With the aim of sensitizing the private sectors for efficient water management practices, a half-day intensive workshop entitled “Engaging Private Sector for Efficient Water Management in Dhulikhel” was organised by Dhulikhel municipality and SIAS in collaboration with the Hotel Association of Dhulikhel, Dhulikhel chamber of commerce and industries and Dhulikhel Drinking Water Users Committee. The event was convened on 8th of February in Dhulikhel. The workshop was facilitated by SIAS. Almost 60 participants representating various business firms such as hotels, homestay, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), party palace, schools and university participated in the workshop.
The program was started with the opening remarks from the Mayor of Dhulikhel Municipality Mr. Akshok Kumar Byanju Shrestha and CAMPS project principal investigator, Prof. Roshan Man Bajracharya. The Mayor of Dhulikhel recognized the role of SIAS in supporting the Dhulikhel municipality in identifying the issues related to water and the ways forward for sustainable water management. He asked private sector to focus and adopt sustainable water efficient technologies and water management practices and not to get trap in the short term benefits such as deep boring.
Altogether five technical presentations were delivered signifying the importance of water and how private sector can contribute in saving water. SIAS presented about the importance of private sector engagement on water management whereas Smart Paani (service provider) talked about efficient technologies of water management, Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industries- Energy Efficiency Center (FNCCI-EEC) made a presentation on the lesson learnt from the project related to cost reduction by saving water resources in SMEs of Nepal, Dharan Submetropolitan City shed the light upon the experiences on implementing the Rain Water harvesting Technology policy by the municipal office and finally Eco Resort Thamel (hotel) shared on the experiences on opportunities of running eco-friendly hotel with water saving technologies amid of the core part of Kathmandu city where municipal water does not come at all.
The technical session was followed by the group work where participants were engaged in discussing about the issues of water scarcity in Dhulikhel and how it is affecting their business and what can be the solutions to the existing water related challenges. Each group presented the output of the group work. The program ended with the joint declaration from Dhulikhel Municipality, Hotel Association of Dhulikhel, Dhulikhel chamber of commerce and industries committing to work for the betterment of situation of water of Dhulikhel.
