The skyline and the waters of the Charles River in Boston have changed dramatically over the past half-century. Today, people swim in the river. But only a few decades ago, the river was polluted with sewage and industrial dumping. The river's transformation has important lessons for Kathmandu.

A north-eastern American city with a modern skyline, Boston sits along the beautiful Charles River which flows 128 kilometres from its source into Boston Harbour. Boston is an old city by American standards, dating to the 1600s. As Boston grew, residents dumped raw sewage and industrial waste into the river, which soon became too dirty and disgusting to swim in. For many decades, people who fell into the river were advised to get tetanus shots.

Sparkling gem

Today, people are returning to the riverbank and enjoying walks along the Charles River. The river is monitored regularly and has significantly improved. It has taken several decades to solve the river's technical, economic and political problems. Today, the Charles River is well known as a sparkling gem. It is one of America's cleanest urban rivers. The Charles River clean-up shows that success will not come quickly.

Of course, there was more than one hero for the cleanup of the Charles River and Boston Harbour. The river cleanup credit goes to the Charles River Watershed Association, established in 1965. The Charles River Watershed Association is one of the oldest watershed organisations that formed to respond to the declining condition in the river. The Charles River Watershed Association does river water quality sampling in cooperation with the state and federal governments, providing real-time monitoring of water quality. In over 50 years, the association has helped keep public pressure on the regulatory agencies, helping to transform the dirty to clean water through science, advocacy and law.

But advocacy by non-governmental organisations was not enough. In greater Boston, it took lawsuits and the courts to oversee a clean-up process that would take 30 years and billions of United States dollars. In 1984, in large part in response to major lawsuits, a new regional agency, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority was created and charged with cleaning up Boston Harbour.

Another hero is the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, who built a major regional sewage treatment plant on Deer Island in Boston Harbour. Since 2000, it has treated dry-weather flows and wet-weather flows, reducing sewage overflows into the harbour and its three major tributaries. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has also worked with multiple communities around Boston Harbour to build improved sewage drainage systems to keep waste from being dumped into the harbour and, instead, send it to the Deer Island treatment plant. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has depended upon both political cooperation among these communities and complex financial agreements to finance ongoing sewage management. Without the cleanup by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, the water and sewage from kitchens, restrooms and industrial plants might still be sent directly into the Charles River and to Boston Harbour.

The lessons learned from the Charles River cleanup are: using sound science; using cutting-edge technologies; strong targeted enforcement and lawsuits; the dedication of leaders, and optimism.

Kathmandu's rivers have similar pollution problems. Despite the cultural importance of rivers and many cleanup initiatives, including the Bagmati Clean-Up Campaign, the rivers remain foul. Urbanisation, sewage contamination and excessive nutrients (toxic to humans and animals) have degraded the river over the years. In the 1980s, Kathmandu’s rivers used to be very clean; and today, they need urgent attention.

We need both bottom-up and top-down efforts. The citizens of the Kathmandu Valley must change many old habits, especially throwing garbage and untreated waste directly into the rivers. Citizens must learn about the benefits of a cleaner river, such as improved human health through better sanitation. But education is not enough: The government needs to provide convenient waste alternatives for citizens and an empowered body is needed to check the water quality index, carry out advocacy, study past failures, and prepare lawsuits against relevant agencies. It needs continued dedication and commitment.

Depends upon cooperation

Finding a solution will depend upon cooperation between the government bureaucracy, business leaders and politicians; everyone needs to adopt an attitude of enlightened self-interest. As in Boston, new sewerage systems and treatment plants will be needed, and this will depend upon multiple communities and multiple constituencies working together and investing public funding to create and operate them.

Finally, Nepal’s civil and academic leaders need to work in concert to ensure that the appropriate technology is developed, distributed and implemented. Cleaning the rivers of the Kathmandu Valley is a long-term project that will span decades, if not, generations, and require planned and multi-phased, multi-year schemes. They will need to be implemented on a well-managed step-by-step basis. The situation in Nepal is both complex and hard. But Boston and other cities have cleaned their rivers despite big challenges; so can we.