Kathmandu, February 21:

Yet another project has come up to scientifically monitor the worsening pollution of Bagmati and Bishnumati rivers, which flow across the Kathmandu Valley. A 6.5 million-rupee project ‘Kathmandu Participatory River Monitoring - a model for South Asia’ was officially launched today. The project will systematically record water pollution for coming two years.

“The project is designed to be a starting point for basin-wide, or even country-wide river monitoring and planning,” said Riner Mutschler, a researcher from Adlephi Research, introducing the project. He said user groups are not aware of their long-term impact with regards to polluted water.

Yogendra Chitrakar, director of the Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA-Nepal), said: “The project aims at improving environment and creating increased awareness among stake holders.”

The project is being launched by ECCA-Nepal jointly with European partners Adelhpi Research (AR-Germany) and International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC-The Netherlands).

Talking to this daily, environmentalist and executive director of Environment and Public Health Organisation (ENPHO), Bhshan Tuladhar, said since it is scientifically proved that the river is “ecologically dead”, we need to provide people with alternatives rather than carry out research so that the river becomes less polluted.