The impact of meagre sanitation facilities in Kathmandu including sewage treatment has been devastating to the local rivers and streams. Inadequate wastewater collection and treatment has made the Bagmati river the most polluted river in all of Nepal. The urban Nepali civilization is now endangering the public and environmental health of the city.

“Water pollution leads to reduction of quality of water and endangered aquatic life which impacts the economic status of fishermen and people dependent on river based enterprises,” says Kailash Sharma, Water Sanitation and Environment expert at Centre for Sustainable Development Studies Pvt. Ltd. Lalitpur. “Polluted water if used for irrigation can substantially reduce the quality of soil and decrease agricultural productivity of that land. Not only that, river based tourism is extinguished with the pollution of rivers and lakes,” he adds.