RESULTADOS DE LA VERIFICACIÓN DE LA EFICACIA DE LAS MEDIDAS IMPLEMENTADAS

Insufficient financial support affects the management of common property like stone spouts. Sixteen interviewees (10 male and six female) participating in face-to-face interviews and 31 respondents (22 male and nine female) during the seven focus group discussions in the Changunarayan area stated that neither the government nor other heritage conservation related organizations are genuinely interested in the conservation of spouts. According to them, no one listens to locals who advocate for better conservation measures. The budget for the current conservation and development activities is allocated only for the urban areas focussing primarily on the Changunarayan temple, not for the ancient spouts. One local respondent during focus group discussions aggressively stated:

All the ancient properties including stone spouts in our area have been damaged and the budget allocated for our area is all misused. This is the religious area where all the

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funeral activities take place. In future, I am not going to cast a vote for any leader here. I will chase them away, if they come here to ask for votes.

Two planners in the Changunarayan area also agreed that the amount provided for the conservation of spouts is not sufficient. One planner said that 20,000 Nepali rupees (about 200 US dollars) were allocated by VDC for the conservation of the two stone spouts at Kapa and Pucchre hiti in 2013. For 2015, 10,000 Nepali rupees (100 US dollars) have been assigned by VDC for the maintenance of spouts. According to the planners, users refused to take the money provided in 2013. They proclaimed that this paltry sum was not sufficient to buy construction materials for the spouts. So in the end the funds were frozen. One planner said that considering the views of the users and after doing a field survey his office concluded that the amount of money provided for the maintenance of spouts was insufficient. They continue to hope a more realistic sum will be furnished.

All local planners in the Changunarayan and Jhaukhel areas readily admitted that up until recently they have not kept conservation of stone spouts as a priority in their programmes. They hope to get more budgeted funds for upcoming years as a result of a fresh development in the local government scene namely that the Changu VDC and Jhaukhel VDC merged into a Changunarayan municipality in 2014 (just prior to interviews). The planners hope that a result of this merger will be that they can prioritize the management of spouts in their areas of responsibility. But all respondents in both peri-urban and urban non-heritage areas are concerned that priority is given for the world-heritage sites and not necessarily for their areas. However, almost all the planners argued that there are other organizations who are interested in working in world heritage sites, and the money obtained from tourists is also available for development and maintenance of world heritage sites such as the Changunarayan and Bhaktapur Durbar Square areas. Further comments on this issue were that this extra money creates the perception that non-heritage areas are ignored as well as an acknowledgement that it is only natural to expect that world heritage sites will be afforded a higher priority. Most planners and all experts in all study areas have at some stage in their responses expressed grave concerns regarding the functional state of the remaining spouts. According to them, the conservation activities of spouts are largely reflective of public demand. However, most community respondents said that if those policy makers at the national level decide that stone spouts deserve a higher priority than currently prevails or more important

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consideration than that reflected by public demand then they would do well to assign specific funds especially earmarked for the purpose of spout reinstatement and conservation.

Three (two male and one female) respondents interviewed and five (three male and two female) participants in two focus group discussions in the Jhaukhel area raised the issue of no money being allocated in the budget for the maintenance of their Lakila and Yando tole spouts and this being the case they have no intention of maintaining the spouts using their own resources. The most frequently used justification of this position was that everyone has a pipeline in their houses. Therefore, it does not make economic sense for people to spend their own money to maintain spouts. However, for the sake of preserving ancient artefacts they will maintain them if someone else provides the funds. These sentiments were echoed by a few respondents in the Madhyapur Thimi and Bhaktapur Durbar Square areas. The planners confirmed the view among public servants that local municipal budgets cannot be allocated without local demand for specific outcomes.

Almost all planners agreed that maintenance or renovation of the spouts was not possible with such a little amount of money. They felt that significant amounts of money should be allocated to renovate the spouts as is archaeologically appropriate. A few thousand Nepali rupees assigned for all the spouts seems like “a cumin seed in an Elephant’s mouth”. Otherwise, the Government and other conservation related organizations will risk being insulted by having locals reject the inadequate funds as happened in the case of Changunarayan.

All local level planners in all study areas pointed out that they have some discretion to allocate the budget at a local level for programmes which are competing for funds. According to them, they have two kinds of budget: local level and national level. The national level budget is allocated by government for fixed programmes. However, the local level budget needs to be divided at the local level under health, drinking water, education and other categories based on local demand. The municipalities or VDCs can decide how much of the budget is to be invested under which category in their areas. In this context, they can also formulate the budget at the local level for spouts. However, the community respondents in face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions have different views. They said that there is a huge bias in favour of elite people while separating the national and local level budgets for development activities. A powerful person can allocate more money in his/her area. If money

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is assigned to stone spouts in the national level budget then it is easier to carry out the management activities on the spouts. Otherwise, if the money is tagged to the topic of “Development” at the local level then it may not be used for stone spouts. It can be used in other works based on the influences of the elite people.