EDITORIAL: Let the rivers flow

We must learn to accord reverence to our rivers and ensure that their right to flow the natural course is duly upheld

Every monsoon we get reports from across the country of floods and the loss property and lives caused. Reports of flooding are usually rife particularly from the southern plains, while there are landslides in hills and mountains. And every year, the government comes up with its assessment report and mitigation measures to be adopted; and of course a pledge to protect property and lives. Then it’s forgotten until there is another monsoon, which once again results in loss of lives and property. But this monsoon has caused floods in the Capital city as well. Around 500 houses on either side of the Dhobikhola River from Madan Bhandari Chowk to Bijulibazaar were inundated after floodwater from the swollen rivers gushed into the residential area. Residents of Anamnagar were taken by surprise when they noticed floodwater entering their houses at around two on Wednesday morning.

According to Deputy Chief District Officer of Kathmandu Basudev Ghimire, the incident occurred after “the mildly swollen Dhobikhola River washed away an iron footbridge, which disturbed the natural flow of water which then entered the residential area”. Locals have blamed the under-construction arch-bridge at Bijulibazaar, saying since the flow of water in the river was obstructed, water level started rising on the Anamnagar side. But we are missing the point. There was a time when rivers in the Valley used to flow their natural courses – their tranquillity and vastness would hold anyone spellbound. They would carry water and nutrients for the farmland. But with rapid and unplanned urbanisation, we have gradually built pressure on our rivers. They have not only become dirtier but also have lost their “right” to flow.

In recent years, Kathmandu has become a concrete jungle. With the rising population, the demand for land has shot up, and to meet the demand, we have not even spared those areas which actually belonged to the rivers. Rivers have been revered by people for centuries – for cultural or religious reasons. Rivers while play an important role in the water cycle, they are an integral part of our daily lives. But we have failed to show the rivers the respect they deserve. We easily tend to describe floods as “nature’s fury”, but especially in city areas, it’s more than that – it is a man-made disaster and blaming the nature would be an injustice. The government needs to come up with stronger policies to protect our rivers – so at to protect ourselves. Maybe it’s about time we took a leaf out of some other countries’ book to protect our rivers. An Indian court in Uttarakhand in March last year ordered that the Ganges and its main tributary, the Yamuna, be accorded the status of living human entities, which meant polluting or damaging the rivers will be legally equivalent to harming a person. The court had drawn inspiration from a decision of the New Zealand government which the same year had declared the Whanganui River, revered by the indigenous Māori people, a living entity with full legal rights. We must learn to accord reverence to our rivers and ensure that their right to flow the natural course is upheld. We are destructing our rivers at our own peril.

Maintain the beauty

The Hanumandhoka Durbar Museum which is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu Valley has rented its spaces to local people to run curio shops, tea stalls and fast food restaurants. The Museum’s decision to rent out its spaces to shopkeepers is causing great difficulty for tourists and spoiling its beauty. The historic Kumari house and Laxmi Narayan temple have also rented out their spaces for grocery stores.

As per the rules, the Museum can rent out its spaces only for selling items of cultural importance, handicrafts, paintings and statutes. The Museum raises Rs 25 million annually by renting out its spaces, which is utilised for the maintenance of the premises and for running its office. But the Durbar area should be rented out only to those types of stalls that help promote cultural, religious and archaeological values of the World Heritage Site. Resources are needed to manage the heritage sites. It is, however, equally important to keep intact the aesthetic and cultural values of the premises by not allowing people to sell everything from fish to meat. The more we preserve our historic monuments the more we can expect praises from the visitors.