THE SMALL EARTH NEPAL

The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) organized 6th Nepal National Water Week (NNWW), commemorating World Water Day and World Meteorological Day. This year, the water week was celebrated from March 17 to march 27 with various activities under the theme Water and Energy as designated by UN Water. The NNWW program has been organized under the leadership of Water and Energy Secretariat (WECS), Government of Nepal and SEN as the Secretariat since 2009.

In the opening ceremony, on March 17, the program was inaugurated by Honorable Minister Ms. Radha Gaywali, Ministry of Energy and was chaired by Dr. Krishna C. Paudel, Secretary (WECS). The guests representing government, INGOs, NGOs, private sectors, academic institutes and media were present at the ceremony which was held at the conference hall of Nepal Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC).

On the occasion of Nepal National Water Week (NNWW), SEN organized a visit to Nepal’s first hydropower plant at Pharping for a group of students and media and also organized a training program on application of GIS on water resource management on March 18. The training program, which was especially designed for students and researchers, continued till March 21. On March 20, SEN organized a motivational training on rain water harvesting system for the school and college principals. Fifteen principals attended the training program. A visit to a demonstration site was also organized as the part of the program. Similarly, on March 21, SEN, in collaboration with Centre of Research for Environment Energy and Water, Environment and Public Health Organization, organized national symposium on groundwater of Nepal. Several papers on various aspects of ground water were presented by researchers representing different organizations at the symposium.

On March 22, on World Water Day, SEN, in collaboration with Alternative Energy Promotion Centre and Nepal Electricity Authority, organized a workshop on Water and Energy nexus at Hotel Everest. Several papers under, the theme water and energy, were presented at two different technical sessions of the program. At the same venue, the program was followed by a seminar entitled ‘Sustainable Water Management in Nepal’, which was organized by Water Engineering and Management of Asian Institute of Technology as an event of water week.

On March 23, to commemorate World Meteorological Day (WMD), SEN organized Weather Café for the students of Department of Meteorology of Tri Chandra College/ Tribhuvan University. The program was focused on youth as the theme for WMD 2014 is “Weather and Climate: Engaging Youth”.

SEN, in collaboration with International Water Management Institute, organized an interaction program with Constituent Assembly (CA) members so as to sensitize them and also to learn about their opinion on how water and energy issues are being addressed in the nation’s Constituent which is being drafted.

Following the CA Interaction program, the water week was formally wrapped up . All the activities conducted during the week were shared among the guests present at the ceremony. In the ceremony, all the supporters, partners were acknowledged with letter of appreciation. The program was chaired by Dr. Krishna C. Paudel, Secretary, Water and Energy Commission Secretariat, Government of Nepal. Dr. Paudel was the Chair and Er. Mahendra Bahadur Gurung, President, Nepal Engineers’ Association, was the first Vice Chair of Nepal National Water Week Main Organizing Committee.

As the pre-activities of the water week, SEN, in collaboration with Nepal Tunza Youth Environmental Network, conducted Water Café for the school children of Bhaktapur, Bhairahawa, Chitwan and Pokhara.