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Aalkohiti blesses no more!! |
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A stone spout once a model of conservation to many other stone spout and community initiatives is now looking for more efficient system that would revive it.Aalkohiti is dying, having the history of more than 1600 years, Aalkohiti has seen many prosperous and adverse years, and at times it gave life- water to majority of residents near it but now with starting of dry season the hiti itself is dying. Like all other hitis of Kathmandu this historic stone spout was counting its days to extinct however people from the surrounding community gave it life by ensuring continuous recharge of water to flow via Rainwater Harvesting, and gave it a modern twist by supplying water to 200 household ensuring the accountability of the water users to conserve the stone spout. Supported by various organizations, Aalkohiti conservation was initiated by the locals giving it life. Once people discovered the water in the hiti comes only if ground water is recharged, people concluded in artificially recharging groundwater by collecting rainwater of the 300m long pavement. ?Two recharge structures were constructed, but at the moment one has been buried as it is no longer recharging while we are also facing problems in recharging via remaining recharging well, resulting in lesser recharge of rainwater,? shared Mr. Sushil Shrestha, a pioneer in conservation of Aalkohiti. For more than a decade the recharge structure served to conserve Aalkohiti and supply water to more than 200 families in the locality through pipelines and hundreds of other families who collected water without any hindrance except in the dry season. ?It was routine that Aalkohiti would dry during the dry season almost for two months, but this year the hiti has dried a month earlier probing acute shortage of water in the locality,? said Anil Shrestha a local resident. While it is obvious that water source would dry up during the dry season, this time rise in temperature has played its significant role, meanwhile the less recharge of the water during rainy season is another reason that Aalkohiti is not serving people a month earlier than its usual routine. ?The situation is being routine these years as we have buried one recharge structure and water recharging has slowed sown in another recharging well,? analysed Mr. Sushil. According to him the recharge well are being jammed with the mud from around the well and blocking the passage of the water as it has closed the pores of the gravel, resulting in less recharge. It is vital that we check and maintain our recharging system and also look for more efficient way to recharge, he added. The in depth analysis is yet to be done, but for the moment the consequence is Aalkohiti has dried up before the regular time. People are now forced to buy water from the tanker to serve their ends while the functioning of the recharge structures is still questionable. No doubt, with the adaptation of Rainwater harvesting and Artificial Groundwater recharge, Aalkohiti blessed many. Setting an example, success story of Aalkohiti inspired many other communities to adapt rainwater harvesting for the conservation of the Stone spouts. But at the mean time it has again pressed all other communities to look into the system and check if their system is working properly. |
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13 Comments
Abhishek as you know the channels of these hiti system have already been interupted by the unmanaged urbanization. The only option I have come o know is the artificial recharge and storage of water, we are looking at the system failure of the recharge structure. If we can correct it we may have chances of reviving these spouts...do you any second thoughts on it?
Posted 19-06-2014 13:24
Yes Ishwora it is indeed a bad news but the good news is it replenishes as soon as monsoon arrives.
these hitis are reflection of the history of people and our civilization there is no doubt we should conserve it and people are doing it. Hope they maintain the system and develop more efficient ones to conserve these heritages.
BTW the situation is not of drought, sorry if I have written giving such impression.
Posted 19-06-2014 13:19
You are Most Welcome Burton, I look forward to receiving your views on the issue, would love to see what solution you suggest for the problem.
Posted 19-06-2014 13:12
You got it Right from Abhishek's previous article and I am glad you have remembered it. In fact more than the responsibility of the government, local community was looking after it. I believe we should not expect government to do everything for us rather we should take initiatives and solve our minor problems ourselves.
I believe people will come together to end this situation.
Posted 19-06-2014 13:09
Very True Rohanm the system is to be cleaned thoroughly but the budgetary problem is there on one hand and the technical difficulties to extract the filter material and clean it.
Definitely, the hiti will replenish once monsoon starts. though the volume of water might be less, but that too depends upon how people maintain the system.
Posted 19-06-2014 12:31
Definitely Christy, we tend to develop new technologies but fail to maintain our on going technology that gives better result and surely all new technologies may not be good afterall.
Posted 19-06-2014 12:22
Thank you for the descriptive information on the present scenario of Alko Hiti (Stone Spout).
This community has set an example of the conservation of the spout motivating other too. yes but due to technical difficulty and lack of blue print of the structure the proper maintenance of system failed. In my point the proper investigation of the channeling of the spouts is to be established via government agencies then the actual problem from source to service can be identified and solved.
Posted 19-06-2014 11:23
It is very bad news for us all that due to lack of ground water recharge , hitis, source of drinking water to the communities and means to represent the architecture of the communities are fading away. Thank you for sharing the important news indicating the serious impact of drought.
Posted 18-06-2014 23:22
It is very bad news for us all that due to lack of ground water recharge , hitis, source of drinking water to the communities and means to represent the architecture of the communities are fading away. Thank you for sharing the important news indicating the serious impact of drought.
Posted 18-06-2014 23:22
thanks for letting us know about this
Posted 18-06-2014 20:20
Thanks for highlighting this concern, Pratap. Stone Spouts have not only been wonderful and only source of water in Nepal for many poor residents and communities but also have been beautiful monuments or architecture. I also heard that historically these spouts were the means of social communication as it was one of the major meeting place of the community members so it has archaeological value in addition to environmental services So their upkeep is the responsibility of govt . Let's hope that authorities get to act fast on this issue .
Posted 18-06-2014 03:46
It is extremely sad to note that we are not able to maintain an excellent rain water harvesting system inherited.
The existing pond must be cleaned thoroughly & blocked passages also cleaned. This job will be easy in dry season.
I hope & pray that Aalkohiti blossoms with water in next rainy season couple of months away.
Posted 17-06-2014 16:38
Thank you for the detail report on the stone spout. I double agreed with you.
Maintaining and improving a current good practice is sometimes more important than creating changes.
Posted 17-06-2014 09:30