WATER AFTER RIO CONFERENCE
Food security, industry, human health and welfare have become more dependent on water for survival and growth. The plentiful but unevenly distributed quantum of freshwater of the planet is gradually becoming scarcer by pollution and misuse. Pollu-tion has been degraded under-ground freshwater aquifers. As water continues to be abused, natural eco-systems are gradually being put to permanent risk.
No where else is the abuse of freshwater more evident than in Kathmandu. Rivers in the himalayan capital after years of reckless discharge of municipal and industrial wastes have been turned into sewers. The appalling and worsening situation has been brought about not because of ignorance but lack of will on the part of both the State and city’s inhabitants. Death and depravatio n of freshwater by pollution ironically find no place in any political agenda though tarns-boundary water resource sharing still continues to be the source of conflict among the riparian states.