Nepalis face 16-hour daily power cuts by February

[Dover]

Source: Reuters

KATHMANDU, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Nepal's crippling electricity shortage is set to worsen, with the Himalayan nation facing power cuts of 16 hours a day by mid-February, officials said on Friday, in a fresh blow to the Maoist-led government.

Power generation has fallen because mountain snows are not melting fast enough in winter and river levels are low, hampering an economy which has not recovered from a decade-long civil war.

The government has declared a national power emergency, which it expects to last up to five years, and the electricity authority said daily power cuts would increase to 12 hours from nine hours from next week, and to 16 hours from mid-February.

"The situation will only worsen as we have no way to meet the demand," senior Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) official Sher Singh Bhat said.

Nepal will not be able to achieve its economic growth target this year as a result, Trilochan Pangeni of the central Nepal Rastra Bank told Reuters.

"The target of achieving 7 percent growth of GDP will not be possible."...>

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL392712.htm

[Robbien]

1. Nepal never seems to get a break

Doesn't most of Nepalese live below the poverty limit where even having electricity is almost impossible.

A target of 7% GDP growth for Nepal? How did they imagine they would achieve that goal. Their main product is exporting their labor force, is it not.

[paulk]

2. the Maoists are reaping the fruit of chasing foreign investment

out of the country - people aren't going to invest when you make a habit of bombing hydroelectric plants, one of their favorite tactics during the ten years of civil war.

Nepal has the largest elevation differential of any country on the planet - from Mt. Everest down to places in Chitwan that are just above sea level. Nepal could generate free electricity for every person in Nepal and have enough left over to power a third of India's needs.

No electricity is also going to further devestate the tourist trade, which used to account for over 17% of Nepal's entire GDP, according to some studies.

[David__77]

3. Maoists, the choice of the Nepalese people, will make Nepal the Himalayan Switzerland.

The people of Nepal clearly support the Maoist party. The price of feudal monarchy is still being paid.

[paulk]

4. you need to get out more

seriously.

You know, I have never posted that the monarchy was a good thing, but in the b & w world of "leftists" like you, the kind who never saw a revolution they didn't like, there are only two alternatives. Us and them. A view almost childlike in it's naivete.


Go spend some time in Nepal, then tell me how wonderful the Maoists are...

[David__77]

5. It won't be easy, but Nepal will move forward.

Hopefully it will be a coalition of Maoists, UML, and Congress all together working for to build the federal democratic republic.

We're talking about Nepal, not about "every revolution." Not every self-named "revolution" is progressive, nor would I ever say so. Do I think that the Nepalese democratic revolution is progressive? Yes. It's a democratic revolution to establish national capitalism, an alliance of working people and all patriots, including capitalists. Prachanda himself has said foreign investment is welcome and the Maoist program is for national industrial capitalist development. The Maoists workers unions are independent organizations that defend workers' interests - they have the right to do so and the government shouldn't repress them in the name of facilitating foreign direct investment.

[Odin2005]

6. WTF? The Maoists are a bunch of thugs

I bet a lot of rural folks people voted for the Maoists merely because of intimidation. It was a liberal uprising in the capital that emasculated the power of the Monarchy.