Monsoon maladies

The authorities need to prioritise efforts to fill the gaps within the health sector.

With the incessant rainfall the country has been witnessing in the past few weeks, the need to tackle Nepal’s issues during the monsoon has taken centre stage once again. Bountiful rainfall is a boon for an agro-based economy like ours. Ironically, despite the abundance of river bodies, farmers in Nepal and the entire sub-continent depend on the seasonal downpour to ensure a healthy harvest. This dependence is primarily rooted in our inability to tap the free-flowing resource and work it to our advantage. But the monsoon brings far more pressing concerns in the form of water-borne diseases that brutishly plague the region every year.