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Nepal State of Environment Report: The Monthly Overview, October, 2014

The use of System Rice Intensification, an advanced methodology in paddy farming, has enabled farmers in Nepal, to double their output. Using this improved technology, farmers can grow paddy with less water and it has also helped to minimize production costs compared to the traditional way of farming. Read more in October 2014 edition of the Monthly Overview on State of Environment, Nepal.


LAND, AGRICULTURE, GRAZING LANDS AND ANIMAL CARE
The use of System Rice Intensification, an advanced methodology in paddy farming, has enabled farmers in Nepal,  to double their output. Using this improved technology, farmers can grow paddy with less water and it has also helped to minimize production costs compared to the traditional way of farming. In Nepal, the first organic fertilizer factory in Gorkha  has opened to fulfill rising demand for such manure from farmers.


WATER RESOURCES AND FISHERIES
In Nepal, locals are actively engaged in conserving a wetland area located in Jamuna of Ilam district. They want to refill the pond in the middle of the wetland area as there is the availability of adequate water sources on large expanse. A pond construction committee has also been formed for this purpose.

DAMS
Locals of Khagenkot VDC-7 in Jajarkot district in Nepal, are elated with the generation of 12 kilowatts of electricity from the Dakhukhola Hydropower Project.  Khagenkot is the remote VDC in Jajarkot district. As many as 150 households have been benefited after the construction of Dakhukhola Hydropower Project at Khagenkot-7, said Chairman Tilak Khatri. The Investment Board Nepal (IBN) and India’s state-owned Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) are expected to sign project development agreement (PDA) on 900-MW Arun-III hydroelectric project during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Nepal in November.

FORESTS
Indrajit Chaudhary, chairman of Nawadurga Community Forest Users’ Group (CFUG) at Tulsipur in Dang district of Nepal, is working hard to conserve the forests in the district as per a five-year plan he has devised to sustainably manage and conserve them.


POLLUTION
Jagadamba Steel Industries has installed modern equipment at its manufacturing facility in Simara in a bid to lessen environmental pollution. The management claimed that this was the first such machinery imported into Nepal. A recent survey conducted by Nepal Health Research Council showed that people of Kathmandu Valley are more vulnerable to tiny dust particles excessively found in air during morning and evening hours.

FLOODS, DROUGHTS AND NATURAL DISASTERS
The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kathmandu said it will provide support to the schools and children in three districts of mid-western region that were affected by floods and landslides in August. The District Administration Office (DAO), Surkhet has started documenting the consequences of natural disasters from the survivors so as to rehabilitate them. The effects of Cyclone Hudhud were felt in Nepal. The Kathmandu Valley received 1239.6 mm of rain this monsoon, the lowest in the last four years.

WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION
Melamchi Water Supply Development Board (MWSDB) in Nepal,  has said that 31.77 per cent of tunnel construction work of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project had been completed. One thousand and five hundred people of 191 families in Baglung district of Nepal,  have been benefited from the project implemented by local Arnakot Deurali Drinking Water and Sanitation Project (ADDWSP) with financial assistance from Unica Foundation of the Netherlands.  A cooperative has been established in Sauraha, for management of garbage of the tourist city in Chitwan district of Nepal.  Phidim, the district headquarters of Panchthar in Nepal, has been declared polyethylene bag free zone, but lack of monitoring has made the declaration ineffective.  

HEALTH AND OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS
The South-East Asia Region contributes to more than half of the global burden of dengue, according to a press statement issued by the World Health Organisation’s South-East Asia Region. Despite the launch of programmes such as ‘Safe Motherhood Service’ in Banke district of Nepal, to reduce maternal mortality rate, the number of pregnant women dying due to severe complications during and after delivery is rising in the district.

LIVING RESOURCES
Incidents of tigers mauling local people in the buffer zone of Chitwan National Park (CNP) in Nepal have been on the rise over the past few months. The Chitwan National Park has arrested and jailed a rhino horn smuggler who has been at large without serving the jail term sentenced to him. Locals of Tilche in Manang district of Nepal, have started a campaign to protect snow leopards, an animal placed on the endangered species list of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The national bird of Nepal 'Danphe' (Lophophorus) is on the verge of extinction in Achham district.
 

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