Nepal received a large amount of solar power generators from China. The Chinese Government has donated over 32,000 solar power generating systems to Nepal in order to strengthen ties between both countries.
Parts of Nepal have no power since the 2015 earthquake. The donation comes at a good time for the Himalayan nation as it will help enhance the country’s domestic capacity to combat climate change and provide electricity to communities facing years of power-outage.
32,000 sets of household solar power generation systems and 325 sets of solar power generation system have been received.
The aid from China comes at a time when K P Sharma Oli, CPN-UML leader who heads the alliance, widely regarded as pro-China, won the recent elections in Nepal.
In recent times, China has been heavily investing in Nepal to expand its influence over the Himalayan nation. Nepal is heavily dependent on India for supplies of essential goods. During his brief stint in power, Oli signed the Transit Transport Agreement (TTA) with China to improve connectivity between Tibet and Nepal bringing an end to the decades old dependency on India for goods. In a strategic move, China agreed to improve the train connectivity between Tibet and Nepal by extending the train link.
Ram Prasad Lamsal, Joint Secretary of Nepal’s Ministry of Population and Environment said, “China’s support is instrumental to address environmental and climate changes and also benefit the people from the heath perspective and save time.”
More than 8,000 people were killed and lakhs were displaced as a devastating earthquake of 7.8 magnitude jolted the country in 2015. More than 600,000 houses were destroyed and thousands of schools including 25,000 classrooms were devastated in the earthquake.
Nepal government has directed the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) to distribute the systems in the districts highly impacted by the devastation.
Source: Xinhua News Agency