Tamish Giri

December 5: The ongoing Shivapuri National Park Clean-up Campaign in Nagarjun Municipality has seen astonishing outcomes. According to the organizers, the volunteers by the sixth week have collected more than 400 kg of solid waste from the popular hiking spots across Shivapuri National Park.

The Shivapuri clean-up campaign is organised by Clean-up Nepal and launched by the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Nepal under the framework of the EU Climate Diplomacy and the European Year of Youth 2022.

The EU and Clean-Up Nepal jointly introduced a ten-week-long clean-up campaign on October 15 for the sustainability and beautification of the national park and to promote a culture of recycle.

“We had to pause the clean-up work during the election. Now that the election is over, we are planning to do the next two phases of clean-up in the coming two weeks," shared Ravindra Lamichhane, program manager of Clean Up Nepal.

Clean-up Nepal and the EU have collaborated with Nagarjun Municipality for collection and recycling of the waste. The volunteers have been collecting waste across the three hiking trails Nagi gumba, Bishnu Dwar and Shivapuri peak every Saturday.

“Likewise, we have on boarded Niten Memorial School, Budanilkantha and Kathmandu Forestry College for training and the volunteering program for the clean-up campaign,” Lamichhane adds. 

 The ‘10 weeks permanent clean-up campaign in Shivapuri National Park’ was built on the previous successful clean-up campaign organised by Clean up Nepal in Shivapuri National Park in May 2022 under the framework of Europe Week.

 “In Europe, we have the Green Deal. It is our part of an action to make Europe the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050. So, this is also what we work on in Nepal. We work on GRID, a common agenda with the Nepal government, local stakeholders and development partners, and it is called Green Resilient Inclusive Development,” shared Nona Deprez, ambassador of the European Union Delegation to Nepal.

The team has installed a recyclable collection centre at the entrance of the Shivapuri National Park in Budhanilkantha.

Veronica Pineider, environment focal person for the EU Delegation, shared that the waste after the sorting work goes to various recycling plants with the help of the municipality.

EU started the project last year during Europe Week and did one of the Shivapuri National Park Clean-up projects, and this year skilled it for up to 10 weeks. It is an initiative of the EU to raise awareness at schools.

“ The project has been great, and we have reached out to hundreds of young people. We have many more projects under renewable energy on energy efficiency, supporting climate-smart agricultural value chains, and improving energy efficiency on buildings. So, this is one more visible project close to Kathmandu to reach out to the youth of Kathmandu and Budhanilkantha,” Deprez added.