Spread the love

By Madan Regmi

I remember reading what hydropower expert Ratna Sansar Shrestha wrote over 12–15 years ago, or maybe even earlier—that Kathmandu alone would require 6,000 megawatts of electricity. That estimate was based on the assumption that industries would be established, trains would run, and ropeways would operate.

If we don’t aim to modernize our cities or create industries, then we might as well push ourselves 200 years backward. I’ve also read about how electricity consumption works.

Take for example the long-discussed fertilizer industry. For the past 12–15 years, every government has talked about setting up a fertilizer plant. Studies have been done over and over again. But to establish even a basic industry, you need three primary things: Hydropower; clinker; Carbon.

Nepal has all three in abundance. With just 1,000 megawatts of electricity—along with clinker and carbon in proper proportion—Nepal could become a fertilizer-exporting nation. That same 1,000 megawatts could power multiple industries right here in Kathmandu.

Every year, we face a fertilizer crisis. We end up importing expensive fertilizer from India. But India itself doesn’t produce enough for its own use—it used to import $20–25 billion worth of fertilizer from China annually. This year, China didn’t supply it.

If we start operating a fertilizer factory here in Nepal, we can consume the electricity we produce ourselves.

There’s a strange pattern when it comes to the fertilizer issue. Every government says they will establish a plant—but they plan to import raw materials from India. Then another government comes along and decides that importing is better.

We haven’t used our own mines.
If explored, even precious gemstones could be extracted. Nepal used to produce iron for weapons and household items in the past. In today’s age, manufacturing such things isn’t a big deal. But these rulers don’t care about serving the people—they care about pleasing a handful of business cronies and looting the state.
“Nepal is like a beggar sitting with a golden bowl in hand,” a foreigner had said it.
That’s the truth—people with the vision and will to build the country never enter politics or the bureaucracy.

The Nepal Army offered to revive and operate an old textile industry that it had stored away, but the government refused.

The hard-earned money of Nepali migrant workers is being wasted on luxuries. Unnecessary roads are being built in the names of politicians.

We could be planting fruit trees and other crops on the soft hills.
But instead, with World Bank support, we’re cutting down forests and flattening hills for roads that serve no real purpose.

The only cure for these looters in politics and administration is liberating the country from their grip.

How can that be done? A small group of honest, committed young men and women must come together, organize, and move forward with a clear mission.

Let me remind the intellectuals: Nepal’s geography is so diverse and rich, almost anything can be produced here.

In countries like Thailand and Cambodia, when politicians looted the nation, the army intervened—punished the guilty and imprisoned them.

I am one of those who had hopes in the Nepali Army. But I’m increasingly disheartened when I see the army’s silence. No one wants to talk about how national security is their responsibility.

For years now, the system has been pushing Nepalis out of their own country and inviting foreigners in.

If rivers of blood and sweat don’t flow from the youth today, history will curse us.
We will become a stateless people, much like what we see in Palestine.

(Excerpted from social platform.)