As a result, officials of the KMC and many volunteers are increasingly frustrated. In a bid to clean the river and spread awareness among the locals, the KMC had launched Bishnumati River Cleanup Campaign on September 29. [break]
Within a few weeks of the campaign, the monitors with the KMC were able to identify the sources and the people responsible for the pollution.
Many dying shops and drycleaners are major sources of pollution identified by the monitoring team of the KMC. Such dying shops and drycleaners release harmful chemicals used in their shops into the river.
“They are not only dumping harmful chemicals into the river but also throwing unnecessary clothes. We have found bundles of clothes while cleaning the river,” says Rabin Man Shrestha, chief of Environment Division at KMC.
“Though we have fined them, there are number of such shops which will surely continue to dump their waste in the river. The people must be concerned about their river for the success of the campaign,” he adds.
The monitoring team also found that many slaughters houses on the banks of the Bishnumati throw entrails of animals in the river, and apprehended owners of 10 slaughter houses.
“Some of them were caught red-handed,” says Shrestha. “Although them paid a fine of Rs 15,000 and assured us that now they will not dump solid wastes into the river, our team will continue to monitor the situation.”
The KMC has been sending letters to all the polluters, warning them of penalties.
“We have been sending such letter even before launching this campaign, but none of the polluters complied until we actually penalized them. Hence, until and unless the stakeholders are aware about the need to keep the river clean, campaign like this is never going to work.”
The KMC had launched Bishnumati cleanliness campaign after the success of Bagmati Sanitation Grand Campaign (BSGC).
On every Saturday, KMC officials, volunteers from different educational institutions, organizations as well as the locals gather at the banks of the Bishnumati in order to clean the river.
Drycleaners, dyers major polluters of Bagmati River
For the second time, the Department of Environment (DoE) has sealed five dying shops and four drycleaners on October 5, stating that they discharged hazardous chemicals into the Bagmati River.
The DoE had sealed a drycleaner´s shop at Gaushala on August 2.
The DoE has been monitoring the river on the regular basis.
“First we sent them letters, warning that releasing such harmful chemicals into the river is illegal and that they will be penalized if they don´t stop it immediately,” says Dr. Yubak Dhoj GC, director general of the DoE. “We were compelled to seal their shops as they continued to dump chemicals into the river despite our warning.”
Although every Saturday morning, hundreds of volunteers gather in the Pashupatinath temple area in order to clean the Bagmati River, such polluters are continue to release harmful chemicals into the river, which is also dangerous for the aquatic creatures, besides the human beings.
“We want to do more to stop such polluters, but we do not have enough manpower and other resources,” says GC. “However, we are trying our best to control the people from releasing harmful chemicals into the river.”
“And we do not have strong regulation to rein in such shopkeepers,” he adds. “The concerned authorities must shut down dying and drycleaners shops in the vicinity of the river.”
The campaigners started cleaning the Bagmati River more than five months ago, but such drycleaners and dying shops are ruining their efforts.
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