Journalism of Courage
Nepal’s holiest river Bagmati tainted by garbage and black sewage
1 / 9Tainted by garbage and raw sewage that is dumped directly into the waterway, Nepal’s holiest river has deteriorated so greatly that today it is also the country’s most polluted, dramatically altering how the city of about 3 million interacts with the Bagmati on daily, cultural and spiritual levels. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
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2 / 9As the Bagmati reaches the valley of Kathmandu, the capital, its color changes from clear to brown and then to black -- choked with debris, its contents undrinkable and unsuitable even for cleaning. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
3 / 9In the capital, the Bagmati’s sludge oozes past several sacred sites, including the Pashupatinath Temple, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. The picture shows a woman walking near drainage pipes that empty into the Bagmati River in Kathmandu. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
4 / 9A basket of garbage is stuck along the path of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, May 26, 2022. Madhukar Upadhya, a watershed expert who studies the river closely, says, "So much damage has already been done to it, that it can perhaps be cleaned to some degree but not restored to its past glory." (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
5 / 9Bubbles form in the polluted water of the Bagmati River as it is processed at the Guheswori Wastewater Treatment Plant before it reaches the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, Friday, June 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
6 / 9Mithu Lama, 59, rests near her house on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu. Born and raised next to the Bagmati, Lama recalls using its waters for cooking, bathing, washing and even drinking. Today that feels like a long-ago dream dashed by decades of dumping human waste and refuse. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
7 / 9Mala Kharel, an executive member of a governmental committee set up to help clean up the river, said that over the years, the campaign has succeeded in collecting about 80% of garbage along the riverbank. But the pickup efforts admittedly fall short, in part since frequent disruptions to trash collection services encourage more dumping than they can keep up with. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
8 / 9A woman walks over drainage pipes that flow into the Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, June 1, 2022. During the dry season, an overwhelming stench pervades the area near its banks. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
9 / 9A governmental committee set up to help clean the river is working on upstream dams where rainwater can be captured and stored during the monsoon season and released during the dry months to flush the river, moving waste downstream from Kathmandu. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
