Kathmandu, January 31

The High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilisation said it would clean the Bagmati River properly up to the Shankhamul confluence by the 199th week of the Bagmati Clean-up Campaign.

The campaign will reach its 199th week on March 4.

The HPCIDBC is preparing to organise a programme on March 4 where people will take a dip in the Bagmati and Manohara rivers to send a message that the river is now clean. The HPCIDBC said the programme would be significant.

Rajesh Prasad Singh, project manager at HPCIDBC, said projects to manage waste water from sewage through a canal under Buddhanagar were under way. “We are about to make the Bagmati River sewage-free up to the Shankhamul confluence, and have set staff members to clean solid waste at Aryaghat,” Singh told The Himalayan Times, “The HPCIDBC is eyeing for the success of the programme.”

Singh said that besides the programme, the 199th week celebration includes the inauguration of a yoga centre and a recreation hub for the elderly, and other events.

The Bagmati Clean-up Campaign was launched on May 19, 2013. More than 140 groups reportedly are working for the Bagmati Cleaning Project.

One of the initiators of the campaign and Coordinator of Gayetri Pariwar Nepal Dr Raju Adhikari suggested to the government to mark the 199th week through events. “We are still discussing what we can do to mark this significant milestone, but our best options appear to be a walkathon and cleaning campaigns,” he said.

The campaign completed 194 weeks on January 28 this month.

According to campaign volunteers, a core team of around 50 member volunteers work every Saturday to clean the river. The campaign has collected more than 6,000 metric tonnes of garbage from the river, and more than 400,000 people have participated in the campaign so far.