POKHARA, May 20: Fewa Lake no longer reflects the mountains which surround it. Rather, garbage and sewage have tainted the once pristine lake of vast touristic significance. Tourism entrepreneurs are worried by the lake´s deterioration, but say that as a master plan is lacking, cleanup efforts aren´t getting a much-needed kick-start. [break]
“It´s embarrassing for us working in the tourism field that we are not being able to conserve Fewa Lake,” admits Bachhuram Tiwari, president of Pokhara Tourism Council.
While the tourism sector has opted to take a backseat on the issue, the local armed police battalion have put down their arms and picked up shovels to help clean the lake. For the past two months, a team of 100 armed policemen have removed 10 truckloads of garbage from the lake with the help of four boats.
“It´s impossible to clean the lake because there is no one to stop the locals from dumping their garbage here,” says Police Inspector Krishna Bahadur Karki who is leading the cleanup efforts.
Soil excavation starts for Fewa conservation
Along with garbage, weed under the lake´s surface is also clogging the water body. Due to an increase in pollution, various weed species have bloomed within the lake.
Tourists who have come to visit Pokhara are also worried about the state of the lake.
“How can Pokhara have a future as a tourist destination when its main attraction is getting polluted?” questions Deepa Rai, a tourist boating on the lake.
Municipality officials say the lake is getting polluted due to lack of awareness among locals. They say they have seen locals mixing their sewer water with the rainwater drainage that leads to the lake. The drainage system was created in 1998 to lead rainwater towards the lake.
“Locals are mixing the sewers without letting anyone know. They don´t have the awareness that their ways are polluting the lake,” says Khembahadur Bhandari, chief of the Environment Division of Pokhara Municipality.
Around two dozen houses were prosecuted for mixing their sewer water in with the drainage in January.
“Our task is difficult because some houses attach their sewer pipes on the drainage system only in nights,” says Bhandari.
The Municipality allocates Rs 1.5 million of its budget every year to clean Phewa Lake.
