Representatives from Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Budhanilkantha Municipality on Friday made a three-point agreement following a verbal altercation and minor clash between two local bodies regarding removal of the hume pipe from Khahare Khola in Kapan on Thursday.

Also on Friday, the KMC started taking out the hume pipe from the Khahare Khola (a seasonal brook) but officials at the Budhanilkantha Municipality continue to blame it for working forcefully and unilaterally.

The brook falls on the border of KMC wards 6 and 7 and Budhanilkantha Municipality wards 10 and 12. On Thursday, a team led by Deputy Inspector Min Bahadur Thapa had reached there to remove the slabs and clear few squatter settlements with an excavator, but due to protests by the locals and representatives of the Budhanilkantha Municipality, the KMC City police had to back off.

However, on Friday, the local bodies made three agreements. KMC’s wards 6 and 7 and Budhanilkantha Municipality’s wards 10 and 12 have agreed to measure their boundaries and jurisdiction, and take off the hume pipe from the river besides fixing the boundary tussle between the local bodies and work towards a sustainable solution.

“The KMC removed the hume pipe on Friday, although the rainy season is still there,” Nawaraj Bhattarai, Budhanilkantha Municipality spokesperson and ward-10 chairperson, told the Post.

He said KMC made a sensational statement and blamed the local body for not letting the river open. “As the river’s banks have been encroached, it can’t flow on its course and needs an embankment,” said Bhattarai.

“It’s been raining here and if the rain becomes intense, it will directly get into the settlement,” Bhattarai said. “The KMC should have waited until the monsoon season was over to start this work.”

He blamed KMC for showing a ‘big brother attitude.’

After the KMC removed around half-kilometre of hume pipe at the Sat Tale area in Kapan, there is a possibility of the river risking the lives of the locals, officials at Budhanilkantha Municipality said.

“Earlier the water would easily pass through the hume pipe, but it’s been removed now, and there is a danger for the locals who are going to face inconvenience,” said Bhattarai.

Every year, during the rainy season, the brook gushing into the human settlement in Kapan is a perennial problem, as locals have encroached the riverbank and erected settlements.

“This happened due to the insensitivity of the representatives,” said Mitharam Adhikari, mayor of Budhanilkantha Municipality, adding the current problem of inundation in the Valley occurred as there is no land to absorb the rain water.

Spokesperson Bhattarai said the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA) had planned for river management in the area, but after KMC’s decision it was foiled.

“The KVDA was planning to install box cobalt in the brook, for which Rs280 million had been allocated, but now, this project will not go forward,” said Januka Dhakal, commissioner at KVDA.

She said as it's an issue between the KMC and Budhanilkantha Municipality, she can’t speak about the issue.

However, KMC’s spokesperson Nabin Man Manandhar said the river should be kept open. “People have welcomed our task, and the river is on its course,” said Manandhar.

He said the main concern of the KMC was to let the river flow in its own course. “In Kapan, the brook was forcefully flowing within an 18 inch hume pipe, and that’s why the water would overflow during the rainy season. Now we have removed it,” said Manandhar.

In September 2021, 10-year-old Ujjwal BK fell into an open drainage in Kapan.The boy’s body was found in Lalitpur after five days.

Recently, after the 11-year-old Sajan Ale Magar was swept away in a flash flood on July 23 in a local stream of Samakhusi river, the KMC had started taking the slabs off the river.

The boy’s body was only found after nearly two weeks from Bagmati river in Dakshinkali Municipality-7, on the outskirts of the Valley.

Although KMC said it took a much-needed step of opening the river which will help them take back the encroached land of the river, the locals say KMC worked hastily in removing the slabs.

People seem to be divided over the KMC’s drive. While some are supporting KMC for regaining the encroached land of the river, others are saying KMC’s work is not justifiable as the rainy season is not yet over. But many are worried that since the river is now open, it’s more prone to accidents.