c
 



   


By
Madhav Narayan Shrestha, Ph.D
Email:mnshrestha@mai l .com
 

 
The Bagmati river basin is a medium sized river basin with a catchment area of 3700 km 2 at the Nepal India
Border. It extends between 20042' to 27 050' north latitude and 85 002' to 85058' east longitude. It originates from
the Shivapuri hills in the Mahabharata range of mountains and flows down south into the Terai plains before
crossing the Indo Nepal border. Along its course the river passes through eight districts, namely, Kathmandu
Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Kavrepalanchowk, Makwanpur, Sindhuli, Rautahat and Sarlahi. The major tributaries of
Bagmati River are Manohara, Bishnumati, Kulekhani, Kokhajor, Marin, Chandi, Jhanjh and Manusmara. The
Kathmandu valley comprises of 15% of the of the basin area in Nepal. The basin as a whole can be divided into
three parts; the upper Bagmati basin comprising of the Kathmandu valley plus the upper Nakhkhukhola and
Dakshinkali area, the Middle Bagmati basin comprising of the remainder of the basin in the hills including the
Kulekhanikhola; and the lower Bagmati basin comprising of the basin in the Terai, plus some tributaries which
originate in the Shiwaliks The major tributaries of the Bagmati River are Nakkhu, Kulekhani, Kokhajor, Marin and
Chandi River as shown in Fig.1. These tributaries are highly polluted. The municipal wastes and industrial
effluents are directly discharged into the river that has made the water unusable for human and ecological needs
along most of the course. In addition, the Kathmandu valley is facing a severe shortage of water due to the rapid
urbanization leading to unsustainable water demand and generation of high volume of municipal and industrial
effluents. The annual groundwater use for domestic and industrial purposes in the Valley is almost two times the
annual rechargeable groundwater available.
The climatic condition of the Bagmati watershed is quite variable because of the int ricate topography. Temperature
generally decreases with elevation. It is low in winter. Rainfall occurs due to the southeast monsoon which lasts
between the months of June through September. The humid monsoon air stream blowing from the Bay of Bengal is
forced to rise as it meets the Himalaya. As a result, heavy rainfall occurs on some sections of the southern
Himalayan slopes. Rainfall is also high along the Chure range. Regions close to the Indian border receive about
1500 mm rain in a year, while at the foot hills of Chure the annual rain fall reaches 2000 mm. On the northern side of
the Chure the rainfall diminishes again. In the lee-ward side of the ranges, rainfall is reduced due to rain shadow
effects. Orographic effect is pronounced and governs the pattern of rainfall
Ö 

    

c!

"#$$%"&&'()' *') *c&+, 

The land use and land cover statistics derived from the 1992 topographical sheet exhibits that almost 50% of the
Bagmati watershed is occupied by forests. Next to the forests are cultivated lands, which cover about 37% of the
total area. The agricultural activities are confined mainly in the Terai, and in the river valleys and the gentle slopes
of the hilly region. Built up areas occupy an insignificant portion, less than 1%, of the total area. Metropolitan city of
Kathmandu, sub metropolitan city of Lalitpur, and municipal cities of Bhaktapur, MadhyapurThimi, and Kirtpur are
the major built up areas in the watershed. There are thirty four meteorological stations within the vicinity of the
catchment of Bagmati River. There are five significant sub basins. De scription of sub basin is presented in Table 1.
The basin area up to PandheroDovan (gauging station 589) is 2700 sq km and that of up to Indo-Nepal Border is
3700 sq km. Drainage hierarchy of the basin is presented in Table.2

# -
.
 

 .-
.

   
) / 
) /
 
 
0 . .-
. 
/+ 1 
 2 
  
The water quality of Bagmati River is found of better quality as it moves down to Indian Boarder. The water quality
of the tributaries of the Bagmati River outside the Kathmandu valley is found to be good and could be used for a
variety of purposes. Water quality parameters observed on June 2007 along Bagmati River is presented in Table 4.

) 3 0   - 

 

Dissolved Oxygen (DO) content in the river water was critical and was found to be extremely low within the
Kathmandu Valley river stretch. As the river passes through the city core area the DO content declined to zero and
no fresh water aquatic lives are expected to survive in such an environment. This condition is improved after
mixing of the KulekhaniKhola with the Bagmati River. As the river traverses the DO content was found to increase
and it no longer remained critical for aquatic lives. The pH of the Bagmati River water was found to be in the range
of 7.23.-8.36. This indicates that the pH of the Bagmati River water is not critical and t he water is not objectionable
for variety of purposes including irrigation. Other water quality assessment parameters that include conductivity,
total suspended solids, turbidity, ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen are found to be high in
Bagmati River water within the Kathmandu Valley compared to river water outside the Valley. Ammonia (NH3)
observation was found improving as it moves down.

3 
  
- - 

 
It is found that except few, no industry used to do treatment of its effluent before discharging it to the nearby
watercourse and then ultimately to the Bagmati River. Only the industries inside the Hetaunda Industrial Estates
used to do primary and secondary treatments of their wastes or

effluents before discharging it to the nearly river namely Kara Khola which ultimately used to Bagmati River. Other
industries do only primary treatment. Physico-chemical and bacteriological test analysis shows that the quality of
effluent from industries are far from safe and need necessary treatment before discharging it to the water course.
The BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) of industrial effluent were found
extremely high and at the same time the DO (Dissolved Oxygen) was comparatively very low.

% 
 
  2 
2 .-#$$ .
-- 
- 4-
5   

 .
 
 - 



) %"6"7"
8