With the culture and tradition of rich ethnic belief, the Bishnumati River has a religious significance where today it stands hidden in a dark image of stink and sewage contemplating the lack of awareness and negligence. From the early days of settlement, Bishnumati River was a center of attraction where many famous temples are situated on its banks. The river origins from the Shivapuri hills at an altitude of 2,481m and settle downs in the famous Bagmati River at Teku. Moreover, talking about the problem, the river faces a verge of extension with the direct contamination of sewage, solid waste and chemical wastes from industries. At first we need to understand the real ordeal where the persistence of traditional attitude and waste disposal behavior in both residential and industrial areas are consistent to contribute as an ace factor for the deterioration of the river’s environmental condition. The problem started in early 1994 when the river bed was used as a provisional landfill sites for Kathmandu where dumping of solid waste was eased off from the management point of view. But focusing centralization and growing number of population the river took its toll, consequently turning the river into a sewage channel with the direct contamination of the sewage and solid waste. Likewise, the river bed of Bishnumati is used as a dumping zone which extends from Balaju in the northwestern part of the metropolis to Teku. Still today considering the lack of disposal or dumping sites the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) uses it on trial basis. The solid waste has been dumped on the floodplain or buried without considering its adverse impact on groundwater where effective measures seems as a question that raises during the rainy season. On the same, most of the industries dispose wastewater into the river without proper treatment. Furthermore, the slaughterhouses located along the banks of the Bishnumati River also dispose raw waste directly into the river which has made the river suffer. Though different research, awareness campaign and projects have been launched at different intervals of time but their outcomes have just been limited to rooms of five star hotels, seminars and conferences. The situation has drastically changed where the river’s ecological environment is altering resulting in facilitating a bad odor and high risk of pathogens with in the surrounding areas. Most likely, the government and the authorities seem to have well known the effects of environment pollution and ground water contamination but still this problem has prolonged more than a decade with orchestrating the question of the government’s intentions towards environment and public health.
By Shreedeep Rayamajhi
By Shreedeep Rayamajhi
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