface on which rain falls, and subsequently storing it for later use.

Normally water is collected from the roofs of buildings and stored in rainwater tanks. With proper planning, rainwater on roads and pavements can be directed towards local ponds and aquifers.

Experts representing 38 organisations from different countries presented 30 research papers at the programme proposing various water harvesting systems. Around 500 people, including local level representatives from Kathmandu valley attended the event.

UNICEFWater Sanitation and Hygiene office in Kathmandu also stated that if managed properly, Kathmandu valley can harvest around 600 million to one billion litres of rainwater in a year.

Government record shows that 15 per cent of Kathmandu valley residents use water supplied through water tanks, while estimated 87 per cent of rainwater in the valley is not utilised.

Speaking at the conference, Minister of Water Supply Bina Magar said she would do the needful to formulate new rules and regulation to effectively implement the recommendations made by the conference. &As we are not able to provide pure drinking water to the people, the recommendations by the conference will be helpful for the ministry,& she said.

Government record shows that about 12 per cent of countrypopulation does not have access to pure water.

Technical advisor of GUTHI, an organisation that works on water and sanitation sector, Prakash Amatya stressed that the government had to encourage private sector to introduce latest rainwater harvesting technology in the country.

The post Rainwater harvesting emphasised appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

Kathmandu, July 28

The government has issued National Census Operation and Management Order-2019 as part of preparation for upcoming census, scheduled to be held in 2021. The government conducts census every 10 years.

NCOMO published by the National Planning Commission in the Nepal Gazette on July 20 stated that its aim was to conduct the national census in a contemporary, reliable and systematic manner, in coordination with the federal, provincial and local levels as well as other organisations for collecting, processing, analysis, publication and distribution of data related to individuals and households across the country. NCOMO is consistent with the federal structure of the country.

According to NCOMO, the national census shall be conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics. It shall be the duty of the federal, provincial and local levels, and all persons and organisations to cooperate with the census programme. The CBS may establish census offices at the provincial, district and local levels as per its needs. &One or more census offices may be established in a district or local level depending on its geography and population density,& it stated.

The CBS shall prepare household listing and questionnaires and submit those to the 13-member Steering Committee headed by the NPC vice-chairperson.

&The Steering Committee may form a technical committee for conducting necessary examination and providing its opinion on questionnaires,& NCOMO read.

The Steering Committee shall give final touch to the questionnaires by considering opinions and suggestions provided by the technical committee.

The CBS shall use the questionnaires for national census, only upon their publication in the Nepal Gazette after obtaining approval from the government. Data shall be collected from each household by conducting direct interview as per the approved questionnaires.

The CBS may authorise the concerned enumerators deployed in the field to use paper-based questionnaire or tablet/laptop or both, for data collection.

Personal details of employees working in Nepali missions abroad shall be collected through e-census. The CBS shall designate officer-level civil servants as the chief of provincial, district and local level census office. NCOMO also envisaged the provision of a coordination committee at the provincial, district and local levels to facilitate the concerned census offices in holding census in their areas.

The CBS may request the employees working in the federal, provincial and local governments to mobilise adequate human resource during national census.

&The CBS shall hire persons meeting prescribed qualifications as enumerators and supervisors for door-to-door data collection and supervision. For this purpose, a public vacancy notice shall be published with a deadline of 10 days for submission of applications. If adequate number of enumerators and supervisions could not be hired through the public notice, the CBS may depute the government employees for data collection and supervision,& it read.

The post Government issues National Census Operation and Management Order appeared first on The Himalayan Times.