Abstract
Nepal is a unique country, in regard to its culture, people, geography, ecosystems and climate. It is situated in the lap of the Himalayas, landlocked between China to the north and India to the south, east and west. It was previously cut-off by thick forests and jungles infested with malaria and dangerous animals, and its culture developed in isolation from any foreign influence. The rich resources of Nepal, in particular the abundant water flowing from the Himalayas down to the Indian sub-continent, and its abundant solar energy, are heavily underutilised.
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Notes
- 1.
Nepal has eight of the world’s fourteen highest (>8,000 m high) mountains within its, or on its border line. They are: Mt. Everest (8,848 m), Kangchenjunga (8,586 m), Lhotse (8,516 m), Makalu (8,485 m), Cho Oyu (8,188 m), Dhaulagiri 1 (8,167 m), Manaslu (8,163 m) and Annapurna 1 (8,091 m). For more detailed information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_mountains (accessed July 26, 2012).
- 2.
The statistics for the remote areas are from the author’s own survey data over a 16 year time span (1996–2012) working in the remotest parts of Nepal.
- 3.
http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=np&v=31, and http://www.indexmundi.com/nepal/total_fertility_rate.html (both accessed July 26, 2012).
- 4.
These figures are from the author’s own survey data over a 16 year time span (1996–2012) working in the remotest parts of Nepal such as Humla and Jumla.
- 5.
The Kirant religion is a blend of animism, such as ancestor worship and Shamanism, Shiva Hinduism (which is the oldest of the four main strands of Hinduism), and Tibetan Buddhism.
- 6.
http://operations.ifad.org/web/guest/country/home/tags/nepal (accessed July 26, 2012).
- 7.
For a more detailed discussion on the IFAD 0.40US$ a day, the previous UN defined 1US$ a day and the now revised 1.25US$/day poverty line income, see Chap. Appendix 8
- 8.
The World Bank’s Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion most prominently used as a measure of inequality of income distribution or inequality of wealth distribution. It is defined as a ratio with values between 0 and 1: A low Gini coefficient indicates more equal income or wealth distribution, while a high Gini coefficient indicates more unequal distribution. from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient (accessed July 26, 2012).
- 9.
- 10.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/np.html (accessed July 26, 2012).
- 11.
- 12.
The convergence of heated air from the equatorial region in the Tropopause increases the air mass aloft around the 30° northern latitude (the Hadley cell). This in turn causes the air pressure at the surface to increase. Hence, at northern latitudes of around 30° a high pressure belt called “subtropical highs” (C. Donald Ahrens, Meteorology Today, 7th edition 2003, Brooks/Cole, Chap. 11, p. 286) is created, providing favorable weather to utilize the incoming solar radiation.
- 13.
Personal investigation and experience of the author of the hydro power situation and conditions in Nepal.
- 14.
Calculated from the NEA electricity generation data for 2008–2009, in A Year in Review-Fiscal Year 2008/2009, Annual Report, Chap. 3.3.2, p. 4
- 15.
RIDS-Nepal paid NRs180/kg (or US$2.5/kg) during the project fiscal year 2009–2010 for each kg of equipment or food for the air transport from Nepalgunj in the south of Nepal to Simikot, Humla’s only way to bring in goods into the district. The Simikot landing strip is Humla’s only, till end of 2011 unsealed mud and stone airstrip (see: http://www.rids-nepal.org/images/google_earth/HARS_Simikot.kmz) (accessed July 26, 2012).
- 16.
Though there is no accepted international definition for “global chronic malnutrition”, a possible description for it is: “the situation of a child who is stunted, underweight and experiencing nutrient deficiencies which have weakened them to a state from which they may never recover”. Global chronic malnutrition is an indication of long-term food shortages and results in “stunting”. The term “chronic” suggests that the malnutrition is a prolonged ordeal that is weakening the child’s immune system, stunting their growth and impairing their intellectual capabilities which will affect them for the rest of their lives. It is most often the result of a combination of long-term inadequate dietary intake, infections and diseases. When children don’t get enough to eat, their immune system can’t fight off diseases and infections, resulting in greater severity and duration of sicknesses. Additional, long-term diseases speed up nutrient loss and suppress appetite, resulting in growth failure. Thus malnourished children’s growth is hampered and they are shorter and lighter than they should be for their age according to the UN standards for weight and upper arm circumference measurements. Measuring weight and height of young, malnourished children and comparing them with the “standard” for the population is the most common way of assessing them (summarised from UNICEF 1998).
- 17.
Rice can not be grown in the villages in Upper Humla, thus people are fully dependant on the government rice subsidy program, through which rice is air transported to Humla. People are assigned a monthly rice quota they can purchase at a subsidized rate. This program has been running by the government since ~1980, making people of Humla fully dependant on rice instead of enabling them, through the teaching of new skills, to improve their ancient agricultural methods and techniques and plant and grow new crops suited to the local context.
- 18.
ACF (Action Contre La Faim, or Action against Hunger) was founded in 1979 by a group of French people in response to the emergency in Afghanistan. The organisation is exclusively dedicated to ending hunger around the globe. http://www.actioncontrelafaim.org/en/content/acf-international, and http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/ (both accessed July 26, 2012).
- 19.
For a more detailed discussion on the last four decades of international summits and conferences on, or including the topic of “Sustainability and Development”, the author has added an additional chapter, Appendix 10, in the Appendices.
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Zahnd, A. (2013). Introduction. In: The Role of Renewable Energy Technology in Holistic Community Development. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03989-3_1
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