Nat'l conference on rainwater harvesting concludes issuing five-point Kathmandu Declaration

KATHMANDU, MARCH 21: The two-day national conference on rainwater harvesting concluded here by issuing a five-point Kathmandu Declaration. The conference was organised in coordination with the Ministry of Water Supply with the support of different government and non-government organisations at the initiation of SmartWash Solutions Pvt Ltd and WaterAid Nepal under the theme 'Rainwater harvesting for conserving water and addressing the impacts of climate change' from March 19-20.

The declaration has incorporated the issues—forging an alliance with organisations having similar objectives of reducing the water crisis, requesting three-tier governments to make laws related to the management of integrated water, adopting and searching for new technology to resolve the water crisis, taking collective initiative for the management of rainwater and paying attention on aspects of climate change in collective efforts for management of rainwater.

The conference determined that rainwater harvesting is a long-term and easy measure to reduce the acute crisis of water during the winter season. Stating that rainwater harvesting and its management are indispensable to encourage this sector, the conference drew the conclusion that the current practice should be made advanced to expand efforts and programmes of rainwater harvesting in order to achieve result-oriented objectives. The issues—the local government should make provision of making rainwater recharge system mandatorily in course of constructing houses, monitoring, and evaluating of sustainable management of recharge of rainwater, and ensuring water good governance are incorporated in the Declaration.

The conference drew a conclusion that a situation of crisis in water security is being created in Nepal, which is vulnerable due to the impacts of climate change, requesting all bodies concerned to adopt the measures to lessen the impacts of climate change while running programme and projects related to water. It also made a special request to the government bodies to run programmes in various sectors– agriculture, energy and water in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal-6 set by the United Nations benefitting rainwater harvesting and management.

Former Minister Pampha Bhusal, Secretary at the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat, Dr. Jagadishwor Karmacharya, Director General of the Department of Drinking Water, Ramakanta Dawadi, Country Director of WaterAid Nepal, Tripti Rai, among others shed light on different issues—the importance of rainwater, conservation of drinking water sources and minimizing impacts of climate change.

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