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Cabinet at Everest base camp
KATHMANDU, NOV 05 - You don’t have to climb Everest to set a record. You can accomplish the feat by holding a Cabinet mee-ting at the base of the world’s highest peak. Come November 11, and the country’s ministers could do just this—meet at 5,300 metres above sea level.
“We have agreed in principle to hold the Cabinet meeting at the top of the world on the given date if preparations go as planned,” said Deepak Bohora, Minister for Forests and Soil Conservation on Thursday.
However, the date might change by a day or two depending on preparations.
The entire Cabinet of the 22-party coalition will move to Everest base camp ahead of the key UN summit on Climate Change at Copenhagen, Denmark from December 7-18 with the aim of drawing the attention of the international community to the impact of climate change on the
Himalayas and the vulnerable communities dependent on its resources.
According to Bohora, a total of 60 delegates including Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, along with 27 other ministers, government and non-government officials, media persons, medical officers and representatives of donor agencies will attend the Cabinet meeting, which will focus on climate change impacts visible in the Himalayas.
Minister Bohora said consultations between ministers and their private doctors and mountaineers on health impacts due to altitude sickness are on. The delegates will fly to the base camp via Lukla in two helicopters equipped with oxygen masks and cylinders and other high altitude gear. “A health emergency unit will also be set up at base camp. We have already consulted Himalayan Rescue Centre, which will provide rescue and other required health facilities,” he said.
Various donor organisations have also shown keen interest to fund the Cabinet meeting, the minister said.
Different scientific researches have stated that the Himalyan glaciers, which feed the giant rivers of Asia are melting at a ‘stunning rate’ and forming dangerous glacial lakes which can pose serious threats to the Himalayan communities if they burst. About 1.3 bi-llion people are directly or indirectly dependent on the Himalayan ecosystem.
A couple of days ago, the go-vernment took the lead to organise the Summiteers’ Summit at Copenhagen to mark International Mountain Day on Dec 11 to alert world leaders about alarming glacial melting in the Himalayas.
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