Walking 10 days to reach Kathmandu for conserving Sirsiya River; Local people from Birgunj continue demonstrations and sit-ins in Maitighar (Photo-Feature)

Kathmandu: Locals from Birgunj, who came walking from Birgunj to Kathmandu to make the Sirsiya River pollution-free campaign, have been demonstrating in Maitighar.

Sirsiya River flows through the Simara, Bara, and middle of the Birgunj Metropolitan City. Members of the Chure and Forest conservation campaign came walking to Kathmandu carrying the polluted water of the Sirsiya River. They began their walk on Jestha 4.

They walked through Birgunj, Simara, Hetauda, Narayangadh, and Mugling to reach Kathmandu on Jestha 14. They have been demonstrating daily since their arrival.

The locals have been complaining that most of the huge factories and industries, situated in Jitpur-Simara Deputy Metropolitan City of Bara and Parwanipur of Birgunj Metropolitan City, had been dumping chemicals.

The demonstrators have been protesting with placards, banners, and bottles filled with polluted water from the river, in order to make the Sirsiya River free from pollution and abduction.

Activists have been objecting that the garbage from the factories situated in Bara Industrial Corridor has been polluting the Sirsiya River. The river flows from near the forest of Bara, passes through Parsa of the Birgunj Metropolitan City, and reaches Raxaul, India.

Activists have been demanding to stop the activity of dumping the polluted chemical substances from the distillery, textile, ghee, soap related industries situated in Bara and Parsa.

Youths, after acknowledging the river getting polluted and stinky, chose to march past and reach Kathmandu. The river flows from the middle of the city and is also the holy river for Hindus.

According to a study conducted by the then Ministry of Population and Environment in 2073, about 250 industries were found dumping polluted water without filtration in the Sirsiya River. The District Administration Office, Parsa formed a monitoring committee for the Sirsiya River in 2067.

Birgunj Metropolitan City said that it had run a campaign to make the Sirsiya River pollution free. The Sirsiya River Pollution Control Committee, which was formed under the connectivity of the Deputy Chief of Metropolis, Imtiaz Alam, said that they have been repeatedly warning industries repeatedly for not to dump garbage in the river.

(Photos by Saroj Basnet)