On the occasion of the 22nd Bagmati River Festival, the Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies organised a rafting event on the holy river on Saturday, not only to promote boating, but primarily to raise awareness about its pitiful state. A legendary river that holds cultural and religious significance for millions has been transformed into a free flowing sewer out of sheer negligence in the past few decades; and despite all the publicity stunts, political gimmicks and billions of rupees spent to revitalise the Bagmati, there has been no significant change in its state that would truly reflect the efforts of scores of volunteers who worked sincerely to clean up the holy waters.

Myopic policies, weak implementation of planning procedures and haphazard urbanisation have led to the demise of the river that has shaped the valley’s culture, history and religion for millennia. Without a doubt, the Bagmati has been made to suffer and pay the price for the absurd obsession with real estate in Kathmandu Valley. Homes, offices and factories have treated the river as an open sewer by directly feeding raw sewage into it. The river’s pristine condition between sections with sparse populations is evidence of where the problem lies, and what needs to be done to transform it.

Since ancient times, cities have thrived on a network of river systems for numerous purposes. And the idea of attaching them with religious significance perhaps highlights the importance given to preserving what they considered the lifeline of the city. But over time, gross government negligence and lack of public awareness have led to the Bagmati being choked before our very eyes. Cleaning the Bagmati cannot be about wading through the slime to extract a piece of plastic symbolically. There has to be a complete overhaul of how we treat the flow of raw sewage. Without addressing the problem of sewage, gathering periodically to extract solid waste from the river amounts to nothing more than a sham.

Restoring the Bagmati River is somewhat a more challenging prospect. Over time, we have managed to reduce the land area that feeds the underground water system through the ongoing urbanisation of large swathes of the valley. The vast concrete expanse prevents water from seeping underground that would otherwise naturally feed the river flow, thus leaving the river high and dry during most of the year other than the monsoon. Unable to recharge naturally, the river has an additional problem of flushing out the toxic waste which in the absence of perennial water flow, causes more of a severe problem to the surrounding biodiversity.

If the process of cleaning and restoring the Bagmati is ever to achieve anything worthwhile, a concerted effort to contain the damage in all areas affecting the river’s natural flow will be necessary. We have to build more sewage treatment plants, and there is also an urgent need to check rampant urbanisation and the growing concrete expanse. But above all, the policies of the authorities need to naturally cascade in complete synchronisation with every other organ that intends to work for revitalising the river. Politicians can save the photo-op for something more frivolous than the Bagmati River itself.