The search for water resources in Nepal
Water is one of the most sensitive issues in regions encompassing mountains and valleys, and was one of the many topics discussed at last November's workshop on Mountains and Media in Kathmandu. The workshop, which The Jakarta Post's Ati Nurbaiti attended, was held by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Panos South Asia, both based in Nepal's capital.
KATHMANDU, Nepal (JP): The many corners of the Kathmandu Valley hold numerous surprises. A left turn through a yellow arch away from a winding and bustling road in Patan, and the visitor lands in a hushed large square lined on all sides with brick homes, a stupa in the middle and a large communal water source at the far end.
A short set of stairs leads to water spouts, and at the foot of the steps a sculpture of a standing deity is protected with iron railings.
A larger water source in the Patan Durbar palace square is one of many rendezvous sites for the young and old.
Similar structures are found elsewhere in other squares, a few said to date back 800 years. And the story behind Nepal's water sources includes tales of the struggle for water -- of small water community projects and large-scale ones, and elders trying to cope with change.
The Kathmandu Valley is believed to have once been under water -- a myth which geologists have confirmed -- as cited by travel authority Lonely Planet. In the deepest parts of the valleys water may be in abundance, likewise in the snow and glaciers on the peaks, but reports say residential areas in between the very top and bottom of the Himalayas are mostly without regular water supply systems.
The region of what is called the Hindu Kush-Himalayas is home to some 150 million people -- the highland peoples of Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Tibet.
In the river basins, some 500 million people are dependent on the water of the six major rivers of the Himalayas: the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Huang Ho and the Yangtze.
Whole civilizations are built around these rivers, central as they are to the religious rituals and livelihood of surrounding inhabitants.
Researchers and activists resist subsidies for high-cost water projects and electricity for pumping water. A newsletter from ICIMOD cites the inequity caused by such subsidies, as small farmers cannot afford the tube-wells used to draw groundwater.
An expected doubling of the population in the next few decades has naturally led to fears of a water shortage in the Himalayas, and ways to prevent a shortage and improve access to clean water are being researched and put into practiced.
The above newsletter looks at methods practiced by communities in Nepal, India, Pakistan and China. Three research sites in Nepal focus on collecting water from fog with an aim at providing better access to water for remote villages.
Apart from looking at low-cost technology, traditional wisdom in water management is also being revived, some by persistent individual residents.
Researchers in the ICIMOD newsletter write: "Climate, culture and cultivation are critical determinants in meeting the needs for water." In line with social differentiations, access to water is also determined by one's caste, class and gender; for instance there are taps for both the touchables and the untouchables.
Then there is the differentiation between locals and tourists. Researchers looking at changes in water needs and supplies fear growing competition between hotels and surrounding households given the scarce resources. Visitors also are requested to take as little water as possible from water containers outside homes; the water may not have come out of a tap or even from the rain.
"You don't have to wash your feet ... It's fetched water," says a host to his wards coming up the Trisuli river bank outside Kathmandu after a rafting trip.
Nostalgia
Residents refer to the "cool, tasty water" of natural springs with nostalgia, making evident there is a big difference with tap water, which nevertheless provided water to the ancient spouts found in Kathmandu Valley before natural sources were restored.
The paradox of the appearance of an abundance of water and its lack of accessibility is evident in the women's task of fetching water, a chore that consumes up to one-fourth of their average day, according to a report on a village in the hills 34 kilometers from Kathmandu.
"All our chores revolve around water supply," says villager Bishnu Kumari, as quoted in Tough Terrains: Media Reports on Mountain Issues.
Traditional knowledge on the building of water sources and their maintenance, and also of natural water sources, are revealed by 13 elders as recorded in a book titled Water Wisdom. They cite earlier days when even potable water was easier to find, and they voice disgust and concern with the increasing neglect of water sources. Pollution and construction around water sources are among the problems also found in cities like Jakarta.
The book, published by the Kathmandu-based Panos Institute South Asia, also reveals persistent individual efforts in restoring otherwise long-gone water sources and their collective maintenance -- such as natural springs, wells, ponds and irrigation channels.
One citizen tells of his numerous talks with elders, as he aimed to trace and restore dozens of natural water sources. Naresh Shakya Bansa, 74, said that based mainly on these conversations, in the absence of records of pipelines, he was confident that there were 50 water spouts in one area alone. "We are yet to locate 14 more springs," he said.
Water sources damaged during Nepal's 1934 earthquake, free water under former kingdoms and the introduction of tap water, says Bansa, a resident of Lalitpur district in the capital, are the reasons people neglect existing water sources.
Bansa says he is motivated in his work by a couplet written for him as a child, which his grandfather translated as: "Having taken the human form, we must do something constructive in this world. Even if we cannot attempt something new, we must at least carry on the traditions of our forefathers."
Bansa observed how after celebrations during a festival "it is customary to worship the Earth God and clean the wells, springs and ponds".
It is this regular cleaning that maintains the sources, and elders conclude a lack of devotion is contributing to the filth in the rivers and the disappearance of springs. Reference to the rivers as a source of livelihood and devotion is intertwined in remarks over the depleted water sources.
"Who needs water from this river and who cares?" asks Maili Karmacharya, 82. "Only the poor. The rich get water at home."
Also a resident of Lalitpur, she is referring to the Bagmati river which originates from the Ganga, and is also called by locals the Gangaji. She points out that in the weekly rituals, one must bathe in the river, wear clean clothes and carry two handfuls of sand.
Rites for the dead also require river sand and water. But the water and sand are no longer considered really holy: "People still take sand from this river but only after washing it in tap water four or five times," says Karmacharya.
"If people dug composite pits and threw their rubbish in them like in the past," she says, "the pollution would not have happened .... Sewers now discharge waste directly into the river."
All the white foam, she says, is the waste from the carpet factories. Yet nobody cares about the Gangaji, from which everyone used to drink, she says. "She has to carry and wash away everything that is thrown in."
Another resident, Huta Ram Baidya, 77, said: "If the principal river is transformed into a sewer, doesn't it threaten civilization?" He stresses he is referring to the whole family of rivers sustaining the valley.
Tourists gawk at historical sites in Kathmandu, which have become World Heritage Sites under the protection of the United Nations, but Baidya says, "If Bagmati's culture is destroyed, what will Nepal have to show to the world as its civilization?"
Residents also question foreign donors. "If they were people of our civilization," says Baidya, "they would not have said, 'Here's money. Go, construct toilets in the middle of the Bishnumati River.'"
The sites of Nepal are indeed wondrous, but locals are not entirely impressed. Baidya cites his experience as part of a team surveying life in the rivers for the World Bank a few years ago.
"There were no fish, no frogs ... only anaerobic bacteria ... that is why our rivers stink."