The cleanliness campaign began on May 19, 2013 as a collaborative effort of the government and various organizations after the river began heavily polluted due to various anthropogenic activities.
Staff of over 950 organizations, students from 155 schools and government employees stationed in the capital have been voluntarily cleaning the Bagmati River and are going to be part of the human chain along the 60 kilometer stretch of the river from Chobar to Sundarijal to mark the 100th week of the campaign on April 11.
The human chain is going to be the longest ever formed for a positive cause--the river conservation. Over 1,60,000 people are expected to participate in the event to express solidarity for the river conservation and promotion.
Speaking at a meeting organized at Singhdurbar, Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal, who is leading the government efforts for the campaign since its inception, said that the human chain on both side of the river will symbolical mean that the participants will not allow anyone to pollute the river anymore.
"It will also mean that all the participants will work together to revive the river to its natural condition," added he.
The meeting was called on Friday to make necessary preparations for the human chain demonstration.
On Saturday, the campaign will be celebrating its 97th week.
As of now, over 2,800 metric ton of garbage has already been collected, according to the government.
Hundreds of people who have been voluntarily cleaning the Bagmati River took part in a special cleaning program on Saturday morning to mark the death of Nepal´s first agriculture engineer and conservation activist Huta Ram Badiya.
Huta Ram Baidya, who died on December 25, 2013, had relentlessly worked throughout his life for restoring the Bagmati River. Although his campaign could not gather momentum during his life time, it inspired the Bagmati Cleaning campaign, which is lately paying off.
At a program held to commemorate his death last year, over 2,500 participants pledged to clean up the polluted river, making it fit for swimming by this mid-April.
"Although the river is not fit for swimming yet, it is much cleaner compared to the past. Around 80 percent of the waste has been taken out from the river," said Raju Adhikari, coordinator of Gayatri Pariwar, a non-government organization, which had taken a lead in launching the Bagmati Cleaning Campaign along with other organizations.
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