POKHARA, Nov 18: Everyone talks of the lake city of Pokhara as earth´s lovely treasure. But, can anyone guess how long this optimism will last? Rupa Thapa, 17, a student in Pokhara says, “Five years down the line I can see Pokhara turning into another Kathmandu.”
Like Thapa, originally hailing from Sindhuli, there are many youth here who share this nightmarish concern on this week´s Chitchat.
The pristinely beautiful lake city of Pokhara, nation´s major tourist hub, has always been warm and welcoming to tourists from all over the world. But in recent years, the city and its wonderful work of nature are in the grip of greedy builders in the process of becoming urbanized. Of course urbanization is a must to address the growing need of a rapidly increasing population. But in Pokhara´s case, many youth say enough is enough.
“The unbridled urbanization is bit by bit spoiling this city´s splendor, in terms of infrastructure and everything else, and the government is a silent spectator of this haphazard urbanization, and so are the people,” says Nisha Kunwar, 17.
The Pokhareli youth´s sentiments do not differ when it comes to the process of urbanization which they say is piece by piece transforming the serenely beautiful place into a haphazard city. They lay the blame for the haphazard urbanization of Pokhara to the lack of involvement of youth.
Pradeep Sharma, 20, complains that whenever the youth want to do something constructive, they are never successful in their bid since the elderly take the helm. The projects that elderly steer on have failed to meet the standards for they resort to outmoded methods.
“We never get to have our say and the funds or donations whatever chipped in by donors and the government are not put into proper use because those at the helms are just paying lip service,” opines Pradeep.
These youth are upset at the pace of development and do not want to see their city turning into another Kathmandu.
“I was born and brought up in Pokhara. The new developments are not showing a healthy sign. I don´t want this city to loose its charms that we have at the moment,” Arjun Baral, 18, says.
“Nowadays I can see garbage littered just about everywhere. If this is what urbanization really means, I for one do not want it,” says Anjana Kunwar, 17.
All six youth of Pokhara are concerned that the city facing breathtaking mountains and housing some of the nation´s awe-inspiring lakes will soon be swallowed by greedy real estate developers.
Sudip Sharma, 18, remarked that even though they were taught civic sense in school -- where teachers taught them things that should and should not be done -- when they grew into adults they have lost that sense of civic duty.
“They just throw chocolate wrappers or scraps out of their cars in complete disregard of their civic responsibilities. And in doing so day in and day out, they have developed this as a habit,” says Sudip.
Indeed, making the street messy by littering chocolate wrappers and other stuff is not uncommon in Nepal.
In recent times, dumping shredded paper and instant noodle wrappers have become uncontrollable.
“Are we learning from the west (and recently from Korean films too)? Why are we failing to live by our senses -- to decide what is wrong and what is good? Aren´t we getting into all the negative habits like smoking, chewing tobacco and spitting on the pavements?” asked Nisha. According to her, the youth also need to catch up on societal issues and how they can be of help.
Says Rupa, “The youth in Pokhara are more interested in bunking classes, gang-fights and everything else that they think will make them famous in their school or college than think of their fragile environment being damaged by urbanization.” Add to that, Pradeep says, “Gang fights usually take place between eighth and tenth graders when they were supposed to learn civic values.”
Most of them share that the youth are evading their responsibility by failing to apply what they are taught in school eventually becoming a silent spectator to the piercing problems of urbanization.
Urbanization is unstoppable. But the way it is being implemented is surely inviting disasters sooner or later. But, it is never too late to stop this from happening.
What needs to be done is all within the power of the youth and the government agencies alike, but when both turn a deaf ear to it, a solution looks unattainable.
“As youth, we know that we are capable of altering this scenario provided we act now with firm zeal and enthusiasm,” concludes, Pradeep.
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