1. Introduction:

We are privileged to live in an exceptionally beautiful country. Nepal is rich in flora, fauna, and water resources with various natural beauties. For the natural environment – the land, the animals and plants, the rivers and the lake – are interconnected.

 

Nepal is rich in water resources, being endowed with a network of rivers and blessed with snow cover in the Himalayan range that can meet a variety of water requirements of the country. Harnessing these resources can prove to be instrumental for the country’s development. However, exploitation of these water resources has to be carried out in a way that does not destroy the environment of the country. Thus, sustainable development and conservation of the resources have become challenges for today’s Nepal. Meeting such challenges requires periodic assessment of existing condition of the rivers.

 

With the rapid increase in the population of the country and the need to meet the increasing demands of irrigation, human and industrial consumption, the available water resources in many parts of the country are getting depleted and the water quality has deteriorated. The surface water bodies are the most important sources of water for human activities and are unfortunately under severe environmental stress as a consequence of developmental activities. Rivers of the country are polluted due to the discharge of untreated sewage and industrial effluents. Pollution of the environment can be estimated by the level of contamination in rivers, lakes and other reservoirs. There are sites of accumulation of polluting impurities which comes from human activity, due to dissolution, precipitation and adsorption.

 

There are drastic changes in the field of urban settlement, industrialization and so on activities have taken place in this period of time. These all activities, directly or indirectly affected our rivers, ponds and other ambient water bodies.

 

Department of Hydrology and Metrology under Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation has the responsibility of the national profiling of ambient water bodies in the country. There is still no strong database system established in Nepal in the sector of Ambient water Quality.

 

The main objective of this study is to carry out the water quality monitoring study to show the natural status of water quality among the major natural surface water bodies in Nepal. The water quality profile studies at different months and different Sites. Study includes the analysis of the water quality data to analyze major environmental conditions and major sources of pollutants. More specifically this includes the collection of the data on water quality with respect to physical, chemical and biological parameters and analyze it with respect to surrounding environment

 

2. Rationale of the Study

To address water-related problems, it is must to have accurate information and to know precisely what the problem is, where it is occurring, how serious it is, and what is causing it. Such information is necessary for determining cost-effective and lasting solutions to water- related problems. The rational of this study is to provide appropriate picture of current water- quality conditions and trends in water quality and to facilitate the identification of emerging issues and future priorities. The ambient water quality monitoring will help in future for rational planning of and their prioritization; assess nature in different water bodies or profiling it; evaluate ambient water quality trend over a period of time; understand the nature and extent of different parameters measured; assess the fitness of water for different uses (if applicable).

 

There is no strong database on ambient water quality of the major rivers and its tributaries. This report will also attempt to close these gaps.

 

Nepal has transformed to Federal structure. The role and responsibility has been shared among three layers of the governments. There is still no strong database system established in Nepal in the field of Water Quality. The natural and number of physico-chemical parameters of water bodies is vast and complex, and the number of potential statistics of those parameters scattered and general picture of overall state of rivers and other water bodies and their water quality is to be outlined.

 

River flows through different provinces. There will be chances of conflict on river water quality deterioration caused by one province to its effect on other, especially deterioration of water quality by upstream users. With the introduction of a strong database of water quality of rivers these conflicts can be addressed and their intended use can be set for optimum and suitable utilisation.

 

For this a sound legal framework for management of the rivers is equally important. It is necessary for the Government of Nepal to make accurate river quality assessments, improve decision-making for sustainable development, and establish a strong information network with a uniform data format.

 

Thus, this study will provide a base for the understanding on the water quality parameters of different rivers systems and will guide for their protection and rational planning and their prioritization in future,

 

3. Long term Water Quality data management approach:

Department of Hydrology and Metrology will continually collect data from the different stations as time series data and use those data for the further use for different purposes. Department will furnish different activities in the area of Water Quality data management and backbone for the water quality data bank. The following are the long term water quality data management approach of the Department of Hydrology and Metrology:

 

i. Preparation of a national plan for identifying different locations of natural water sources such as glaciers and glaciers where water quality has to be measured.

 

ii. Identification of different locations based on the prepared national plan where automatic water quality measurement centres will be established gradually on the basis of priority detailed in the above plan for collecting water quality data.

 

iii. Water Quality mapping of the country based on the collected data.

 

iv. Preparation of national inventory related to water quality will be prepared by collecting data related to water quality of natural water bodies.

 

v. Natural water sources will be classified based on the national inventory related to the water quality of natural water sources such as glaciers.

 

vi. Development of online plateform to view the collected data.