Kathmandu is different. The bowl-shaped valley with no glacier-fed river unfortunately doesn´t get flooded like the surrounding parts. The only river it boasts is the Bagmati—and, of course, its tributaries like the Vishnumati, Rudramati (Tukucha), Manohara, Hanumante and so forth. And this monsoon, as is often the case, the Bagmati is filled with water. In a city that´s infamous for its rivers that have been reduced to filth dump, that’s a rare sight indeed.
Its banks have been encroached upon. Its sand-beds have been over-mined and turned into open sewers. It sanctity looks long lost. And yet for many devout Hindus or Buddhists, the Bagmati and its tributaries remain holy still—just like the holy Ganga (or Ganges) in Hindustan. Because its waters are tapped for drinking even before it becomes a river in the Shivapuri hills, we know why the Bagmati remains waterless in winter and dry seasons. The first monsoon flood generally washes the sewerage and garbage away.
Clean up drive
In monsoon when the Bagmati springs back to life, it beckons. That´s probably why the Bagmati routinely sees the cities´ enthusiastic no-nonsense, energetic youths on its banks every monsoon. This year, too, starting June 5—the World Environment Day—the Bagmati River Festival (BRF) is in progress. It´s been attracting people from all walks of life. This past Saturday, members of the Facebook group, ´Nepal Unites´, joined the clean-up campaign. The volunteers did their best to make the area garbage-free.
Before concluding in August, the Bagmati Festival will see the city´s yuppies participating in Rafting, Kayaking and other sports such as mountain-biking and runs along the river. And, of course, the music concerts on the holy ghats like Sankhamul and Teku. With population continually exploding and the filth growing in the river, nothing is too attractive about the Bagmati. Yet people have been descending on the banks for the clean-up, water sports and other activities. That shows that it´s never too late for the Bagmati, and Kathmanduites can really do it.
Not that the bunches of mainly kids and youths—including school children, athletes, musicians and young professionals can clean the Bagmati and its tributaries in three months. Symbolic as they are, the activities represent a clarion call to save the Bagmati. They illustrate the need for everyone to contribute in whatever way they can to really clean the valleys´ rivers. In all, there are over five dozen tributaries of the Bagmati, according to one count.
The rivers are definitely clean at their source.
´Dead river´
But thanks to haphazard urbanization and the utter neglect of the Bagmati, the river water around the city center is visibly polluted. So much so that the water isn´t even suitable for irrigation let alone survival of the aquatic species, according to a Nepal Environment and Scientific Services (NESS´) study of the late 1990s. Much water has flown down the river ever since, yet things haven´t changed for the better.
It only got worse. Population went up. Haphazard urban sprawls continued uninterrupted. Sand-mining continued unabated. And river banks´ encroachers enjoyed political patronage; they had a free run. Today, around 50 illegal settlements—housing around 14,000 "landless squatters"—have added to the woes of the already-shrunk banks of the Bagmati and its key tributaries. Years of neglect, mismanagement and crisis of governance on the Bagmati front has only served to turn the Bagmati crisis into a full blown crisis: Ecological, public health and social crisis.
Govt´s response
Despite pressure from environmentalist, tourism entrepreneurs, donors and even the Supreme Court (which has so far given five orders to clean up the river since 1999), most of the post-1990 governments have largely remained mute spectators, if not contributors, to the problem. That the G P Koirala-led government opened the Rs 55 million-worth sewerage treatment plant at Guheshwori is an exception. And last year the government´s Nepal Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) floated an ambitious Rs 15 billion worth project proposal to clean up the Bagmati and its tributaries in five years. It would do so by setting up Guheshwori-style treatment plants in major sewerage-discharging pockets of the towns.
The High Powered Integrated Bagmati Civilization Development Committee (IBCDC) officials say they are working to implement that project. The idea is to intercept sewerages on the river banks—where roads are being built—and divert them to nearby treatment plant sites. Yet thanks to frequent changes in the government and subsequent bureaucratic meddling and overstaffing, the progress doesn´t seem encouraging at all.
The bottomline
Unless all the denizens descend on the Bagmati banks for walking, jogging—and, if they wish, canoeing, kayaking and rafting during monsoon, they won´t realize the severity of the ecological and public health crisis bedeviling the Nepali capital. And unless they sense the gravity of the problem first-hand, they won´t see their direct or indirect role in the Bagmati pollution (Most of the liquid wastes discharged by Kathmanduites have been—institutionally and unscrupulously—diverted to the rivers. That needs to be stopped once and for all.) Once the masses become truly aware, the much-needed mass mobilization for Bagmati clean-up can be expected. Without it, the Bagmati will continue to remain dead nine months a year.
The writer, a BBC Correspondent, has researched and written on the Bagmati since 1998
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