According to Balu Pandey, one of the members of the Nakhu River Clean-up Campaign, the drive was initiated as locals could not tolerate accumulating waste on the banks of the river. “Some 14 locals took the initiation and the number of campaigners has increased now,” Pandey said. According to him, the campaign team roped in dignitaries and volunteers to the drive. They gather to clean the river every Saturday from 8-10am.

The volunteers include Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal, secretaries of various ministries, chiefs of the Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City and recently-formed Karyabinayak Municipality, police and APF officers, local businessmen, residents, among others. “We are also planning to invite Nepal Army personnel and residents of neighbouring localities to join the campaign,” Pandey said. Krishna Chandra Poudel, secretary at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, is the latest addition to the core campaign team. “We have been trying to make the Nakhu residents aware of the ill effects of water pollution and the ways to keep the river clean,” he said.

The campaigners are also planning to conduct a door-to-door drive on waste management so that people start managing their bio-degradable and non bio-degradable waste rather than throwing it in the river.

Lack of civic discipline, increasing population, draining the untreated sewage directly into the river, construction of big apartment buildings on either side of the river and river encroachment are some reasons behind the pollution in the river.

Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City chief Tara Bahadur Karki, who is also an active volunteer of the campaign, said the sub-metropolis is ready to provide all kinds of support to clean Nakhu and all other rivers and rivulets in the district.