Dhulikhel Municipality and SIAS jointly organized the seventh series of Dhulikhel Pani Chautari (Water Forum) on 12th November 2020. This series aimed to review the partnership between the Municipality and SIAS, discuss the ongoing water management challenges, and identify the future directions of collaboration. The forum was attended by 20 members, including the Mayor, and other municipal officials, representatives of Water Users Committees, Forest User Committees, and private sector institutions like Kavre Hotel Association and Dhulikhel Chamber of Commerce and Industries.
While reviewing the collaborative works in the past, Ashok Byanju – Mayor of Dhulikhel Municipality illustrated SIAS work as weaving a garland of flowers. He stated, “SIAS has contributed to consolidating the number of scattered activities of Dhulikhel which enabled the town to identify its weaknesses and strengths as an inquisitive town to water management’’. Other participants highlighted that the introduction of Pani Chautari through the facilitation of SIAS has contributed to share the best practices and information regarding the innovative approaches of sustainable water management in the town. It has also fostered collaboration and debate among many stakeholders. They further added that the piloting of 80 recharging ponds has helped to recharge groundwater which has to be scaled up to other parts of the municipality.
In this brief and open discussion, participants agreed on the importance of collaboration among researchers and local governments for evidence-informed policymaking and stressed the further collaboration with some specific works on watershed conservation plan in the water source region.
