Water bodies in Everest region contaminated: Survey

KATHMANDU: Contamination in water bodies in the Sagarmatha National Park and its Buffer Zone (SNPBZ) has accelerated in recent years, thanks to the influx of visitors and the increase in human waste, stated a recent survey carried out in the Everest region.The survey sponsored by the Hindukush Karakoram Himalaya Partnership Project — EvK2 National Research Council of Italy in coordination with the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology was carried out in 2007-08. The survey on ‘Impacts of Tourism in the SNPBZ’ was carried out by Prof Dr PK Jha, in cooperation with researchers NP Ghimire and BB Shrestha of the Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University.According to the research, bacterial contamination was recorded in 13 percent water samples and one sample of mineral water. “E coli and Streptococcus faecolies were found in the waters of Khumbu Valley,” Dr Jha told this daily today. Dudhkoshi, Bhotekoshi, Imja Khola and Gokyo lake are the major water bodies in the region. Besides the local visitors, the total population of the area is 5,869. Unsafe toilet and use of manures are the major cause of water contamination, the report stated. “Litter toilet is common among farming population and the waste is later used as fertilizer in potato fields,” the report stated, adding, “There are three types of toilet tanks—simple pit , stone-wall septic tack and cement-wall septic tanks. Only 4.66 per cent of the population has cement-wall septic tank.” A total of 2,197 tons of manure is produced in the region annually and eight tons of manure is used in a hectare of arable land. The excessive use of manure contaminates the water bodies badly, Jha added. Six water samples collected in the area had iron content of 1.2 mg/litre in Dudhkoshi at Jorsalle and 0.64 mg/litre in Bhotekoshi near Thame. The iron content in drinking water should be less than 0.3 mg/litre, according to the World Health Organisation. “Water pollution prevention programme should be implemented to control this hazard,” Jha added.The samples collected in the region were tested under standard methods at Environmental Assessment Material Testing Division, Kathmandu.

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Mingbo Airfield

Probably the world highest airstrip "Mingbo airstrip"is fully abandoned and not in use at all but it has own great history .

God father of Sherpa people Sir Edmund Hillary wrote in his book “View from the Summit”

"Several of us returned to Kathmandu in early January to organise a second lift of supplies and while we were there I was approached by the Swiss pilot, Captain Schrieber, who wanted somewhere he could drop International Red Cross relief to the Tibetan refugees. They were in a pitiful condition, for on the 10th March 1959 there had been a Tibetan uprising against the Chinese in Lhasa. The Chinese retaliated with great force. Thousands of Tibetans were killed by Red Army troops. Seven days later the young Dalai Lama fled Lhasa to seek political asylum in India, followed by over 80,000 Tibetan refugees, some of whom crossed the border into the Everest region. Captain Schrieber had a Pilatus Porter aircraft with an outstanding high-altitude performance, but he didn’t know of any place to land in the Khumbu. I remembered the site I’d pointed out to Peter Muigrew up the Mingbo valley, but warned Captain Schrieber that it was at 15,000 feet. This didn’t seem to worry him, and we agreed that, if I could devote expedition effort to clearing the Mingbo landing strip he, in return, would fly in several loads of aluminium sheets to build a school at Khumjung. So at my request, the Silver Hut wintering group put a team of men onto levelling the site at 15,000 feet, chopping off the frozen clumps of snow grass, filling in the worst of the holes, and rolling away the large boulders. Snow sometimes restricted their activity but it rarely lay for long once the sun was shining again. When the strip had been cleared to 400 yards the first landing was made. Unfortunately, the aircraft damaged its tail wheel on a rock and had an unscheduled stay of some days while being made airworthy again. Work on the strip continued for some months and we finally enlarged it to 500 yards and generally improved it.
At the take-off end were two huge boulders weighing many tons and standing six feet above the ground. We had no explosives and the boulders were singularly unresponsive to the blows of our sledge-hammer. The problem was finally solved in a highly ingenious fashion by our Sherpas. They dug enormous craters beside each boulder and then used long heavy poles as levers to tip the boulders out of the way into the holes. Altogether we paid $900 for the labour used on building this strip, which possibly made it one of the cheapest as well as one of the highest airfields in the world. Due to the skill and experience of Captain Schrieber, large quantities of refugee food was transported safely into Mingbo and we for our part were helped considerably with the rapid freighting. of personnel, scientific equipment and our school building.
Hillary describes a takeoff and landing at Mingbo airstrip:
We were short on seats so June Mulgrew was put on the floor in the back of the plane and tied down with a piece of rope, facing sideways like in a tram. Captain Schrieber calmly told her, “If anything happens just undo the rope.” Louise didn’t like small aircraft and she was very nervous and upset. I could understand this, as there was no second chance, but it didn’t stop me from subjecting her to small plane flights.
We were loaded to the maximum. Captain Schrieber started up the motor and revved it fiercely, while the two large rocks wedged under the wheels for brakes were removed and we roiled forward onto two smaller ones. The motor was given full throttle and the plane shuddered with power as the wheels inched over the small rocks and then rolled suddenly down the other side. With the motor blaring like a demon we surged into our take-off run. To my startled eyes the short strip ahead of us seemed quite inadequate for our needs and the hill at the end loomed up with frightening rapidity. At the last moment Captain Schrieber pulled back on the stick and we lifted sluggishly off the ground. Next moment he had tipped up onto one wing to dodge the hill and we were slipping through the gully to the left, to be precipitated out into free air as the river valley dropped sharply away beneath us. With a sigh of relief, I unclenched my hands as we soared high over Tengboche and set course for Kathmandu.
The return to Mingbo on 5th April 1960 was a terrifying experience. Civil aviation in Kathmandu had only just become aware that the Mingbo airfield was operating, even though it had been in action for several months. They demanded that one of their experts should fly in with us and check it out. It was quite turbulent as we made our approach towards the hill at the bottom of the Mingbo runway. As Captain Schrieber headed down there was a fierce sideways gust of wind and the aircraft started sliding towards the left-hand edge of the field. Captain Schrieber’s reaction was immediate — he just dropped the aircraft from thirty feet to land with a huge thud and then rolled upwards close to the rocks on the left-hand side where we stopped safely at the top. We were all severely shaken. The Civil Aviation gentleman staggered out of the aircraft and vomited noisily. Then he declared the airfield closed for all time. When he was informed that this would involve him in a seventeen-day walk to Kathmandu, he reopened the airfield for one last flight. Captain Schrieber wasn’t too concerned — he’d flown in all the food for the Tibetans and our Khumjung School material had been brought in, too. "

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How to cope with Loneliness

English language has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the pleasure being alone. Loneliness is all around us. You see it everywhere – in the jammed streets of a town, in a room rocking with people packed but nothing to say to each other. You can be lonely even in a house filled with friends and family.
Basically, loneliness is a condition where we have only ourselves to rely on for any strength of sustenance. It is a time when we may be totally alone or, although we are with other, we may feel alienated from then and unable to share our unique experiences with any order human being at that particular moment.Solitude may be a very pleasant and peaceful enjoyment of life when there is no urgent need for contact with another human being.

We all have moments of pleasure alone-be it with nature, or music, or books or a favorite activity when we are perfectly content or happy to have the time alone. The consequences of loneliness can also be serious problem in themselves, Depression, boredom, restlessness, and psychosomatic illness. There are, however, rather generalized symptoms of unease, and you need to ask yourself if they really spring from aloofness or from others aspects of your life that need changing.The loneliness in marriage gone sour is one of the worst agonies of life. It happens when people drift away from one another because they have stopped sharing or caring. The extramarital affair is often the result of man or woman in search of someone who will listen to the problems that his or her partner is not interested in .Prostitutes frequently describe how the men who buy their time are more eager to talk about their troubles than to experience a sexual release.What then the lonely person to do? He must understand himself, with his assets, his personal worth .He must learn to value himself so he feels he is giving something worth ship. He must learn to giving something worthwhile when he offers his friendship. He must not be passive, waiting on the sidelines for someone to rescue him. Nor must he allow himself to be absorbed by the crowd .We all need to be alone sometime. Even in the most intense relationships .We need a heaven of solitude and self-nurturance. Learn to being alone. At some time everyone experiences some degree of loneliness. It is not to be dreaded .It has a place in a productive, happy life.Learn to meditate in some way. Take the opportunity to think about yourself and your life without distractions. You may find that keeping a journal or diary helps you concentrate your feelings and insights .if you are lonely and yet there are many people in your life, ask yourself what is missing. What connection do you yearn for that you lack? Do you need to develop new relationship or to deepen existing ones? Examine how your present state of loneliness came about. To what degree are you responsible for it? Have you chosen to live in a way that encourages loneliness? If you find loneliness unacceptable, yet you have to choose it, recognize that you are free to make a new choice. You can promote your inner life, encourage yourself to pursue interests, appreciate the people and life around you , and nourish your sense of humor .Keep in touch with the world surrounding you, with external events and with your creative powers: Use art as away of communicating with yourself and with others. Paint, dance, sing play music and take up a craft hobby, read books and magazine. Try to be patient to take each day as it comes. Involve yourself with others and their needs but not to the loss of your own. Rediscover the joy of sharing with and helping another person.Loneliness can be a positive choice, too. It may reflect a desire for independence from a social network you no longer wish to maintain. You may simply want to break free of uncomfortable entanglements you inherited. Always remember Loneliness cannot be escaped by using drugs, drinking, overeating, or oversleeping .These escapes are unproductive and dangerous, and merely prolong and aggravate the condition you need to change. Fantasizes and daydreams may be of some comfort and value on constructive planning, but they too can degenerate into mere escapes. Use lonely periods to reach for what you really want from yourself and from others to separate your true needs from the ones you or others think you should nave express .Many of us may feel extremely lonely although we are not alone . We may have husbands, wives , children parents , neighbors, coworkers, and others ,not good or enriching ,and we experience loneliness. It is important to examine what role we ourselves play in these relationships and what changes we could make. Presumably you workd refer for these relationship to be more loving and intimate. But perhaps you have given up and are not naking it possible for these relationship to flow freely. You may ,for instance, never express your needs or desires or your resentments and disappoints this would be naturally crate distance and reserve that is not helpful in providing a climate where closeness and warmth grow and nourish you. Always remember: loneliness can be a test and an opportunity rather than a complaint or an afflication . In one sense, we are all alone, individually separate. This realization can cause genuine pain, just as other experiences of loneliness can do: when w lose a loved one, or just go on a business trip or when we are by ourselves feeling an obligation, or illness. However, recognizing loneliness as a basic, inescapable part of our lives can be energizing rather than depressing.It can help us resolve to deepen , extend, and sustain our relationship with other people. It helps us to think of our fellows as each being lovable ,lonely person like ourselves . In modern time we deal with uncertainty, This creates the feeling of loneliness in all of us. But the business if living can bend uncertainty by our will. How? By exercising our sights to live as lone we can –to live and be happy .This means that we are goal strive and when we reach one goal we start for another.This reinforces you against loneliness as long as you live. In conclusion, none of us can avoid loneliness altogether, any more than we can avoid suffering or self –doubt. We are all separate individuals, each with somewhat different experiences, some of which we can share. We have to be able to accept loneliness as an unavoidable part of life. We also need to learn from it, and go on with our lives, without being totally defeated by loneliness...

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Sep 6, 2008