Reckless
Construction of Roads in Rural Areas and its Adverse Effects
Anil
Aryal
Gulmi
Abstract
Road is very essential
infrastructure to develop the country. It is cheapest among all transportation
and easiest way to connect the rural corner of the nation. Roads should be
constructed scientifically keeping into consideration the bearing capacity of
earth. But in rural areas of Nepal the road have been constructed recklessly.
As a result they have given birth to various serious problems, such as
landslide, debris flow etc. Road construction in rural corner of Nepal has been
politically motivated. The technical manpower involved in designed the road
can't work independently. They are compelled to design the road as per the
interest of local politician.
Key Words: Road, Rural,
reckless
Objectives
·
To understand the present status of
rural roads in Nepal.
·
To understand the adverse effect of such
recklessly constructed road.
·
To point out the ways to construct the
environment friendly and scientific road in rural area.
Methodology
Much information in
this article are collected via direct observation of such road projects, some
other information are compiled from secondary sources like newspaper, journal
etc.
Introduction
Transport is the main
infrastructure of development .Water transport is unavailable in landlocked
country like Nepal. Air transport is very expensive. Hence road transport is
very important for countries like Nepal. On the basis of administrative
classification roads are classified into four categories, i.e. National
Highways, Feeder Roads, District Roads and Urban Roads (Nepal Road Standard
2070). Seasonal roads in rural area are comes under feeders roads in this
classification as they serve the communities wide interest and connect district
headquarters. Road construction has certain basic and scientific norms which
must be followed while designing roads. But in rural areas, roads are beings
designed and constructed haphazardly and unscientifically and they are
unsustainable. Unsustainable roads are those that have no drainage
arrangements, high gradient, no protection structure in critical places, no
biological protection etc. Such reckless road construction has very adverse
effects in the environment and triggers numerous natural disasters.
Present status
The road construction
in rural area is really environment unfriendly. In Nepal, there are broadly two
main road construction technologies in use for rural road construction, they
are labor based and equipment based technologies. Both of these technology
involve cut and throws method. Because of various governments process delays
occurs in budget releasing process which limits the working season for road
projects. This results the introduction of equipment based technology in
fragile land during rainy season. In the other hand hardly invested technical
manpower can't work independently. They have to work as per the interest of
local political leader, who have no knowledge of geological norms and standard
of road construction. Local people have little or no knowledge about the possible
danger caused by such haphazard construction. They accept whatever proposal
their leader put forward. They want road in their village at any cost. They
don’t take into consideration the adverse effect of road construction in
fragile land. "Rural road construction in Nepal is constrained by its
topography, geological condition, scarce financial resources and lack of
sufficient and technical manpower in rural area"(Shrestha2070)
Effect on environment
The conventional method
of road construction surely leads to the dangerous effect on the environment
and the community. The main effect of such method of construction is the mass
wasting. Excavated mass thrown down hill damages and cover the vegetation. It
takes many years to reclaim the lands to its original condition. Area damaged
by the thrown material is about three times more than the land occupied by the
road. When the heavy equipment cuts and throws the soil, the entire mass is
eroded away heavily by various geological agents. When the water carries
sediment load of newly constructed road during rainy season, debris flow is
resulted. Which directly enters into the fertile land which undoubtedly reduces
the production capacity of agricultural field and that debris flow have the
capacity to erode away the entire village. Materials throw downhill of road is
washed out during monsoon and transported to rivulets and rivers sediment load
increased in flood due to the mass wasting by road further adds to the damaging
effect of the flood. It also plays a catalytic role to trigger landslide in
valley side of road due to added load of excavated mass pulling down the
original soil mass of hill slope, which was stable earlier. The main effect of
cut and throw method of road construction is landslide. The more the cut height
is greater the more the chances of landslides and slope failure. Such process
may cause landslides even in a dry season. Shear failure is also common in such
roads. During the process of construction no one cares about the condition and
type of soil and rock. Rock fall is also common in such rural roads. The roads
are constructed for the transportation of goods and people but such recklessly
constructed roads can't operate properly. As a result, such roads can make no
contribution for the well being of local people for nearly a year. Such road is
really curse for the local people.
Roads in rural areas
have become indispensable parts of local people. Road transport is the only and
last means of transport network. This type of road construction should be
replaced by sustainable and scientific method. First of all local people should
be aware of the carelessly constructed road. They shouldn’t compel the
engineers to design the road as per vested interest. Bearing capacity of earth
should be taken into the consideration, fragile area shouldn’t be chosen for
the shorter. Road constructed scientifically are Eco-friendly. Cut and throw
method must be replaced by cut and fill method in rural areas. Minimal uses of
heavy equipment in rainy season generally increase the stability of road.
Proper drainage of water during rainy season greatly reduces the danger of
landslides and debris flow.
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