By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Aug. 12: Following widespread criticism over its plan to refill water at Rani Pokhari from deep boring, the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has finally initiated consultation with water and heritage experts.
After almost a month since the completion of the reconstruction of the historic pond devastated by the 2015 earthquake, the NRA has been holding consultation seeking experts’ view regarding the ways to refill the pond.
Heritage conservationists have criticised the option of deep boring to refill the water in this iconic pond citing that extraction of water from deep aquifers will deplete the underground reservoirs and affect the water cycles for a long period.
From the very beginning, heritage conservationists have been pointing out the NRA’s faulty reconstruction of the pond without managing water inlet and outlet system and traditional water recharge system.
After a protracted dispute, the government had entrusted the NRA with the task of rebuilding Rani Pokhari.
But lately, NRA has again drawn criticism from the water experts and heritage conservationists.
“We are completely against the plan of refilling the pond by extracting water from deep well. Instead, the age-old natural water resources of Rani Pokhari should be revived to restore its original look, by maintaining its historical importance and liveliness,” said Sushil Shrestha, a heritage conservationist.
He said, “Our ancestors taught us how to build ponds and hitis (water spout) using the traditional materials and technologies that can last over a hundred years.”
However, NRA has failed to exploit natural sources of water and traditional technologies and materials to revive this pond as per its historic essence, he added.
Shrestha said the NRA had not even reconstructed water inlet and outlet system, which is very essential to refill the natural underground water and discharge it in order to keep it clean and to maintain overflow of the water .
“There is a need of constructing two outlets at the pond - one at the bottom and another in upper level. But there is not a single outlet in the pond,” he added.
Sudarsan Raj Tiwari, architect and member of technical study committee of Rani Pokhari, said that study report had already recommended to suspend water extraction plan from deep boring in the surroundings of Rani Pokhari and use only traditional materials to maintain ground water recharge, like ealier.
During a study, it was found that the pond was built in three levels in Pratap Malla’s era with two water inlet tunnels in northern part and two outlet systems in north-east corner.
One outlet was found underneath the statue of elephant and another at the Metropolitan Police Office side and this system was damaged during the construction of the building.
Tiwari said, “It needs 150 million liters water to refill the pond. To maintain its water level, there were two low deep well inside the pond, one to filter the pond water and another to avoid water from discharging in ground level in dry season.
However, none of these traditional systems were followed by the NRA to recharge, filter and maintain water level of Rani Pokhari, said Tiwari.
“Instead of focusing on deep boring, the NRA should rather focus on collecting rainwater from the surface of its surroundings and refill them after recycling,” said Tiwari.
To refill the pond earlier, the NRA should immediately start collecting ground water from Khulla Manch, Ratna Park and Tundikhel.
Similarly, surface water accumulated from the area of Jamal, Ratna Park, Bir Hospital could also be collected and refilled in the pond, he said.
Sushil Gyawali, director of NRA, said that the authority is committed to use all possible natural sources of water to refill the iconic pond.