One of the exciting things about Kathmandu is the unpredictability. Around every corner, down every street you just do not know what is going to be coming your way. Everyday in the city we come across beautiful temples being used as vegetable markets, cows meandering through busy streets, men carrying giant packages with their heads, stores packed with the most interesting and novel products imaginable. This kind of unpredictability which can make the city so much fun to explore unfortunately also can make the city difficult to live in as it permeates into many dimensions of Kathmandu life. One aspect of daily life that is dangerously volatile is the allocation of resources.

Kathmandu is a city of shortages. When the conflict was raging in much of Nepal Kathmandu remained relatively safe, and so tens of thousands of people moved their homes to the city. Combined with the natural migration of rural population to the cities which most countries are witnessing, Kathmandu simply does not have the infrastructure in place to provide for all of these people. For this reason water and electricity are precious resources that are simply not always available.

My first day at COCAP these shortages became an important topic of discussion as the electricity had been shut off in that area of the city. With the entire office unable to access the internet or even their computers, the day turned into simply waiting for the electricity to be turned back on. The city basically can not all have electricity at any given time, so there are rotating blackouts that are simply part of life here. That same night when Jeff and I were sitting at a bar near our hotel the whole place suddenly went dark. We enjoyed the rest of our beer by candlelight as the whole neighborhood was blacked out for most of the night. This was not an isolated incident and it has repeated itself a number of times since.

While occasionally suffering through blackouts is not that bad, water shortages are a huge problem. A colleague at COCAP was telling me that in some neighborhoods there is only running water one day out of the entire month. While this is an extreme case, there are many areas that suffer from serious shortages. As access to water is one of the most basic steps towards development, the need for infrastructure cannot be overstated.

Being the young activists that we are, Jeff and I wanted to do something to help. What could just two people do against such a huge problem you ask? Well, we flooded our hotel room. One morning when we woke up we found that the water was off. Being the irritable tourist that I am, I immediately tried to turn on every faucet and knob in the bathroom to no avail. Realizing we just were not going to get our showers we left the hotel for breakfast. Returning several hours later, Raj, the owner of the hotel told us “There was a big problem.” Apparently when the water came back on after we had left one of the faucets was left on. Water had not only flooded the bathroom, but also our bedroom, the hallway and had started flowing into other people’s rooms before the problem was discovered.

So in a city desperate for water we had managed in just one morning to waste gallons of that precious resource. I guess I am already making a difference.