By NATALIA MARKEVITCH FRIEDEN

I have just come back from a long trek around the Annapurna. I was deeply shocked. A rural road is being built from Besisahar to Manang, and from Jomsom to Beni. This road is not completed; all the bridges or tunnels are still missing. On the part that goes from Jomsom to Baglung the road is already partly used by motorcycles. Some times one walks between the motorcars that do noisy and dirty cross and even offer their services as taxis! On the road from Besisahar to Manang, no part is completed in a way that could be used.

But the road is there, ugly, visible, and in some parts already full of all the disasters the construction causes: land slides, broken trees, dirt, felled wood, heaps of stones, gravel, destroyed ecosystems Each trekker is shocked. The beautiful nature of this area, one of the most astounding in the world, is disfigured. The conservation of a region is a very subtle matter. In this part of Nepal, the ACAP did for years, a beautiful work to help the people to look after the nature and lessen the negative impacts of tourism. The management of the water, of the trash, of the trails has been an example of perfect cooperation of tradition and modern knowledge. The tourists came for years and enjoyed the perfect equilibrium of a very well protected nature, a beautiful landscape, the loveliest mountains, nice and agreeable small hotels. The reputation grew in the entire world for this special place. What has happened is therefore not understandable. I wonder if the minister of tourism ever visited this area! Does he know what is happening there? Did he, could he want it?

I talked to hotel owners and they are frightened by the impact this road is going to have. Some asked the tourists to sign a petition against the road. I asked the tourists I met, and they where shocked and furious. I went to talk to the ACAP people in Manang. They were contradictory because they told me that they had not encouraged this construction but that part of the population wanted it. Talking about this reply with an hotel owner, he smiled and told me the ACAP people, just like the ones of the government, are people who often come from the plains, would like to get to Manang quicker and basically would like to come out of the region without having to walk four days! He told me: “They want the road”.

Who must one believe? It seems that nobody wants the road!

What I know is that tourism is going to slow down because nobody would like to spend thousands of dollars to fly around the world, to get in this beautiful place and to walk on an ugly and uncompleted road! Everybody tells you that the tourism has slowed down already, that hotels are far from full. When all the tourist agencies will know this terrible fact, people will search for a better destination. I talked with an agency in Kathmandu: they don't direct anymore tourists to Manang, but bring them in nicer places like the Manaslu circuit, Naar and Phu. So a whole region is beginning to loose out.

What can we do? I wonder if the road will ever be finished because all the bridges have still to be built, and in some parts of the construction, the nature is so harsh and adverse, so steep, with too much propensity to slide down, that it seems just impossible to finish the construction in a reasonable time. But that does not change the fact that in some parts of the layout, the road is already used.

Possibly the only measure that could partially save the region is the building of new trails. For the moment, many trails are destroyed on very long distances, and so the trekkers leave the old trails to walk on the partially built road. In the small parts where an alternative trail has been saved, the tourists trek happily. But those parts are rare: the upper trail from Pisang to Braga, for example. Everywhere new trails could be created, well indicated, and promoted for a better discovery of villages, culture and nature. New, and more precise maps should be available.

This seems to me the only possibility to offer faithful tourists to come back to this wonderful part of the world. It is also a possibility to save the nice and friendly tourism industry of this region.

Posted on: 2007-05-05 22:21:19 (Server Time)
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