Kathmandu, March 22, 2006 The World Water Day passed off today amid much excitement among a section of environmentalists. While the theme coined by UN for the day read “Water and Culture”, it did not match the local efforts since the relationship between water and culture seems to have snapped over years. “Culture has been affected by falling supply of water in the rivers. This is far removed from a scenario when Kathmandu Valley was believed to be a  huge lake,” said Prakash Darnal, Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. He also referred to excavations at Hadigaon which indicated that once there were too many water bodies and ponds in the valley. “We go to Pashupatinath, but don’t dip our heads in it. Well, doesn’t this indicate that culture is dying?,” Darnal asked. Dr Suman Kumar Shakya, Deputy Executive Director of ENPHO, said “It is strange to hear people saying Bagmati is holy and yet discharge sewage into it,” He said septic tanks or water treatment plants could reverse the rot. Meanwhile ENPHO, which has been testing the water, has found the level of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) in river water at 0.40 per litre at Sundarijal. It goes up to 570.0 mg per at Sundarighat. BIMSTEC discusses visa provision Kathmandu, March 22, 2006 The meeting of Experts’ Group from member countries of the BIMSTEC, which was concluded here yesterday, has discussed ‘visa simplification’ for the business sector people in a bid to boost trade and investment opportunities in the region. BIMSTEC is a club of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Currently, the procedure for obtaining visa for businesspersons remain the same as everybody else. According to Naindra Prasad Upadhyaya, joint secretary at the ministry of industry, commerce and supplies and chief of the eight member Nepali delegation informed that the two-day long meeting concluded at Dhulilkhel, Kavre yesterday had discussed at length the issues of ‘visa simplification’ for businesspersons in the BIMSTEC region. It will ultimately boost business, trade and investment opportunities regionally, hoped Upadhyaya. He said that issues such as BIMSTEC Business Visa Sticker Scheme and BIMSTEC Business Visa Exemption Scheme have been discussed. However, the sticker system is found to be more convenient, as per experts’ opinion. Experts from all BIMSTEC nations have reached an understanding to expedite the process of visa simplification procedures in days to come as this is the first meeting held in Nepal, informed Upadhayaya.The visa provision is termed as a special privilege given only to bona-fide businesspeople at the regional level, according to him meeting of BIMSTEC held in Dhaka in December 2005 had decided to simplify visa procedures.