Environment and constitution

In Nepal, environment is not yet a political issue. The general understanding is that it’s not yet our issue. Whether in the constitution or legislative parliament, “our issue” is social justice such as reaching to poor people, ethnic groups, dalit or madhesi and meeting their demands. Without talking about environment, the social justice is impossible, which we are not being able to understand. And due to the lack of this realization, there has not been a single discussion in the parliament on environment as a direct issue. I have been a CA member and parliamentarian for about a year now and not even a single bill has been proposed in the parliament on the environment. But some of the CA members recently proposed a bill of public importance on climatic change but before we could carry on with the discussion on this proposal, the parliament stopped functioning.

This is how it works: legislative parliament body is influenced by major political parties and the parties are influenced by major political leaders. And what I have found is that there are really few political leaders who are interested in this issue and the understanding of it is really narrow and weak. I don’t say it is their personal weakness but the problem is in their understanding. That is why Legislative Parliament has not taken the shape that it should really have.

I have been a CA member and parliamentarian for about a year now and not even a single bill has been proposed in the parliament on the environment.

When we talk about climate change there are talks about mitigation and adaptation. The normal understanding is that this is not the agenda of poor people so it is not Nepali’s agenda rather it is something dumped by developed countries to us.

Even while seeing the history of the ministry of environment, it was just established to meet the demand of the additional ministries with growing number of political parties and leaders. And even in terms of priority, this is the least preferred ministry. The least influential party gets this ministry. In the administrative level, if the secretary is to be punished, they send the person to the Ministry of Environment.

And even while the media comes up with idea of any political leader, it does not see the understanding of the particular leader regarding the environment. This all makes environment just a ritual that we follow every year on June 5 and that’s it. Therefore we need to sensitize this issue.

Right to clean environment is our fundamental right but it should not just be limited to the constitution. So as we are writing a new constitution now, it is a very appropriate time to discuss about the contents as well. For example, this time we are including right to food in the constitution, which includes the availability of food to every citizen, cultural acceptability of the food. And if we analyze, every aspect of this right is related to the environment.

We are coming up with the constitution that will cater to the coming generations as well. So what this generation should realize is they should not consume all the resources now but rather save it for the future too. So, our endeavor is to come up with policies that furnish the coming generation as well.

Let’s not make the sustainable development a donor-driven issue. Let’s make it ours. Take for example our country, we are constructing roads in the hilly areas and the environmental ramification can be seen there – the landslides. And the victims of the disaster are the poor people. This shows how the direct impact of environmental degradation or climate change affects the backward countries. Mainly the poorest group of the country is being hit the hardest. This leads to the conclusion that the environmental issue should equally be a part of the constitutional discussion.

To prove that we, the constitution makers are determined for the sustainable development, we are in the side of elaborating it. This should be seen in the preamble of the constitution. Preamble shows the state of the state of mind. So in the preamble, we should be able to prove that we are truly aware of the environmental issues. Our state is equally committed to the conservation of natural resources, sustainable development like any other social issue of the country. And for this we have dedicated ourselves in developing infrastructure in environment friendly way. For eg: while constructing roads why not green approach?

But while including the rights, we have not forgotten to write the duties of citizens as well. For example, any citizen who enjoys the right to protest should do it keeping environment in mind. Nepal’s constitution is going to be the one which will clearly talk about the environment. But what if the right and duties are not implemented as said. We have planned to discuss this as well. The improvements are to be made in the judicial level so that the proper punishment system is executed.

While restructuring Nepal, natural resources should be made a fundamental issue of discussion. So that our natural resources are not exploited but rather used wisely during the competitions between different states.

We are also trying to raise issues like environment is not an anti-development issue but an opportunity. How? We have to develop ten cities in coming ten years. But we don’t want to do it in the way where our world pays its price like all other cities but rather in an environment-friendly technique or through green approach. Thought it’s expensive, the result is fruitful not only to Nepal but globally.

(At age 33, Gagan Thapa is by far one of the most articulate leaders and progressive policy makers in Nepal today. Currently he is helping write Nepal’s new constitution as a member of the Fundamental Rights Committee in our Constituent Assembly. There, he is one of the very few voices that consistently advocate the importance of viewing our socio-economic policies though an environmental prism. )