Under the chairmanship of the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS) and The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) as the Secretariat, World Water Day 2022 was celebrated on 22 March 2022 at Yellow Pagoda Hotel, Kathmandu. The program brought together government officials, water professionals, and academicians to develop a mutual understanding of the water crisis and degrading water quality issues in the context of climate change, and the importance of institutional capacity building and research works for water resources management.
Under the theme “Groundwater-Making the Invisible Visible”, the program was graced by the Honorable Pampha Bhusal, Minister, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation as the chief guest. Chaired by Mr. Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, Secretary, WECS, the program was attended by many dignitaries as guests: Mr. Madhav Belbase, Member, Public Service Commission; Dr. Surendra Labh Karna, Member, National Planning Commission; Dr. Manohara Khadka, Country Representative, IWMI Nepal; Ms. Tripti Rai, Country Representative, WaterAid Nepal, and Dr. Laxman Sharma, Country Water Sector Specialist, ADPC Nepal.
Mr. Balkrishna Aryal, Under Secretary, WECS was the master of the ceremony, the program officially began with the national anthem followed by a welcome speech by Mr. Saraju Kumar Baidya, Joint Secretary, WECS where he highlighted the importance of world water day and acknowledged the participating organizations. He further highlighted that water resources are useful for various purposes including recreational activities, cultural aspects, and every stage of life and therefore, should be managed and maintained properly.
The formal inauguration of the program was done by the chief guest, Honorable Minister Pampha Bhusal by watering the flower pot.
With around 100 participants that included government officials, I/NGO representatives, researchers, media persons, journalists, students, and the general public, the program was divided into inaugural and technical sessions. The inaugural session consisted of remarks from guests followed by a technical session which consisted of four presentations centered around the theme of this year’s world water day.
As a chief guest, honorable Pampha Bhusal, Minister, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation initiated the remark stating the importance of this program with the participation of water stakeholders. The honorable Minister focused on raising awareness about the sustainable use of water resources and asked everyone for conservation. Minister Bhusal mentioned that the draft water resources act is almost ready where integrated river planning and awareness of water conservation have been focused. Minister Bhusal concluded her remark by mentioning about priority provided for water resources management in the upcoming budget.
At the end of the inaugural session of the World Water Day 2022 celebration, Mr. Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, Secretary, WECS delivered his remarks and closed the inaugural session. Mr. Ghimire expressed his gratitude to all the attendees of the program and talked briefly about the importance and impacts of the collaborative celebration of World Water Day every year. He mentioned about Water Resources Policy which is being enacted as a law. In the end, he mentioned about the commitment from WECS with a focus on Integrated Water Resources Management through research, study, and investigation of exploitation of water resources, pollution, availability, and use of GW along with archiving and accounting.
Some Glimpses of the program:
