Access to Electrification in a Developing Nation: Why is there bad access for the people of Nepal?

Part I. Introduction and Significance

8 hours a day without electricity, 6 days a week, equates to 48 hours per week of living in the dark. Such is the typical lifestyle of those living in the small rural communities and villages of Nepal. In the mornings, it was easier to adjust to because of natural lighting coming through our windows. In the evening, after the day’s work we would return to our host family’s three-story house to have dinner with fellow volunteers. After dinner, we usually returned to our room to reflect and unwind from the day. Shortly after (typically 8 in the evening), the electricity would be cut off. This was the everyday situation we found ourselves in as volunteers from the U.S. arriving in Kathmandu for a three-week service trip.

The town of Pepsicola located in Kathmandu Valley experienced frequent, scheduled power outages of up to eight hours daily, and the hours became even longer as winter dragged on. Studying became impossible once daylight was gone, cooking became difficult with several candles standing in a large, dark kitchen, computers in internet cafes suddenly shut off, and shops closed down—yet the people never once questioned why it was happening to them. They made the best of the situation and were happy with the wee hours of electricity they were given in the evenings. I, on the other hand, constantly questioned why this happened. Even after I returned from the service trip, the larger question I came to ask was why there was bad access to electricity for the people of Nepal. Can it be explained by poor infrastructure or class indifferences? How does it affect the communities with little or no access? Moreover, I became interested in investigating the long term consequences bad access had on the people’s lives.

With my research, I hope to investigate a topic and question that so many in the population of Nepal experience and have little knowledge of and at the same time provide a deeper understanding of Nepal’s current energy crisis. I believe that the local and global actors, the population, the state, and other actors involved directly or indirectly will benefit from this research showing how each ultimately plays a role in facing challenges of energy unreliability in Nepal. Another goal of my research is to inform the population at large in current state policy regarding electricity. I want to encourage the people to question the motives of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), for they are responsible for issuing power outages as demands soar across the country. Moreover, I aim to fill in informational gaps between the different actors and examine the root causes of unequal access to electrification in a developing region.

Part II. Background

Leslie Sklair’s framework of globalization and economic flows across borders suggests that the resources exist in our world today, but is just not reaching the people who need it most. Today’s economic relations revolve around global markets more so than “sovereign state markets” (Sklair, 99). Because of the unequal distribution in global flows, the people’s access to basic necessities is often overlooked. More specifically, this globalized market framework reflects the current state of electricity shortage in Nepal. Energy imports from India and recent attempts to increase hydropower usage are gradually increasing supplies but still cannot meet the rising demands of the population.

As Nepalese economist and journalist Bhuwan Thapaliya puts it, “And what makes the future scenario gloomy is the current policy strategy framework. No one knows what the government’s electricity policy is nor does one know the real motive of the NEA. And the investor’s policies are also debatable on various grounds and the risk—political, social or infrastructural—remains enormous. All this means that load shedding won’t go away any time soon” (Thapaliya). “Load shedding” is essentially an intentional electrical power outage that the NEA resorts to in order to ration power (www.nepalnews.com). The NEA’s current projects funded by donors include: Rural Electrification, Distribution and Transmission Project financed by the Asian Development Bank, Distribution and Rural Electrification Project financed by the World Bank, Kailali-Kanchanpur Rural Electrification Project financed by DANIDA, Ilam Rural Electrification Project financed by grant assistance from the government of Japan (NEA). Seemingly, there is adequate funding from many different sources. It is the state’s responsibility to distribute electricity to its population, but the unequal access can in part be explained by the lack of distribution facilities and good infrastructure. Because the government is preoccupied with other national issues concerning security, little focus has been placed on the energy problem in recent years.

Nepal’s governance history is largely made up of political instability and violence ever since its monarchy was overthrown. Following its decade-long conflict between government forces and Maoist rebels, the 1996 through 2006 civil war concluded with Comprehensive Peace Accord signed in the last year and is now monitored by the United Nations in Nepal (Parajuli). In 2008, Nepal voted in a Constituent Assembly, elected both a President and Prime Minister, and set goals to draft a new constitution by the year 2010 (World Bank). As shown, the new federal government emerging from the civil war has much to take on to confront various preexisting challenges in an unstable global economy. In a time like this, the government’s first priority appears to be maintaining political law and order and, secondly, to “deliver benefits to those excluded and to society at large (World Bank). Therefore, there is a lack of urgency felt at the federal level to address the growing energy crisis in Nepal. Because the people and state have shifted their focus to conflict and ongoing protests (as I experienced), the issue of undependable electric sources must be revisited and placed under public attention spotlight again. Thus, there is a great need for more in-depth research on why the energy problem exists, persists, and what is currently being done to improve access to Nepal’s entire population.

Part III. Methods and Research Plan

First, I will be conducting a case study to zero in on a specific region of Nepal: Pepsicola, in this case. I chose case studies for their effectiveness in “[studying] the individual as the unit of analysis…and [developing] rich and comprehensive understandings about people” (Maree). I plan to investigate where the town’s electricity is coming from and trace the source back to the state in order to understand the root cause of bad access. As for specific documents I will be using, I am looking to find more data on the breakdown of supply and demand from an official source. I will analyze that data to determine exactly how much energy is coming into a small town like Pepsicola. Additionally, I will research each of the NEA’s electrification projects working on rural communities. I will also investigate the workings of the NEA Electrification Business Group that is mainly responsible for powering rural communities in Nepal. I do not foresee any obstacles with this method as most statistical data from reports are publicly released and freely available on web sources.

Second, I will conduct interviews when I return to Kathmandu to stay with my previous host family. This is an important component to my research, since I am also interested in how the bad access to electricity is impacting the day to day lives of the people in Pepsicola. I would like more insight as to their reaction for why power cuts happen, whether they feel it is driven by economic inequalities, whether anyone has done any work on the electricity issue, etc. Because I have already established rapport during my month-long service trip this past winter, I do not see any challenge in finding locals to interview.

Lastly, I will use participant observation to gather field notes about the conditions and experiences of the people when power outages occur. Since I have already visited Pepsicola and experienced the frequent outages personally, this will mainly serve to gather a greater variety of responses, reactions, and behavioral notes of the people. I will again be staying my host family in Pepsicola so my observations will mainly be made on the two families currently living in the house, one being my host family and the other a family member’s family. I believe observing people I am familiar with will also be an advantage in that I can make more in-depth notes about their specific reactions to the power outages as they occur.