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VOL. 16, No. 07, Nov.18,2022 (Mangsir 02. 2079) Publisher and Editor: Keshab Prasad Poudel Online Register Number: DOI 584/074-75

Published on: Nov 17, 2022

Articles

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KALIGANDAKI RIVER: Under A Threat

Following an interim order issued by the Supreme Court on a petition filed by senior advocate and prominent environmental lawyer Prakash Mani Sharma and others on behalf of Pro-Public in July 2020, all activities including the stone queering, sand extractions and proposed preparation for Kali Gandaki River Diversion scheme come to a halt. However, the ecological, cultural and environmental threat to Kali Gandaki, one of the highly important spiritual rivers of Nepal with civilization linkage, remains. Backed by high-level political leadership, massive illegal sand extractions and stone queering continue in some areas and the idea of diversion is yet to remove from Nepal’s Irrigation Master Plan, which proposes to divert rivers in eight different basins. Thanks to the petition and order of the court, people from all walks of life united to protect the river. From the mouth of the river (Damodarkunda in Mustang) and up to the tail of the river at Debghat (Chitwan, Nawalparsi and Tanahu), there is a consensus against diversion and indiscriminate stone and sand queering. However, delaying taking the final decision on the river is causing problems as well. Local levels and communities, who opposed interventions in scared river, have been facing a scarcity of construction materials like sand and stone necessary for infrastructures development and construction of houses calling new order for wise use of resources of the river

By Keshab Poudel | Nov 12, 2022

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