[Paschim Paaila] WASH Forum March Series "Bagmati Movement: River festival to cleaning mega campaign"

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Bagmati Movement: River festival to cleaning mega campaign

Group Photo on WASH Forum

Pachim Paaila in collaboration with ENPHO organized its 28^th series of WASH forum (discussion program) on 28^th March, 2014 at ENPHO Hall, Thapagaun on title ' Bagmati Movement: River festival to cleaning mega campaign'. The objective of the discussion program was to share on Bagmati movement as cleaning campaign and to highlight the role of youth towards environment conservation through these kinds of initiatives. Mr. Mausam Khanal, Executive Director of Nepal River Conservation Trust was the key speaker for this interaction program. Total 25 participants from different organizations, colleges and institution actively participated the program.

Mr. Mausham Khanal on WASH Forum

Winner of Facebook Photo Competition Mr. Naresh Kusi

Winning Photo: “No fish, No dish: The livelihood base of the Bote community in the  lowland Tarai rests almost entirely on fishing. This little girl from Amaltari, Nawalparasi,  has to get busy searching for fish with her family  early in the morning. The rivers harbor  fish and they depend on them for their living.  Water is the foundation on which they sustain their life”

Mr. Roshan Chaulagain, Advocacy Coordinator of Paschim Paaila briefly introduced about WASH Forum and highlighted the objective which was then followed by the welcome speech from Ms. Padmaja Shrestha, Senior program manager at ENPHO she highlighted activities that ENPHO has been conducting i.e. water quality monitoring analysis of Bagmati River since 2011.

During the program, Mr. Khanal shared some of his thoughts and experiences on how the mega cleaning campaign came to be from the early initiation of river festival in 2001. Mr. Khanal emphasized the high needs, for the conservation and protection of Bagmati, various campaigns are needed to preserve and revive this river as it is an important river system with high cultural and aesthetical value and has spiritual and emotional significance to Nepali people. The program formulated discussion on major problems for Bagmati being polluted, the initiations taken till date and the achievements gained and the activities to be undertaken in the future.

There was announced and honored winner of facebook photo competition which was organized marking World Water Day and Water Week- 2014 on theme "Water for Life". The winner of the facebook Photo Competition was Mr. Naresh Kusi with caption “No fish, No dish: The livelihood base of the Bote community in the lowland Tarai rests almost entirely on fishing. This little girl from Amaltari, Nawalparasi, has to get busy searching for fish with her family early in the morning. The rivers harbor fish and they depend on them for their living. Water is the foundation on which they sustain their life”. Mr. Buddha Bajracharya, Network Coordinator of Paschim Paaila gave vote of thanks to the resource person and to the active participants. Finally, the program was concluded by appreciating to the resource person by Token of love followed by feedback collection on WASH Forum & group photo.

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Posted By "paschim paaila" to Paschim Paaila at 4/03/2014 02:56:00 PM