However, for people like Huta Ram Baidya, it’s an illustration of how people have tried to control the river, how unabashedly they have created the new mess called Bagmati, which otherwise was once a pristine and pregnant river.
“Bagmati is in its deathbed,” shared the 90-year-old environmentalist and Nepal’s first agricultural engineer. At his Tripureshwor residence, the stench from the nearby Bagmati and one of its 20 tributaries, Tukucha, is a constant reminder of what has happened to the river, once a source of drinking water for his generation.
It’s not clear since when Bagmati became a perfect pitcher for harvesting urban sewage. Baidya claims it was 2048 BS (1991) when he first discovered the problem, which has only intensified with time.
While the rainy season puts a comparatively cleaner face to Bagmati, winter paints a true picture: a motionless water body of contaminated filth, solid waste and sewage, a manifestation of 435 tons of waste per day generated within the Valley, according to a 2005/06 study by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Bagmati’s health is our health
The relation between man and nature, and a directly proportionate one, has always existed. Perhaps it seems that humans want to have the upper hand. How sick Bagmati is, it’s apparent, but how sick could the city get, it rather seems like an open-end question. The river has very low dissolved oxygen, high biological oxygen demand (BOD) because of the bacteria, high chemical oxygen demand due to wastes from hospitals and industries, chemical compounds and heavy metals such as chromium, lead and mercury, along with high level of coliform bacteria.
According to Bagmati Conservation/Restoration Project and a research by Suresh Sharma in 2009, the river’s status has caused health problems to the nearby settlements. As per the survey of 303 households within five to 200 meters from Bagmati’s banks, 95% of the cases and 58.2% of the respondents suffered from cough, cold and fever while 32% of the cases were of dysentery/diarrhea, 23% complained of jaundice, 6.9% of typhoid, 4% of malaria, and 3% suffered from other problems like headache and skin diseases. Of the frequency, about 22% said that at least one of their family members suffered from health problems every one to two months, about 36% of the family members suffered from health problems every three to four months, and 38.61% every six to 12 months.
However, according to Dr Minalma Pandey, physician and Deputy Director of Norvic International Hospital, Thapathali, a direct relationship hasn’t been proven, or any concrete medical research conducted that would prove the relation between the river and human health. But she noted, referring to the World Health Organization data, that waterborne diseases are a threat to the society since 1.8 million people die of them annually.
The chances of getting infected from the pollutant levels depends on the pollutants, Pandey pointed out. Referencing to a Finnish study, she said the excess amount of lead in one of the country’s rivers had caused lung and skin cancer in people living in proximity.
Dr Bishwo Raj Khanal, Senior Health Officer of Sukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku, reiterated the same notion that of Pandey. Nonetheless, he said that only if there is direct contact with the water, including washing clothes and dishes, the risks of getting waterborne diseases are higher.
Pandey said that Kathmandu and Bagmati only shouldn’t be in the limelight. In 2010, the country recorded a high number of dengue fever. Norvic registered 22 such cases from Chitwan and Butwal that highlights the severity of waterborne diseases that could lead to an epidemic.
In Kathmandu, with some 15,000 people living within the peripheries of Bagamti’s banks, an epidemic has been suppressed till now. Doctors said it could be because of the access to health facilities in the capital. However, an underestimation would be a mistake.
“But the stink from the rivers can certainly have a mental effect on people—you tend to become irritated and frustrated,” Pandey said.
Bagmati’s setbacks
Bagmati has become synonymous with sewage, and this is by far the most complex challenge for the cleanliness of the river. The plans and proposals however have been drafted and even executed.
The highly promising Bagmati Action Plan (BAP) 2009-14 has laid its foundation and the High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilization (HPCIDBC) has been operative since 1995. But even with the involvement of the government body and participation of more than 100 local NGOs, Bagmati is still putrid.
“Everyone’s been working independently,” said Ratna Raj Timsina, Program Officer at National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) who was involved with BAP since its inception. And BAP’s major focus was to integrate and coordinate different organizations with proper work divisions.
“This is an overall plan,” he stated.
And it looks like it. The Rs 15billion plan focuses on waste management, sewage treatment and conserving the river’s banks and heritage sites with its operations divided into various zones according to the issues and problems in different areas.
But the success depends on input from the stakeholders involved, the communities and the government itself. As of now the authorities and the people seem to have turned blind and deaf. While Kathmandu Metropolitian City (KMC) requires newly built houses to have septic tanks and soak pits, but according to Roshan Shakya, KMC’s engineer at its Sewerage Section of the Physical Development and Construction Department, people adamantly connect their waste pipes to the main sewerage. He stated there are no statutes for legal actions against this.
According to Sharma’s research, due to the over-extraction of water, uncontrolled sand mining and increase in sewage, the river has already reached its saturation point and lost its self-cleaning faculty.
The research found only about 18% of the houses with five to 200m proximity to the riverbanks had septic tanks, and about 53% of the houses are connected to the municipal sewerage pipes that rush into Bagmati.
Hence, the Bagmati Civilization Act 2066 has been proposed. The act will empower HPCIDBC. Chairman of the Committee, Mahesh Bahadur Basnet, said, “This Act will further strengthen BAP.” But this bill, which has been passed by the Ministerial Council, is yet to be approved by the House, and the current political deadlock is holding the Act for enactment.
Basnet also pointed that land encroachment along the banks of Bagmati has further deteriorated the river, and the government should take a lead in relocating the residents. Regardless of the state of the river and the health implications, Bagmati’s basin is the settlement to some 14,500 people in 64 squatter settlements, as per the 2003 study by the local NGO, Lumanti Support Group for Shelter. The number of households is an estimated 1,849, the highest being in the Sinamangal-Shantinagar-Baneshwor-Shankamul area, Balkhu and Thapathali.
The making of a dream come true
The nonagenarian environmentalist Baidya, who thinks the pollution of the river is highly politicized, reflected that though Bagmati is in its deathbed, it could still be revived.
“Science and technology should be given priority, there should be people with the right skills and education, and the current policies and politics should change,” he listed the options.
At HPCIDBC, their next move focuses on detailed engineering design and mapping of river basins to formulate a master plan. At the start of a new year, in January 2011, a technical team from Asian Development Bank and Japanese Water Agency will collaborate on the Bagmati Waterbasin Project that will help lay foundations for the master plan.
“If we do this, BAP can be realized in the next five years,” Basnet expressed his optimism.
And it certainly wouldn’t be difficult to see a clean river. China’s Qin Huai River in Nanjing is evident. The river was in similar situation to today’s Bagmati and was a habitat for illegal slums, and urban development had decomposed the river. But in 2005, in a US$400 million project, the government relocated 4,365 households, laid 25 kilometers of sewer interception pipeline connecting 550 urban sewer outlets.
Timsina of NTNC sees this as a success story and deems that the story can be replicated in Nepal. He said that if BAP is executed as per the plan, significant progress can be made by 2014. BAP includes more than 100 activities covering various aspects. He added there should be a proper management of sewage waste and increase in the number of sewage treatment plants. Currently, there is only one such plant in Guheshwori in proximity to HPCIDBC headquarters. But with more sewage treatment plants, the physical, chemical and biological contaminants could be processed before discharging into the river. And if households have septic tanks, Basnet said, it will be HPCIDBC’s commitment to manage the sludge. Currently, he claimed 70% of water above Guheshwori is clean, and by the Nepali New Year in April, Bagmati flowing up to Pashupatinath will be free from sewage.
This past decade, Nepal witnessed significant changes—the homegrown Maoist insurgency ceased, monarchy became history, the country gained its republican status. High-rise apartment complexes and malls symbolized a progressive era. Hummers and Volkswagens became the new status symbols. Most Nepalis, as it seems, had time to think a lot about themselves. But amid all the changes, something in the capital has remained indifferent and unchanged: Bagmati.
As hoarding boards with complete mapping of new apartment complexes stand tall alongside the Bagmati in Kupondole and elsewhere, the rise of condominiums overlaps the city’s horizon besides them, while the river flows motionlessly. Its stink is a constant reminder of what the country and its people have done to the lifeline of what was known for centuries as the Bagmati Civilization.
But five years of action, Rs 15 billion plus budget, and a commitment from the governing authorities and civil society, the dream of the Bagmati that once was could be revived. It wouldn’t be impossible.
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