Investment in infrastructure: Nepal can learn from Bangladesh
By Indra Adhikari
On December 24, our van carrying five of us, including driver and an
interpreter, rushed to Laxmipur (the locals call it Lakkipur), the
five-hour drive to south-east from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. It was
part of the election observation mission under Asian Network for Free
Elections (ANFREL), but for me it an opportunity to look at closely this
part of Bangladesh. Notably, the infrastructure built in this part of the
country made think of what lacked in Nepal.
Nepal has many things to learn from Laxmipur. Liberal social norms might
have opened up Nepali society faster than this district but we are far
behind in building development infrastructure.
On the second day of our interaction with local people, we reached to
remote villages such as Char Gazi - another two-hour drive from our
residence, just a few kilometers away from the Bay of Bengal. What I
wondered of this district during our drive was the absence of rough roads
all along. In fact, we drove to such far off villages that we nearly lost
our way back to residence in the evening and during all these travels, we
found muddy road only for five minutes.
Ramgoti Upazilla is the remotest part of the district. Mostly filled with
coconut and betel nut forests with hundreds of ponds, the breeding center
for mosquitoes, the Upazilla has very little land for agricultural
activities.
"We plant paddy thrice a year," a local resident in Char Lawrence said.
Before I inquired why it was so, he said this was to meet the increasing
demand for food in Bangladesh. Since Bangladesh is one of the heavily
populated nations in South Asia, the country faces food shortage every
year. As Nepal increasingly faces the short supply in food and while some
Terai lands remain uncultivated, the example of the Bangladeshi farmers in
their effort to meet the food shortage could help meet Nepal's needs as
well. Nowhere had we find uncultivated lands in the district - it is
either used for coconut and betel nut plantation or for paddy farming. The
Char area - marshy lands - has become a boon for the local farmers for
they need not pay for irrigation projects for farming.
Additionally, extension of double lane black-topped roads to remote areas
meant the agriculture products can get access to markets. I thought these
farmers have never experienced the glitches in supplying products to
markets like our farmers in villages have and heard no stories of
agricultural products being rotten on the field like in Rukkum or Manang.
I just wished Nepali planners had thought about highways like these. They
are all eight-lane highways in this part of Bangladesh which is not
considered so developed.
The roads not only helped supply agricultural products to market but also
ferrying products from industries to villages. Even in sparse villages,
groceries have been set up, textile shops have been erected. Clothes here
must be much cheaper than we get in Khotang or Rolpa for two reasons -
cheap supply mechanism and local production. Remember, Bangladesh is one
of the major textile producers in Asia.
Besides, Laxmipur district is also ready leapfrog education sector as
well. In four Upazillas we visited - Laxmipur, Ramgati, Roipur and Ramgunj
- nowhere had we noticed school building less than two-storey concrete
building.
In Nepal, we have seen village schools are in some case just the open
grounds or huts with roofs likely to be blown off by minor breeze. The
Laxmipur district has less than 33 percent literacy rate, with women even
less than 25 percent of the total literates, but ready infrastructure can
obviously lift the literacy rate to great height in very short period.
Industrial growth in Bangladesh has many aspects to be satisfied with
compared to Nepal despite political instability. Proposed candidate for
Prime Minister Seikh Hasina has pledged to boost the industrial hub in
Chittagong, which will enhance the industrial growth here. Politics in
Nepal has immense impact in industrial sector but in Bangladesh, it is
fainter - to my access at least.
Politics in Bangladesh and Nepal is marred by the same disease yet absence
of political interference in bureaucracy and project implementation
agencies has helped build infrastructure in Bangladesh well. The country
has no unions of the government employees. Should Nepal also switch to
this practice?
With educational, industrial, agricultural infrastructure and road network
intact, Bangladesh seems all set to make headways in economy with the
return of political instability. nepalnews.com Jan 05 09
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