Kathmandu Participatory River Monitoring – A Model for South Asia Methodology and Lessons Learned
Rainer Mutschler-Burghard1) , Prachet Shrestha2) , Yogendra Chitrakar2) , Ram Maharjan2) , Sushil Anu2) , Ronjon Chakrabarti1)
1) Adelphi Research, Caspar Theyss Strasse 14a, 14193 Berlin, Germany,
mutschler@adelphi-research.de 2) Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA-Nepal), Wise Use House, P.O. Box 9210 Jwagal, Kupandol, Lalitpur, Nepal,
ecca@mos.com.np
Only twenty years ago people were swimming in Bagmati River. Water even met drinking water quality. Increased urbanisation has worsened the situation drastically. All domestic and industrial
waste water is discharged directly into rivers. Due to lack of resources and expertise, an adequate and sustainable monitoring system for the rivers could not be set up and permanently operated. Adelphi Research – Germany, ECCA – Nepal and ITC – The Netherlands therefore developed the project Kathmandu Participatory River Monitoring (KAPRIMO) that took into account the various reasons for the insufficient operation of former monitoring systems. As a pilot step, KAPRIMO strengthened the river monitoring system in Kathmandu-Lalitpur, making it more reliable and sustainable.
The growing population and the high density along the banks of the rivers in the urban agglomeration of Kathmandu and Lalitpur as well as a lack of proper sewage and waste management capacity has led to a serious deterioration of the ecosystem within the Bagmati River Basin. The decline of river quality has direct detrimental impacts on the health of water user groups in the city and downstream. While these deficits are recognised and environmental legislation has been put in place accordingly, no appropriate measures have so far been taken to install a permanently operating river monitoring system in Kathmandu-Lalitpur due to lack of funding and expertise.
Some attempts have been made by the Nepalese government to run a river quality monitoring system on regional basis, but sustainability could never be achieved. In the early 1990s the mandate of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) under the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MOEST) was extended to water quality assessment. With the help of the German Development Service (DED) a water quality laboratory was set up and monitoring of rivers in Kathmandu Valley was done three times per year.
The KAPRIMO Approach
Kathmandu Participatory River Monitoring (KAPRIMO), a project co-funded by the European Commission under the Asia Pro Eco Programme, took into account the various reasons for the insufficient operation of the existing monitoring system of DHM and followed thereby the recommendations of the Nepal Water Resource Strategy 2002. Basing on the work done by DED, the project strengthened the river monitoring system in Kathmandu-Lalitpur, in order to make it more reliable and sustainable. In two urban river segments sampling frequency and parameters were increased and adapted. Moreover water quality data are related to water discharge and meteorological data, in order to facilitate future environmental planning. A decentralisation process and thus a relief of DHM has been initiated by integrating the competent local municipalities into the monitoring process. Volunteer teams partly took over the responsibilities for sampling and analysing activities in the two chosen river segments. The monitoring system is kept simple and is based on low investment as well as low operational costs. As no reliable monitoring system and thus no regular water quality data on Bagmati river catchment existed in Nepal before the project, the focus of KAPRIMO was on cost
Two defined river segments of KAPRIMO
efficient and reliable implementation. The system is designed according to international monitoring standards of the scientific community. Nevertheless local authorities have the liberty and flexibility to adapt the monitoring system if necessary. The ownership is increased thereby.
2 Objectives
The key objective of KAPRIMO is clearly defined as a regular availability of river quality data of the two targeted river segments meeting established Nepalese standards. Furthermore the monitoring process will set goals for the water quality of rivers that will lead into follow-up project proposals for improvement measures on the river segments. As the project
AET October / November 2011
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