Keep it clean

Citing the continued pollution of the Bagmati river, the high powered committee responsible has started talking about shutting down the multi-million dollar water treatment plant that has made possible the flow of clean water past the Pashupatinath temple. The prospect of such a closedown has raised the question whether it will ever be possible to keep the waters of the Bagmati clean. What then are the measures the government should be taking to ensure that it is clean water that flows down that river? Had the authorities taken action against factories which continue to pollute the river, the water treatment plant, built at Tamraganga, would have been able to carry out its task of keeping the river flow at the Pashupatinath temple clean throughout the year. The Bagmati Area Sewerage Construction and Rehabilitation Project had built the treatment plant to divert the effluent through a tunnel and allow only clean water to flow past Pashupatinath temple so that visiting devotees would be able to perform their rituals with clean water. However, the dozens of carpet and soap factories as well as two medical colleges sitting on the river banks upstream did not pay any attention to treating their solid and liquid effluent. As a result, untreated chemicals have ended up in the sacred river in large quantities. Now the water treatment plant may remain closed altogether until these factories agree either to relocate or treat their solid and liquid waste before dumping them into the river.

The effluent discharged by the factories contains detergents, non-biodegradable materials and toxic chemicals hazardous to health and hygiene. Thick foam formed by the industrial effluent has affected the treatment plant by preventing the oxygen from mixing with the water in the treatment ditch. Such foam is adversely affecting the growth of aerobic bacteria that consume the biological pollutants in the water. Most of the offending soap and carpet factories are located at Boudha, Jorpati, Mitrapark and Chabahil. These factories have not only ignored the provisions of existing law but also refused to acknowledge the problems of the treatment plant. Earlier, Kathmandu Metropolis also dumped garbage along the Gokarna-Gujeshwori section of the Bagmati. Such dumping not only destroyed aquatic life but also polluted the river even though various environmental organizations raised a hue and cry. The Pashupati temple is a place of worship and ritual that has had a paramount place in our religious and social life for centuries. It is a holy site for Hindus who come there in the thousands from different parts of the sub-continent every year. We can no longer afford to leave the water at this holy site in such a polluted state. Binod Chaudhari, a Nepali industrialist, once came up with a master plan to clean up and develop the site, only to fall out with the government. The Ministry of Environment cannot remain silent at a time when a sacred river like the Bagmati is turning into an open sewer, a convenient dumping site for unscrupulous industrialists. The government must take the problem seriously and prevent such entities and the medical colleges up river from ever again discharging their untreated waste into the Bagmati. It should also start thinking about zoning laws to keep polluting industries within well regulated confines where they can do least environmental harm.