Kathmandu, August 30 :

The lost glory of the historic pond of Rani Pokhari, located at the heart of the capital city, is being revived, thanks to an effort to collect rainwater and drain it into the pond. A project to harvest rainwater from the terraces of the Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus and draining it into rapidly drying pond is nearing completion.

“We are happy to say that the 336-year-old pond will be brimming with fresh water again,” Sahadev Shrestha, chief of the Public Parks and City Hall Department of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), said.

Rainwater would fill the pond even during dry season and help maintain the beauty of the pond.

The Rani Pokhari, historically known as Nhoo Pukhoo, was built by King Pratap Malla in the year 1670 to console his wife, bereaved by deaths of their sons. With the joint effort of the KMC and NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation (NGOFUWS) and support from the UN HABITAT, the project was launched in June.

The project will have the capacity to collect 1,612,576 litres of water every year, out of which 1,291,000 litres will be fed into the pond. Rest of the water will be used by the campus for drinking and other purposes. Prakash Chandra Amatya, executive director of the NGOFUWS, said, “The pond is drying rapidly as there is no natural or traditional water resource to feed water into it. In addition, growing activities of extracting groundwater is also causing the pond to dry up.”

Hundreds of fish die in the Rani Pokhari every year for want of water. Amatya believes that the level of underground water will rise once the pond is regularly filled with water.

A deep well at Bagbazaar is being monitored to see the change. Efforts are also being made to harvest water from the Bhanu Bhakta High School.