Rup Narayan Dhakal

Pokhara, March 7:

Former president of the Pokhara Valley City Development Committee, Ashok Palikhe, has accused officials of the Phewa Lake Environment Awareness and Capacity Building Project

of misusing the funds meant for the conservation of the Phewa lake. The lake is one of the major tourist attractions in the Pokhara valley. The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-supported project was launched in July with the objective of conserving the lake by mobilising people in checking pollution at the lake. The project covers ward numbers 1-9 and 17 of the Pokhara sub-metropolitan City, which are considered the main sources of pollution at the lake.

“It is meaningless to run the project at ward number 9 since the ward is not responsible for pollution at the lake,” Palikhe further said. He added: “It is illogical to exclude the western and northern parts of the lake from project when the people living in these areas also have a role in polluting the lake.” Countering Palikhe’s opinion, project chief Sharada Mohan Kafle said sewage from half of the New Road area, which lies in ward number 9, was disposed of at the lake. President of the Pokhara Tourism Council, Ganesh Bahadur Bhattarai, said the stress should be on spending the money on right areas. Stating that the JICA was monitoring the project, JICA unit chief, Bal Krishna Ranjitkar, said the project had not violated the agreement.

Four million rupees of the project money would be spent on different community activities, Kafle said. The remainder would be used in conducting other activities, such as training and providing salary to 15 project staffers. Apart from organising seminars, environment committees have been formed in the wards to help conserve the lake. The committees work in tandem with the project. As part of the project, sewage are being cleaned and hyacinths being cleared from Hallan chowk to Chautara in ward number six. The Phewa Lake project also plans to clean the Seti canal, which feeds the 443-hectare Phewa lake. Kafle said the project had provided the locals with materials for the construction of two public toilets in the Phirke area. A training on preparation of compost fertiliser was also organised in ward number 9 recently. According to a study, the lake has contracted by 55 per cent as compared to 1961. The lake, according to the study, will become extinct in 150 years if the present rate of contraction continued.