Through the lens of different stakeholders

Among the various stakeholders engaged with the Bagmati, we focus on the major actor groups of squatter communities and NGOs supporting them, environmentalists and cultural activists engaged in river cleaning, and governmental institutions and nongovernment organizations working on the green development of Bagmati, because of their central role in the production of the physical and political landscape of the river. While the various governmental administrations and the river cleaning activists both work on their respective and sometimes conflicting agendas to stop the degradation of Bagmati River and restore its ecological and cultural value, the inhabitants of the informal settlements call the riverbanks their home. This constellation forms the basis for ongoing conflicts between social, ecological and cultural issues that can be conceptualized as conflicts of green versus brown agendas and can only be understood and possibly mitigated through a close analysis of the perspectives, aims and relationships of the stakeholders.

Fig: BEFORE: Bagmati river at Chobar (Source: Pinterest) Fig: AFTER: Bagmati river at present (Source: Pxleyes)