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NEPAL: Strike threatens health, education services in Kathmandu

KATHMANDU, 25 February 2008 (IRIN) - A strike by pro-Madhesi groups which started in the southern region of Terai on 12 February is threatening health and education services in Kathmandu, government officials said.

Over the past two weeks Kathmandu’s residents have been severely affected by shortages of fuel - including kerosene, petrol, diesel and cooking gas - after striking Madhesi groups blocked the main roads leading from India, from which Nepal buys most of its fuel.

“If this strike continues…we can expect a health crisis here in the capital,” Bharat Pradhan, executive director of Kathmandu’s Model Hospital, told IRIN.

Health services provided by Kathmandu’s nearly 100 government and private hospitals and clinics, which cater for nearly two million people, could be severely affected, according to medical workers.

The power situation has been exacerbated of late by lack of water in reservoirs which has meant lower output by hydro-power stations, with power cuts lasting seven hours per day. Hospitals have had no choice but to use diesel generators, and fuel for them is now in short supply.

Patients at risk

“We won’t be able to operate life-saving machines on a regular basis if there is no power, and lack of these would endanger the lives of many sick patients,” said Pradhan.

It is becoming more difficult to operate medical equipment and keep medicines and blood banks refrigerated; medicines could become damaged, he said.

Health professionals have said they are very frustrated by the government’s apparent indifference: “We are running out of oxygen supplies and are forced to reduce admissions but the government has failed to do anything,” a senior hospital executive who preferred anonymity told IRIN. Hospital administrators also warned that ambulance services were suffering as a result of fuel shortages.

Requests to the government by medical workers not to cut power to hospitals have been largely ignored, they told IRIN.

However, the government has said it is doing all it can to rectify the situation and has promised to help schools and hospitals.

"Key institutions like hospitals, schools and other essential service providers would be provided with separate petrol pumps," Purosattam Ojha, a senior official from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, told reporters on 24 February.

Schools affected

Nearly 1,100 private and 200 government-funded schools have been affected by the fuel crisis, according to the Private and Boarding School Organisations of Nepal (PABSON).

PABSON said schools were having problems running classes on a regular basis. Catering and transport services had been affected.

“We have thousands of schoolchildren whose education has been severely hampered,” said Umesh Shrestha, principal of Little Angels School, one of the country’s biggest schools, which alone uses over 100 buses to transport nearly 5,000 students daily.

“We had never experienced such a crisis for schools ever in Nepal’s history,” said PABSON vice-president, Laxya Bahadur. Bahadur said the fuel shortages had come just as the national level School Leaving Examinations were due in a few weeks time. He said the problem was already affecting nearly 80,000 students in the capital.

Strikers’ demands

Meanwhile Madhesi protestors have said they will continue their strike until their demands are met. They are insisting on regional autonomy and the right to self-determination, amendments to the 2007 election act, proportional representation for Madhesis in all state institutions, the enlisting of a large number of Madhesis in the army, and the declaring of 45 protestors who died in the last year's Madhesi demonstrations as martyrs.

Source_IRIN