Stadtplanung in Nepal? Bemerkungen zum Transfer einer Disziplin

Abstract The article focusses on the penetration of western town planning ideology into the administrative and urban culture of Nepal. In the Valley of Kathmandu the physical and social settings of three pre-industrial Hindu-Buddhist townships have survived. They came under western influence and gradually began to change only after the political change in 1951. Urban planning was introduced from 1962 onwards by foreign experts. The emerging planning organisation and the professional output of the newly established department, however, was unable to cope with the existing problems, such as haphazard urban growth, land speculation, and the overcrowed and deteriorating traditional city cores where the majority of the urban poor live. Planning activities have a strong bias towards the stimulation of tourism and thus benefit the foreign visitor and the upper strata of the Nepalese society more than the mass of the urban population. The failure of urban planning is mainly due to three shortcomings: 1) The really important investments are decided, financed, and implemented outside the formal planning system. These projects are 'planned' in accordance with the vested interests of a few ruling families and the funds made available by the donors of foreign aid. 2) The imported sophisticated planning system does not work in the peculiar bureaucratic structure of Nepal, where administration and politics are closely bound together. 3) The imported planning technology is inappropriate to the prevailing sociocultural patterns of the still predominantly traditional urban societies. On the other hand the rich human resources existing in the traditional urban culture have not yet been tapped. These would provide substantial skills for indigenous management and for a more self-sustaining process of local development. The article concludes with the discussion of alternative strategies which are more appropriate to the situation and the problems in Nepal.