National
Phewa shrinking due to garbage, encroachment
The Phewa lake in Pokhara is shrinking due to human encroachment and disposal of garbage at its source.Shiva Sharma
Maheshwor Ghimire, chairman of Lake Conservation Committee under the Pokhara Sub-metropolitan City, said the lake is drying up due to the dumping of garbage, forming islands at various places.
Garbage deposited by Budauli, Phirke and Harpan rivers causes the lake shrink. Likewise, the trend of dumping garbage in the lake has reduced its size. Glasses, water bottles, polythene bags, noodles wrappers and carcasses are among the stuffs seen to be floating in the lake nowadays.
Though various organisations are participating in a campaign to clean the lake, its results are not satisfactory. “The lake will dry up completely if it is not conversed at the earliest,” said Ram Bahadur Poudel, chairman of National Heritage and Janadhikar Conservation Committee, Nepal. He stressed on the need for all to pay attention towards conserving the lake. According to available data, the lake has shrunk from the total 14,894 hectares of land to only 5,416 hectares at present.
Meanwhile, various organisations at the initiation of local civil society launched a campaign to clean up the lake on Thursday. Under this drive, garbage loaded in 11 trucks was removed from the Gaighat area.