Water is an important chemical and molecular substance that has made the existence of life possible. It became very necessary that the quality of water satisfies the standard limit given By WHO or any national standard. Harmful substances like chemicals and microorganisms degrade the sources of water like ponds, streams, rivers, and any other source of the river making it toxic to humans and the environment. This is called water pollution. Bagmati river is one of the major rivers of Nepal flowing through the heart of Kathmandu Valley and continuing down through the Southern plain to join the Ganges in India. The Bagmati River passes by the holy Pashupatinath Temple, the religious symbol not only for Hindus living in Nepal but also Devore for India and other South Asian Countries.

Pollution in the Bagmati River has been a threat to the sustainable development of Kathmandu Valley. Factories, industries homestead dump their waste into the river treating it as an open sewer. Heavy industrial activity, experts’ point of haphazard urbanization, rampant sand extractions, increasing solid waste dumping have been the root of the Water Pollution of the Bagmati River. Water pollution has resulted in low dissolved oxygen concentrations, bacterial concentration, and metal toxicity. According to   The Nepal River Conservation Trust, the water of the Bagmati River was unsuitable for drinking purposes, for the survival of Aquatic life as it exceeds the maximum permission level for effluent discharge. According to Bagmati Expedition Report, many stretches of the river have exceeded the ph. more than 9 making it unsuitable for drinking, irrigation, and recreational purpose where the threshold level ranges between 6.5 to 8.5. The water contains a high concentration of ammonia, nitrate, total dissolved solids, phosphate, iron, arsenic, mercury, etc. making it unhabitable and ecologically dead.

Many afford has been made by Government and private INGOs and NGOs to save the Bagmati River and regain its Beauty as soon as possible. Different efforts can be one of the hope to regain the beauty of the Bagmati River shortly. Some of them are listed below:

 

·        The Bagmati River Basin Improvement Project (BRBIP) is developed by the Nepal Government of Nepal where different packages of management like winter water collection activities have been made.

·        Bagmati Action Plan of Action (2009-2014) was approved by the government to address the poor status of the Bagmati River and its affluent.

·        On May 18, 2013, under the initiatives of former chief secretory Leela Mani Poudyal, The Bagmati Mega Clean-Up Campaign was started. Every Saturday, Nepal Army Nepal Police and General Public gather to clean the waste and sewage from the river.

·        Friends of Bagmati (FOB) is a group of people from various backgrounds, who have come together to restore the Bagmati River with the objectives to protect the Bagmati River from pollution and other challenges.

·        UN Park, The Bagmati Nature Park has been successful in raising awareness of the dire state of the river and cleaning up the river region.

 

 

 Sources:

 https://earth5r.org/saving-river-bagmati/

 https://www.brbip.gov.np/

 Mishra, B.K., et al. Assessment of Bagmati river pollution in Kathmandu Valley: Scenario-based modeling and analysis for sustainable urban development. Sustain. Water Qual. Ecol (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.swaqe.2017.06.001