THE SMALL EARTH NEPAL

A stakeholder consultation meeting was conducted on 6 February 2024 at the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS), Singhdurbar, Kathmandu to prepare for celebrating Nepal National Water and Weather Week (NNWWW) 2024. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Kamal Ram Joshi, Joint Secretary of WECS. 

NNWWW is a week-long program every year since 2009 from 17-23 March under the Chairmanship of WECS and The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) serves as the Secretariat for its coordination and organization. This event includes two important international days: World Water Day (22 March) and World Meteorological Day (23 March) and the program activities are planned and celebrated aligning to their respective themes of the year.

NNWWW is celebrated with different awareness raising, capacity building, and advocacy-related programs engaging a wide range of stakeholders representing government, non-government, international organizations, academic, private sectors, youths, and civil society organizations working towards water and weather. This noteworthy event has garnered substantial attention from governmental and non-governmental organizations and offers a valuable platform for diverse organizations to join and collaborate to discuss pressing issues in the water and weather sector and actions that help address them. 

Dr. Kapil Gnawali, Senior Divisional Engineer, WECS welcomed the participants and highlighted the objective of the meeting aimed at discussing the planning of NNWWW 2024.

Mr. Niranjan Bista, Program Coordinator, SEN, delivered a presentation providing an overview of the NNWWW, its past activities, and proposed activities for the NNWWW 2024. Dr. Gnawali facilitated the discussion session and the participants provided their valuable suggestions and contributions to the programs and activities of the NNWWW 2024. 

Joint Secretary, Mr. Kamal Ram Joshi expressed his gratitude for the valuable suggestions from all stakeholder participants. He emphasized that the success of the week-long program of the NNWWW 2024 relies on the active participation and collaborative efforts of all associated organizations. Based on the suggestions and inputs from this meeting, SEN will compile the program activities and share them amongst all the participants to have the next stakeholder meeting planned for the end of the month.

The participating organizations in the meeting (in alphabetical order) were: Center of Research for Environment, Energy, and Water (CREEW), Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of Bagmati Civilization (HPCIDBC), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Jalsrot Vikash Sanstha (JVS), Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Nepal Water Conservation Foundation (NWCF), Rastriya Urja Dakshata Kendra Pvt. Ltd., Scott Wilson Nepal (SWN), SmartPaani Pvt. Ltd., Smartphones for Water Nepal (S4W-Nepal), Society of Hydrologists and Meteorologists (SOHAM-Nepal), Sundar Nepal Sanstha, Sustainability and Environmental Studies Endeavor (SENSE), The Small Earth Nepal (SEN), UNESCO-Nepal and Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS).