1304 पटक हेरिएको 
Kathmandu: To commemorate World Environment Day 2024, the Centre for Integrated Urban Development (CIUD) conducted several awareness and advocacy campaigns for the need for artificial groundwater recharging to maintain the groundwater table. Rapid urbanization, the excessive extraction of both shallow and deep groundwater and the erratic rainfalls have resulted in the significant depletion of the groundwater table all over Nepal including the Terai Region.
On June 5, Mr. Sudarshan Rajbhandari, Program Director, CIUD, shared the need for artificial groundwater recharging and its technologies with the young water professionals and college students at a water conservation seminar titled ‘Nurturing Tomorrow’s Water Stewards’ organized by ESORCE. The key objectives of the seminar were raising awareness about water conservation, providing essential knowledge and skills, fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders, and inspiring participants to become ambassadors for water stewardship.
On June 6, CIUD, one of the members of Nepal Rainwater Alliance, teamed up with Smart WASH Solutions, NEWAH, Best Paani and Diyalo Technology, to conduct a dissemination workshop on rainwater harvesting and artificial groundwater recharging at Hetauda City, the capital of Bagmati Province. The key objective of the workshop was to facilitate a policy dialogue on rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging through the sharing of the declaration of the recently held international seminar on the same topics and the presentations depicting approaches and methodology on rainwater harvesting and artificial groundwater recharging. In one of the sessions, Mr. Rajbhandari shared his experience of promoting artificial groundwater recharge initiatives in the Kathmandu Valley.
On June 7, the same team conducted one more such workshop on rainwater harvesting and artificial groundwater recharging at Janakpur, the capital of Madhesh Province. After the presentations from Smart WAH Solutions, CIUD, Best Paani and Diyalo Technology on various aspects of rainwater harvesting and artificial groundwater recharging, an open floor discussion was followed with queries, concerns and suggestions on the need and promoting the rainwater harvesting and artificial groundwater recharging in the Madhesh Province through provincial government, local government, institutional and individual level. The discussion was also confined to the conservation of the Chure region and community ponds for the purpose of groundwater recharging as the Terai is experiencing acute drinking water shortage during the dry periods due to groundwater depletion.
The participants in both the workshops were from various institutes including province ministries, municipalities, academic institutes, civil society organizations, community-based organizations, individual water professionals and researchers.
