198 ponds to be built on the hills of Kathmandu Valley

Published On: June 13, 2023 08:30 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, June 13: In order to clean the Bagmati River and its tributaries in the Kathmandu valley, 198 ponds are going to be built on the hills.

Kamal Aryal, information officer for the High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilization, said that a plan has been drawn to build ponds so that water can be collected during rains and the rivers can be recharged with water in winter.

Now there is a problem of floods in the rivers of the Valley during the rains and the rivers become completely dry in the winter. He said that a purification center is necessary to clean the river. He said, “When the river is completely dry, there is no chance of water processings. As the water increases, the water gets processed.

The committee says that parks will be built at different places of the water reservoir like Guheshwari. He said that there is a plan to build a water reservoir which will be important in terms of tourism and to control floods in the rainy season.

The Bagmati Action Plan was prepared for the period from 2009 to 2014 in the Bagmati Corridor. It has been revised and an action plan has been made for 2023-2043.

Information Officer Aryal says that cleaning Bagmati is not possible by removing only the solid waste. He is of the opinion that sewage lines should be laid on all river banks for sewage management.

He said that although sewers have been constructed along Bagmati, it is necessary to construct sewers in other rivers that join it and take it to the processing center. It is seen that Bagmati will not be clean until the tributary rivers of Bagmati are managed.

He said that since the committee is currently working on sewage only on the river bank and apart from that, other agencies are working, there should be mutual coordination.

The committee has simultaneously proceeded with river cleaning and corridor road construction from Baghdwar, the source of Bagmati, to Katuwal Dah in Lalitpur. Although the committee was established with the aim of cleaning the Bagmati River, later its scope was expanded and along with cleaning, it also started the construction of infrastructure along the river.

It was established on April 11, 1995 to improve the environment of the Pashupati area. Initially established as an implementation and monitoring committee, it was renamed as the High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilization in mid-June, 2008.