Watch your step

Neglected open sewers in the city should be a matter of criminal negligence.

Broken roads, unmarked sinkholes, myriad potholes, protruding manholes, dilapidated bridges and open sewers are scattered across the nation’s capital. One can get a sense of the magnitude of the state of neglect across the country if Kathmandu lies in such a state of ruin. Rarely does one get to traverse around Kathmandu unhindered by life-threatening obstacles. The satisfaction of a re-layered tarmac is usually short-lived. It is as if we are forever cursed to deal with inaccessible roads; for just after getting the road back to accessible condition, the waterworks department or the electrical authority finds a reason to re-dig the fresh asphalt to leave it in a state of impassable mess.