Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
By
Madhav Narayan Shrestha, Ph.D
Email: mnshrestha@mail.com
The Bagmati river basin is a medium sized river basin with a catchment area of 3700 km 2 at the
Nepal India Border. It extends between 20042' to 27050' north latitude and 85002' to 85058' east
longitude. It originates from the Shivapuri hills in the Mahabharata range of mountains and
flows down south into the Terai plains before crossing the Indo Nepal border. Along its course
the river passes through eight districts, namely, Kathmandu Lalitpur, Bhaktapur,
Kavrepalanchowk, Makwanpur, Sindhuli, Rautahat and Sarlahi. The major tributaries of
Bagmati River are Manohara, Bishnumati, Kulekhani, Kokhajor, Marin, Chandi, Jhanjh and
Manusmara. The Kathmandu valley comprises of 15% of the of the basin area in Nepal. The
basin as a whole can be divided into three parts; the upper Bagmati basin comprising of the
Kathmandu valley plus the upper Nakhkhu khola and Dakshinkali area, the Middle Bagmati
basin comprising of the remainder of the basin in the hills including the Kulekhani khola; and
the lower Bagmati basin comprising of the basin in the Terai, plus some tributaries which
originate in the Shiwaliks The major tributaries of the Bagmati River are Nakkhu, Kulekhani,
Kokhajor, Marin and Chandi River as shown in Fig.1. These tributaries are highly polluted.
The municipal wastes and industrial effluents are directly discharged into the river that has
made the water unusable for human and ecological needs along most of the course. In addition,
the Kathmandu valley is facing a severe shortage of water due to the rapid urbanization leading
to unsustainable water demand and generation of high volume of municipal and industrial
effluents. The annual groundwater use for domestic and industrial purposes in the Valley is
almost two times the annual rechargeable groundwater available.
The climatic condition of the Bagmati watershed is quite variable because of the intricate
topography. Temperature generally decreases with elevation. It is low in winter. Rainfall occurs
due to the southeast monsoon which lasts between the months of June through September. The
humid monsoon air stream blowing from the Bay of Bengal is forced to rise as it meets the
Himalaya. As a result, heavy rainfall occurs on some sections of the southern Himalayan slopes.
Rainfall is also high along the Chure range. Regions close to the Indian border receive about
1500 mm rain in a year, while at the foot hills of Chure the annual rain fall reaches 2000 mm. On
the northern side of the Chure the rainfall diminishes again. In the lee-ward side of the ranges,
rainfall is reduced due to rain shadow effects. Orographic effect is pronounced and governs the
pattern of rainfall.
Figure 1. Map of Bagmati river basin
(Source: Preparation of Water – Induced Hazard Maps of Bagmati River Basin, 2005, DWIDP / SILT / ERMC / TECHDA)
The land use and land cover statistics derived from the 1992 topographical sheet exhibits that
almost 50% of the Bagmati watershed is occupied by forests. Next to the forests are cultivated
lands, which cover about 37% of the total area. The agricultural activities are confined mainly in
the Terai, and in the river valleys and the gentle slopes of the hilly region. Built up areas occupy
an insignificant portion, less than 1%, of the total area. Metropolitan city of Kathmandu, sub
metropolitan city of Lalitpur, and municipal cities of Bhaktapur, Madhyapur Thimi, and Kirtpur
are the major built up areas in the watershed. There are thirty four meteorological stations within
the vicinity of the catchment of Bagmati River. There are five significant sub basins. Description
of sub basin is presented in Table 1. The basin area up to Pandhero Dovan (gauging station 589)
is 2700 sq km and that of up to Indo-Nepal Border is 3700 sq km. Drainage hierarchy of the
basin is presented in Table.2.
Water withdrawn from Bagmati River basin for industries is presented in Table3.
The water quality of Bagmati River is found of better quality as it moves down to Indian
Boarder. The water quality of the tributaries of the Bagmati River outside the Kathmandu valley
is found to be good and could be used for a variety of purposes. Water quality parameters
observed on June 2007 along Bagmati River is presented in Table 4.
Dissolved Oxygen (DO) content in the river water was critical and was found to be extremely
low within the Kathmandu Valley river stretch. As the river passes through the city core area the
DO content declined to zero and no fresh water aquatic lives are expected to survive in such an
environment. This condition is improved after mixing of the Kulekhani Khola with the Bagmati
River. As the river traverses the DO content was found to increase and it no longer remained
critical for aquatic lives. The pH of the Bagmati River water was found to be in the range of
7.23.-8.36. This indicates that the pH of the Bagmati River water is not critical and the water is
not objectionable for variety of purposes including irrigation. Other water quality assessment
parameters that include conductivity, total suspended solids, turbidity, ammonia nitrogen, nitrate
nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen are found to be high in Bagmati River water within the Kathmandu
Valley compared to river water outside the Valley. Ammonia (NH3) observation was found
improving as it moves down.
It is found that except few, no industry used to do treatment of its effluent before discharging it
to the nearby watercourse and then ultimately to the Bagmati River. Only the industries inside
the Hetaunda Industrial Estates used to do primary and secondary treatments of their wastes or
effluents before discharging it to the nearly river namely Kara Khola which ultimately used to
Bagmati River. Other industries do only primary treatment. Physico-chemical and bacteriological
test analysis shows that the quality of effluent from industries are far from safe and need
necessary treatment before discharging it to the water course. The BOD (Biochemical Oxygen
Demand) and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) of industrial effluent were found extremely
high and at the same time the DO (Dissolved Oxygen) was comparatively very low.
Existing structures within 200m buffer width of the Bagmati River in the Kathmandu Valley are
listed below and its environmental impact on the river is provided in Table 5,6,7,and 8.
a. Ghats
Name of the Ghat Location
Bhara Karneshwor Mahadav ghat - Nayapati VDC-1, KMC
Kagbani ghat - Border of Gagalfidi and Sundarijal VDC
Gokarneshwor ghat - Gokarna VDC
Gauri ghat - Guheshwori Area KMC
Aarya ghat - Gausala KMC
Sankhamul ghat - Sankhamul LSMC
Teku Dovan ghat - Teku KMC
Sundari ghat - Kirtipur KMC
Dhobi ghat - Lalitpur
Jalvinayak ghat - Chovar VDC-14, Kirtipur
b. Temples
Name of temples Location
Sundari Mai - Sundarijal VDC
Bhara Karneshwor Mahadav - Nayapati VDC-1,
Gokarneshwor Mahadev - Gokarna VDC-1
Utrabahini Bhairab - Gokorna VDC-7
Guheshwori - Guheshwori Area, KMC
Pashupatinath - Gausala, KMC
Rudreshwor Mahadav - Babaharmahal, KMC
Banglamukhi - LSMC
Juddeshwor Mahadav - Thapathali
Radhakrishna Mandir - Thapathali, KMC
Hanuman Mandir - Tripureshwor,KMC
Baikateshwor Mahadav - Pachali-12, KMC
Pachali Bhairav - Pachali-12, KMC.
Rammandir - Kupandole, LSMC
Radhakrishna mandir (Chintamani Dham)- Teku Dovan, KMC
Kuleshwor Mahadav - Mahadevsthan, KMC
Hanuman mandir - Balkhu, KMC
Radha Soamisatsang Beas Nepal - Sundari Ghat
Sulakshin Kirtibihar - Sundharighat, Chovar
Jalvinayak mandir - Chovar -14, Kirtipur
Dakshinkali Mai - Dakshinkali
c. Major Bridges
d.Hospitals
Tilganga Eye Hospital - KMC
Om Hospital - Chabahil
Medicare Hospital - Chabahil
HAMS Hospital - Buddhanagar
Paropakar Prasuti Hospital - Thapathali
Star Hospital - Sanepa, LSMC
NORVIC Hospital - Thapathali