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Earthquake In Nepal–XI
The state-owned Dairy Development Corporation reported that the milk demand has been reduced considerably in Kathmandu. The vegetable market has been down, too. The poultry producers’ association has decreased the price of egg from around Rs 13 to Rs 8 per egg. House owners have lost the revenue from renting out their houses. Either their houses have fallen down or the tenants have left Kathmandu for the safer areas.
Nepal Egg Production Association has reduced the price of eggs to Rs 8 per egg in view of the protein requirement for the quake victims, the news on the ratopati.com stated. The price of eggs had been around Rs 13 per egg. Nepalese have been helping each other. Such cooperation and goodwill among the Nepalese has been the age-old tradition. Nepalese have been considerate of all humans.
Price of egg reduced: http://www.ratopati.com/2015/05/18/234187.html
The low price of eggs would increase the consumption of eggs. It would directly help the poultry industry to keep up with the business even in such a national disastrous time. The government relief agencies and philanthropic organizations needed to give preference to the local products for distributing the foods to the quake victims. It would help both the victims and the local industries making the double help.
The state-owned dairy company called Dairy Development Corporation has said that the milk demand in Kathmandu has decreased from 140,000 liters per day to 95,000 liters per day. The company has said that it has been sending the surplus milk to the milk-powder-making plant in Biratnagar at the high cost of transportation to convert the liquid milk into powder, the news on the ratopati.com on May 18, 2015 stated.
Milk demand reduced in Kathmandu says DDC:
http://www.ratopati.com/2015/05/18/234276.html
Most probably, the milk producers might not be affected so much from the lack of demand for milk but the state-run dairy company would suffer from the heavy loss until the demand for milk bounced back. One thing the company could do is to distribute the surplus milk to the quake victims that have been staying in the temporary sheds elsewhere or sell the milk to the government to distribute it to the quake victims. Thus, the government could save the dairy industry and keep the quake victims healthy with increased inputs of the nutritional food. The Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund has already 2.5 billion rupees. Prime Minister Koirala needed not to wait for anything to use the fund for saving the lives of the millions of homeless people.
Vegetable farmers in Chitwan have the problem of selling the fresh vegetables, the news on thehimalayantimes.com on May 18, 2015 stated. The farmers have been selling about 40% of their vegetables in Kathmandu, Gorkha, Lamjung, Dhading, and Nuwakot. The devastating quakes have hit all those districts mercilessly causing untold sufferings to the inhabitants. After the disastrous quake on April 25, 2015, the sale of the Chitwan vegetables have suffered drastically.
See http://thehimalayantimes.com/printNepaliNews.php?id=455199
It is time for the government relief workers and other social and philanthropic organizations working on helping the quake victims to buy the vegetables from Chitwan and send the vegetables to the quake victims elsewhere. It would save both the vegetable farmers from going to bankrupt and the quake victims from the vitamin deficiency. Finance Minster Dr Ram Sharan Mahat needed to talk to the donors’ community about helping both the quake victims and the vegetable farmers buying the vegetables grown in Chitwan. It would keep our national economy intact even during the national disaster.
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has stated that the earthquakes had damaged its property worth of billions of rupees. It has estimated the cost of repairing distribution network, substations equipment and office buildings fallen down during the quakes at Rs 10.68 billion; all the power plants in the quake-hit districts except for the Sunkoshi Hydropower plant in Sindhupalchowk have resumed power generation; the Sunkoshi Hydropower plant has been under the reconstruction after the Jure landslide damaged it last year, the news on Myrepublica.com on May 18, 2015 stated. See more at: http://myrepublica.com/economy/item/21140-nea-seeks-rs-10-86b-for-repair-of-power-plants-distribution-system.html#sthash.1J4VEcpU.dpuf
Some hydropower experts think that the Sunkoshi dam built for the hydropower plant needed to be watched to see whether it has been damaged by the quakes or not. If the water level has been depleting fast in the dam area or muddy water is seen flowing after the dam, then the dam might have been broken. Immediate actions needed to be taken to save the dam from the total destruction.
The news on the ratopati.com on May 18, 2015 stated that most of the star-hotels in Kathmandu withstood the quakes. Only a few hotels needed major repair. Obviously, all the hotel buildings were well built that could stand even such devastating quakes.
Hotels not affected by quakes: http://www.ratopati.com/2015/05/18/234252.html
However, the hotel buildings at Nagarkot: the scenic site for the visitors to watch the sunrise, and even to see the mighty Mt Everest through a binocular were totally damaged. Visitors could not stay there overnight. That was a great loss to the hotel entrepreneurs and the staffers working there, and to the State, too. Most of the hotel staffers have suffered from both the loss of their houses and their jobs, too. They became homeless and jobless, too. The State has lost the revenue from the tourism industry.
Ninety percent of visitors planned to visit Nepal has cancelled their bookings, one media report stated. The tourism industry has been hit hard by the quakes. Hundreds of thousands of workers depending on the tourism industry must have lost their means of livelihood. The Nepalese media needed to keep the visitors informed about the real status of the areas visitors usually visited. Most of the trekking routes have not been affected by the quakes. All star-hotels are intact. All national parks were untouched by the quakes. Only some of the ancient cultural heritages have been fallen down in the Kathmandu Valley.
Most of the houses given for rents have been either came down due to the heavy ground tremors or the tenants have left the houses in Kathmandu for the fear of quakes. People living on the house rents must have been homeless and rent less. They might have no means to live on.
However, the demands for the construction materials and the construction workers would be tremendously high in the coming months and years. The reconstruction of the quake-affected areas would create the huge demands for almost everything contributing to the poultry industry, dairy industry, vegetable farming, and surely to the construction material industries. If the government were to use the Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund properly and sincerely, it would immediately help the revival of the industries dwindled by the quakes.
May 19, 2015
