Nepal Crises - Fuel and Medicine: What Lesson Does it Teach Bhutan?

I was in Nepal yesterday to attend a conference on climate change and energy security and i feel that it would not have been organized at a better time. The conference organizers put me in one of the finest hotels in Kathmandu and there was a car and a driver to take me to the hotel from the airport. As soon as i got in the car, i greeted the driver with Namaste Dai! This two words of greetings made him feel comfortable to share on what's happening these days in Nepal and what's happening to him at personal level.

He began by saying "khoi sir..." (means a sense of un-happiness) and said that, he lost his ten year old son during the devastating earthquake which hit Nepal and his house was totally destroyed. He said, government didn't approve his proposal to build a house and now they are living in a small makeshift home. Then he went on to saying, how badly Nepal has been hit by this so called un-official blockade.

Nepal has been severely hit by the  blockade since September 2015. Nepalese government has initiated strategies like plying odd and even number vehicles alternately to cut down on the use of fossil fuels. However, the strategies was short lived as the blockade continued for longer period than expected. When everything seems to be not working, the cooking gas shortage started and the Nepalese government started to allocate 100 kilogram of fuelwood to each households @ NRS 15.00 If you visit Kathmandu these days, you will notice unusually hazy Kathmandu city than ever before. This I believe is mostly accounted for burning fuelwood to cook foods. Shortage of petroleum fuels and cooking gas was just a fraction of problem when the medical supply unit reported on the crises of medicines in hospitals. Many hospitals reduced the intake of patience and even closed many ICU units because of medicine shortage.

There seems to be hundreds of trucks with medical supplies and fuels struck at the Nepal - India border. It is un-certain, if this 'un-official' blockade is either from India, or from Nepal, or from ethnic communities living in the border areas or the combination of all. No one seems to be certain about it. But, this is not important for Bhutan. What is important for Bhutan is, how secure are we with regards to energy? how secure are we with regards to medical supplies? how secure are we with regards to all the imports we make? While, we are happy for all the help rendered this far to us by our BIG BROTHER, we should not forget that all the resources are finite and there is no way that these resources will be there for times to come. And YES!, we can be certain that our BIG BROTHER will not betray the trust we have and the brotherly love the two countries have been sharing and still share.

However, we should now garner towards other forms of energy and other essential sources when we have the luxury of natural resources. It is about time for us to diversify our energy sources: it is time for us to invest in hydropower; invest in wind power; invest in solar power; invest in bio-gas; and above all invest and strategies to encourage the use of electric cars. While we already have forest coverage, we should not forget to take care of it and we should be thankful to His Majesty the Great Fourth Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck for having enshrined the importance of having the 60% of the country in forest coverage for all times to come.

Should Bhutan be hit with such crises in future, we should be prepared, but, how? Here is what i have to say with whatsoever limited knowledge i have:

- Bhutan should switch to electric cookers and induction stove given the energy sources we are endowed with
- Bhutan should invest in more bio-gas production and reduce dependence on LPG cylinders. Our bio-gas should not be restricted only to cow dungs but even our septic tanks should be connected for production
- Bhutan should identify more partner countries having the potential to supply medicines and we should not forget our own traditional medical practices
- Bhutan should encourage hybrid and electric vehicles (Though the current government in Bhutan initiated this move, it couldn't gain momentum as expected. This could mainly be because, we directly jump into changes without working on the means to help changes. For example, there are few vehicle charging stations in Thimphu, forget other towns and highways in Bhutan). Invest in charging stations, subsidize in electric and hybrid vehicles as they are relatively expensive. I am saying subsidize and not exempting from tax, of-course tax should be out of question for 'green' vehicles and the government did the right thing by removing taxes on 'green' vehicles. However, the harsh reality is, the so called 'green' vehicles are expensive and affordability becomes out of question for a Bhutanese like myself.

Having listed what i feel should be done to prepare for such future unseen problems, I, in no ways claim to know the politics, economics and other forms of bureaucratic and formalities.


Just my random and humble thoughts !