Ward chairs in Nepal’s local governments are overworked. It’s about time they got more powers too

Ever since Shobha Sapkota became the ward chair of Kathmandu metropolitan city’s ward 14, her phone did not stop ringing. There were times when her phone started to ring in the middle of the night. Not wanting to entertain them, she did not answer during odd hours.

But, one day, a few people gathered around her house at night demanding that the ward chair do something about a dog that barked all night. She addressed the complaint and asked the community police to talk to the dog owner.