'Establish rivers' rights in election manifestos'

Gandaki, Feb 2: At a time when the political parties are engrossed in writing election manifestos in the wake of House of Representatives election slated for March 5, the river conservation activists have urged the political parties to highlight river conservation issues as the main agenda in their election manifestos.

They have demanded introduction of practicable manifestos along with clear policy and vision to protect water resources. River conservationist, Megh Ale, pointed out the need of legally establishing rights of the rivers. 

Ale has been on a hunger strike at Maitighar Mandal, Kathmandu for the past eight days, putting forth the demand of incorporating the river conservation issues in the election manifesto the political parties are preparing.

"A separate law related to river conservation is urgent. A huge environmental crisis will engulf us if rivers are not protected from human encroachment and natural disaster," he argued. Ale stressed the government should take initiative to listing the Karnali River in the World Heritage Site, mentioning that natural flow of main rivers, including Kaligandaki and Koshi should not be disrupted at any pretext. 

Ale lauded that Nepal did an exemplary work in the national arena in tiger conservation. In the spirit of the policy and programmes and actions that the government launched for tiger conservation, the protection of rivers can be feasible, according to him. 

The river conservation activist laid emphasis on the need of declaring National Parks and conservation area in the name of river. 

Similarly, Coordinator of 'Save Kaligandaki' campaign RK Adipta Giri opined that though the political parties have started incorporating environmental issues in their manifestos, the political parties themselves are slow off the marks in implementation of written commitments. (RSS)