The Bagmati River begins as a small tap in the Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park in Baghdwar. At this point the river water is clean and drinkable, as it travels through the park and out into villages, sewage and run off from irrigation drain into the river. As it flows down through temples and Kathmandu Valley the river becomes so polluted it is unsafe to touch. This river is spiritually important to Nepalese people, but due to insufficient infrastructure, it is used as an open sewer. “Bagmati river is a holy river but due to the over population of Kathmandu it has been polluted. By seeing this my heart just about to cry.” Dystopia is used to describe an environment that has been degraded and is now unliveable. The Bagmati is unsafe for human and animal contact, a river changed for the near and forceable future. It is the epitome of a dystopian environment.
The Bagmati river contains toxic levels of E.coli and faecal coliform, it serves the purpose of a sewer in the third most polluted city in the world. The Bagmati runs through Kathmandu Valley, and is not typically what the minority world would picture in their minds when thinking of Nepal. Through picturesque landscapes of the river, the scenic view of Nepal is fulfilling expectations while subtly introducing the putrid sewage water.
Comparisons between the beginning of the Bagmati River and the Bagmati in Kathmandu Valley .
