The plight of our rivers

It has once again been a long silence on my part. I have to apologize to myself and more to the four followers who have registered to this blog. It is however not that the socio-political situation of the country frustrates me but rather that things have been hectic at the private level. I hope to get regular soon. In any case, my apologies once again.
In the mean time politics has remained as always- unpredictable and rampant and at a palpable level not much has happened to the life of a Nepali. I still walk through roads that sadly are dumped with garbage. It hurts to see them men on everyday clothes shovelling garbage into minitrucks with open roofs. And I take this chance to look at the garbage problem from an utterly non-specialist view. I apologize to waste management specialists who happen to come across and start reading this blog and I welcome comments from whoever thinks I could learn from them.

That there is garbage in the streets of Kathmandu is something that I seem to have accepted as a sad reality. The way I excuse myself here is by blaming the lack of a functioning administration in the country itself. It's not just the hazards of garbage per se that are the problems but there are streets that virtually get blocked because of the garbage that lies around.

Just now I am asking myself why I am thinking about streets alone. In fact our garbaged streets problem has not been there since yesterday. We have been having the problem since several decades. And one of the most troubling spillage of the garnage problem is there to see on and in our rivers. Several of the rivers that contributed to making human settlements possible in the Kathmandu valley have stopped flowing, overloaded by the garbage that we regularly throw into them. Now that is a serious problem, isn't it? Let's say it aloud again. Most of the rivers in the Kathmandu valley hardly flow because there is too much garbage in them. Unfortunately for them, they can't protest, they can't organize country shut-downs and they can't put forward their demands for
their basic rights.

Who then should stand up for them?

Well, let us not go much into it now but our way of life in these times is so desperate that we hardly care for the rights of someone else unless we see an interest in doing that. So it might be folly to think that one or the other of us is willing to fight for the right of the non-protesting, rivers, their right to "live" through time from their birth in the mountains to their dissolution in the sea. Who among us is interested in helping the rivers flow? There is nothing for us in it. Hang on! On second thought, is there an interest for us in helping the rivers flow?

Our rivers are so dirty that we curse the time it takes to cross bridges. Being in such a situation is a real trouble to our noses. But then we are mostly happy to be clamping our noses with two fingers while we are in the vicinity of a river. Now keeping the nose shut for a while, thankfully enough, does not compromise with our lives. So it is uncomfortable to walk though the really disturbing smell of a river, but as long as we can escape that by the mere shutting of the nose for a while, we don't seem to bother. And then there are masks that are easily affordable. And they do give us the assurance that we are safe by their use. So the smell of a river has stopped being a reason to think about helping rivers flow, hasn't it? Well I am not entirely sure on that one. I give you, my revered reader to think about it. Any comments, as always, very welcome. Let us think about it seriously. Let us discuss over
it.

Any other reason to start thinking about making rivers flow smoothly? Well I have seen in a plenty of places that people near rivers use pumps to lift water to irrigate their fields. Now those of us who are doing this seem to be pretty happy about the state our rivers are in. We call ourselves a nation rich in water resources and that might be true. But water in Kathmandu has become so scarce that at our house we buy water from one of those water suppliers- an industry that has fostered well in recent years. This is a serious problem for farmers, one of the very few real producers in our country. To these people the rivers are a real blessing, whatever the state there are in. I haven't talked to them as to their official view, but have never heard a complaint about the rivers either. I have heard complaints as to the lack of water supply from the state authorities though and I have had to support them in their complaints. I wish I did not have to do that. For now, no, the farmers who rely on river water for irrigation can not be expected to stand up for the right of the rivers to flow. But shall we start a discussion with them?

Now people who use rivers for the purpose of washing are aplenty. Can we expect them to stand up for the rivers' rights? Some years back there used to be washerwomen with heaps of clothes with them working through their wages at the Dhobikhola (and how appropriate a name this river has) in Chabahil. I haven't seen them recently. Perhaps those who like to use the river for that purpose have been pushed upwards towards its origin. But a woman I used to know then recently cursed the river for "being" dirty. "This river has become very unloyal to us. It used to do a lot of good to us but look at it now. It's no use. What an ugly river it has become. Hopefully it dies out soon. There will be some people who can house on its place. What good is a river that has no good water in it?" And how true she was. I realized quickly that there is no point in expecting washerwomen to fight for the rivers. I assume the same holds true for the farmers who wash their greens in the rivers.

So is there any hope for the rivers? Doesn't seem so. I feel pity towards them but what am I going to do? Little, dear rivers. The next time I see you I will have to shut my nose and run quickly away from you. For I am aware not only that you stink but also that all kinds of harmful microscopic organisms that are a real threat to humans grow inside you. I am aware these organisms are big sources of a big variety of diseases. I wish I knew not that greens washed in the little water that remains in you are a real source of serious danger. I wish I knew not that it's your water that allowed my forefathers to settle around you.

...a wish escapes my guilty conscience. I wish all this was a dream. I wish I could do something to change the plight of the rivers. But I am in a hurry, need to catch the next bus to get to work...

I will see you dear rivers, if I do not die of the risks I run through living in a community around you.

...But isn't the reason I might die of the risks of living around a river reason enough for me to think more about the plight of the rivers? I shall think about you...