POKHARA: The reminiscence of fragrance of native rice is fresh in 70-year-old Bishnu Maya Jalari’s home even after 50 years. “When native rice was cooked at a house, its fragrance would fill the surrounding. We no longer have such paddy at present,” Jalari, a resident of Khapaudi of Pokhara Municipality-18, recalled.
Location: Pokhara, Kaski
Description: Dugout canoe which transported people to the Tal Barahi temple in the middle of Phewa Tal.
She remembers of seeing different shoals with local fishes in the Phewa Lake during her gone years. However, with sprawling urbanization and haphazard development has been continually reducing the wetland area, she was concerned.
“I used to quench my thirst with the lake’s water,” she went back to her heyday. She pointed out towards some grazing cattle, “They don’t destroy the environment. We do,” she said. Then, she pointed her finger towards a hill where a bulldozer is paving a track. “It’s us, humans, that have destroyed everything,” she added.
For 70 years, Bishnu Maya has quenched her thirst from the lake’s water. The bites from leeches from a wetland next to the lake are still fresh in her memory. She enjoyed watching migratory birds in the wetland. But right in front of her eyes, everything has disappeared.
Now, she neither smells the fragrance of local rice nor the migratory birds. The Phewa Lake’s water also smells foul.
At the first sight, wetlands might look useless. However, wetlands are considered to be the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems. They play an important role to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem and are home for mammals, birds, fish and invertebrates, including migratory birds. It also helps to conserve surface and groundwater sources and reduce landslides. Apart from environmental benefits, it also helps to promote science, entertainment, tourism, culture, and economy.
There are nine lakes in Kaski district, all of which are gradually getting dried. Scientists suggest that the impact of decreasing wetland can also be felt in the mountains. They believe that shrinking wetlands are forcing habitats to shift locations and affecting communities who rely on them for livelihood. Food crops and fishes are also found in and around wetlands. Likewise, rising temperature is melting snow.
Impact on agriculture and biodiversity
Around 450 people from 91 families of Jalari community live along the shores of the Phewa Lake. Their traditional means of livelihood is fishing. However, with increasing water pollution and decreasing wetland, families who rely on fishing are being adversely affected.
“All of the 91 households rely on fishing for livelihood. However, there’s small number of fish in the lake,” Gyanu Jalari, chairperson of Harpan Phewa Fishery claimed. Gyanu further said that the number of fishes is declining due to lake encroachment, water pollution and shrinking breeding places. “Around 500 kilograms of fish are required every day. We can barely get 150 kilograms.”
She believed that if conservation of wetland continues to be a far cry, they would be forced to leave their traditional occupation and opt for an alternate means of livelihood. She added that of the 12 fish species found in the Phewa Lake, five are Sahar, Katle, Rewa, Fageta, and Bam are disappearing.
Increasing urbanization and unplanned development has also contributed to the loss of wetlands and its biodiversity. Farmers and experts argue that shrinking wetlands has also affected agricultural production. Agriculturalists believe the peripheries of Rupa and Maidi lakes were sources of life to wild paddy species called Navo. The paddy is almost extinct because of shrinking wetlands.
More than 55 types of local paddies can be cultivated in the valleys, ponds, wetlands, and the terrains of Kaski district. Despite diversity, more farmers are opting for hybrid rice saplings because it guarantees higher yields, said Surya Prasad Adhikari, a lead farmer who also conducts research on paddies.
“Traditional farming and local rice varieties are becoming rare because hybrid paddies guarantee higher yields,” he said. He believed that wetlands were shrinking and deteriorating due to rising population, migration and urbanization. “The chemicals used in agriculture, drainage, plastics, glasses and non-degradable wastes are disposed or thrown at the wetlands. These wastes have directly affected agriculture and biodiversity,” he said.
Fearing the extinction of local crops, Adhikari said that they have started to preserve 71 varieties of local seed saplings at the Diversity Block/Seed Bank. Of it, 55 are local varieties of paddy and 16 are others.
Farmers believed that the hybrid varieties of rice have started replacing local varieties such as Pokhreli Masino, Mansara, Thimaha, Takmare, Khole Marsi, Aapjhutte, Jhinuwa, Andi, Gudri, Manamuri, Kanjira, Mansuli, Tauli, Khalte Khola, Gola, Kode, Gudura, Jarneli, Jauriya, Bamreli and Ekle among others.
Environmentalist Devendra Bahadur Lamichhane, who completed his doctoral degree on Phewa Lake, said that wetlands are decreasing because human beings have failed to understand its importance and prioritized over their ‘selfish needs’.
“We cannot imagine the human civilization without wetlands. The social, cultural, scientific, and economic importances of wetland are as important as its ecological value. How do we explain the importance?” he remarked.
“The sight of herons and swans is a rare view because of depleting aquatic life,” he said.
Apart from protecting habitats of birds, mammals, amphibians and fishes, conserving wetlands also helps in tourism, entertainment and research. It also contributes to maintain ecological balance, protect vegetation and minimize climate change. “Wetlands are important for biodiversity because they are appropriate shelters for different flora and fauna,” Lamichhane said.
A convention at Ramsar of Iran in February 2, 1971 approved the ‘Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat’ treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. A total of 169 countries are members to this treaty, including Nepal, which became its member in 1987. In order to conserve wetlands, Nepal launched the National Wetlands Policy in 2003 and listed 5,358 lakes across the country as wetlands. They also include 2,323 glacial lakes, 5,000 watershed areas, 1,380 ponds, 5,183 reservoirs. The wetlands cover five percent of the country’s total land area.
Of the 70,000 species of flora found in Nepal, the wetlands are home to 25 percent of vegetation and 80 species of reptiles and 193 species of birds. Data shows that of the total tourists visiting Nepal, 50 percent also visit wetlands. Twenty one indigenous communities depend on them for their livelihood. Wetlands also provide water to around 30 percent of irrigation canals in the country.
The Pokhara Metropolitan City covers an area of 464 km sq, of which 10 square kilometeres is covered by water, according to a 2016/17 survey. A massive survey carried out by the Survey Department in 2007/08, showed that water covers 9,922 square kilometeres.
Nine lakes and the Seti River are registered from Pokhara on the Ramsar’s wetland list. The nine lakes include Phewa, Kamal, Rupa, Begnas, Khaste, Gunde, Nyureni, Dipang and Maidi. Pokhara valley sprawls in 210 sq km. The nine lakes cover around 152 hectares of wetlands. The Maidi Lake is the largest wetland covering 50 hectares of land with only 0.2 hectare of water area.
Despite its role in environmental conservation and economic development, efforts to conserve wetlands are already too late, according to Bishwa Prakash Lamichhane, an adviser to the Lake Protection Committee. “We cannot afford more to delay any initiative to conserve them if we want to minimize long-term impacts on the environmental system.”
He said that haphazard urbanization and city development has adversely affected the efforts to conserve wetlands. “Rather than conserving wetlands, they have been converted into dumping areas, or converted into lands to accommodate more population. Wetlands are important to wildlife, birds, insects and vegetation—just as much as they are important to human beings.” In addition, wetlands also help to conserve ground and surfacial water sources, landslide and soil’s fertility.
Lamichhane argued that one of the reasons for decreasing wetland areas is the failure to understand that development also entails environmental conservation and not just the expansion of cities and physical infrastructures.
In addition to human encroachment, unclear policies, unchecked use of substandard chemicals and poisons in agriculture are increasingly becoming a challenge to preserve and manage wetland areas in a sustainable way. Other factors hampering conservation efforts include torrential rainfall, weak cliffs, terraced farming and unplanned construction of rural road networks.
Lekhnath Dhakal, the chairperson of Biological Resource Conservation Campaign, worried, “Although protecting wetlands means conserving the environment, we’ve not been able to do so.” Since 2005 AD, the Campaign has formed local-level groups to hold discussions and debates to create awareness and educate communities to conserve these ecosystems.
“There are 18 groups and three organizations working to preserve biological resources. Of them, 16 (seven women’s group and nine mixed group) are in the wetland areas. We have been explaining the importance of wetlands to these groups,” Dhakal said. Moreover, the campaign also encourages local residents, consumer groups and tourism entrepreneurs to run tourism activities by conserving wetlands. These initiatives would help generate local level employment as well as contribute to the country’s economic prosperity.
The Biological Resource Conservation also stresses on beekeeping, goat rearing, organic farming and conservation of forests, medicinal herbs, fishes, birds and their habitats, white lotus, city fishes, Navo rice and Colocassia.
According to Pokhara municipality’s senior engineer, Sharada Mohan Kafle, after Lekhnath was merged into Pokhara municipality, construction of houses increased by almost two folds to 7,000 every year from between 3,500 to 4,000. He added that cities were expanding at the cost of wetlands.
Pokhara municipality’s engineer and chief of Phewa Lake Conservation Program, Mahendra Godar said that they have initiated the process of constructing a water dam this year to protect the lake in coordination with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. He added that they had initiated the process whereas the Ministry would provide 85 percent of the funds and the municipality would provide the remaining 15 percent.
Efforts to conserve wetlands made till now
While there have been many interactive seminars and conferences aimed to protect wetlands, lakes, ponds and to promote tourism, there is a gap in effective implementation.
On March 7, 2007, the cabinet of ministers endorsed the formation of the National Lake Conservation Development Committee (NLCDC) under the Development Board Act, 2013BS to promote tourism and preserve lakes, ponds, rivulets, wetlands and its ecosystem, biodiversity and natural beauty.
As lakes are important tourist destinations of the country, the committee aims to conserve, expand and promote them on the basis of their salient features. Lank Shahi, executive director of National Lake Conservation Development Committee, said that local governments and communities were playing their parts to preserve lakes and utilize its features to promote tourism.
He added that the study of Topo map revealed that there are 5,358 lakes in the country. The committee has formulated policies and strategies to conserve and promote the lakes for tourism and is awaiting approval from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.
On February 2, 2016, the initiative of National Lake Conservation Development Committee helped enlist nine lakes of Pokhara valley in the Unified Ramsar Site list. At present, the committee has stepped up efforts to conserve more than 226 lakes, ponds, and reservoirs across the country through the policy formulation, community level participation, and transfer of knowledge, skills and information. In addition, the Committee is also providing orientation and training programs on a regular basis to stakeholders, consumer groups and conservationists in 62 districts, Shahi said.
In Pokhara, it is also helping to build favorable infrastructures at the Rupa Lake of Pokhara in order to assist livelihood means of communities that rely on the lake. According to Shahi, the Committee has aimed to learn from plans and policies of other countries, their experiences, and exchange knowledge, skills, science, and technology to conserve and utilize lakes and wetlands.
In 2010, the Committee organized a national level Lake Conference. There, it briefed the government about vegetation and the ecological diversity of lakes. It also urged the government to formulate plans and policies to preserve and promote the lakes and offered recommendations for the same. The Committee also submitted its conference report to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation and other concerned bodies.
The International Lake Conference concluded by agreeing to work on Integrated Lake Basin Management through an ad-hoc South Asian Committee whose secretariat would be based in Nepal.
On April 29, 2018, the Supreme Court annulled the registration of encroached Phewa Lake’s land. The apex court’s full verdict on Phewa Lake annuls privately owned lands and states that the government has the power to take individual’s land into custody to protect Phewa Lake. In line with the Land Revenue Act, the court defined the pond, lake, its periphery, drains and canals as government’s property.
The Supreme Court has also ordered the government to take necessary decisions to maintain the lake’s natural beauty, conserve biodiversity and rare animals, and preserve its historical and cultural importance. Likewise, the decision also orders the government to ensure that there are no attempts allowed to affect aquatic life and its biodiversity by water pollution and human encroachment. In addition, if required, the Supreme Court has also allowed the government to acquire new lands to protect the lake.
Former member of the NLCDC, Dhurba Chalise said that that the Supreme Court’s ruling about Phewa Lake encroachment was a landmark decision because it prioritized conservation and deterred any activity that would adversely affect the lake.
He added that they were planning to open a Wetland Academy in the near future to conserve and develop lakes in a sustainable way. To materialize the plan, Chalise said that they were holding discussions with the International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC), Japan.
