Kathmandu, July 5
The government is developing up
to four satellite centres of the Paropakar Maternity and Child Hospital in the
Kathmandu Valley. The hospital with the highest number of deliveries in the
world is facing acute shortage of space which has severe repercussion on
service delivery and management.
Due to ever growing number of
deliveries, the hospital has not been able to conduct research on various
health issues and expand its focus to other major women-related diseases like
breast cancer, said the Ministry of Health and Population.
The hospital is carrying out
20,000 plus deliveries per year.
With the development of the new
satellite centres, the Thapathali-based main hospital would be developed as a
referral centre. "The expansion of services and reduction of pressure on
service delivery will help to increase the quality and reliability of the
services of the hospital," said the Ministry.
The development of the new
structures would be financed under the German Cooperation of Rs. 90 million.
Germany is providing Rs. 3.2 billion to Nepal (24.3 million Euros) for the
promotion of solar energy in rural areas, improvement of mother and childcare
in urban areas and sustainable economic development in rural and semi-urban
areas.
Of the total support, Rs. 1.11
billion would go to the solar energy project development in the rural areas and
Rs. 744 million would be used in sustainable economic development. Rs. 24.8
million will be technical assistance.
Secretary at the Ministry of
Finance Rajan Khanal and German Ambassador to Nepal Roland Schafer signed on
the grant assistance on Friday at the ministry.
"The funding in the solar
energy project in the rural areas will help increase health condition, literacy
and water supply. The electricity can be used to light the house, run small
businesses and pump up water to the villages that are facing problem to find
potable water," said Schafer.
He also said that the fund
allocated to the economic development would be utilised in extending financing
support to the medium size enterprises in the rural and semi-rural areas.
"It will try to address the
missing middle in the entrepreneurship ecosystem," he said. He assured
that Germany would extend further support to Nepal in the days to come.
Likewise, Secretary Khanal
expressed the government’s commitment to allocate required matching funds to
the projects.
Nepal and Germany had established
bilateral diplomatic relation in 1958. Since then, Germany is extending support
in power generation, transmission line, renewable energy, education, health,
waste management, heritage preservation and agriculture.
"Germany has always been a
reliable partner in Nepal's development," he said.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 6 July 2019.
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