Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Barshaman Pun Ananta inaugurated the Nepal National Water and Weather Week 2019 amid a function in Lalitpur.

Inaugurating a week long program, minister Pun stressed the need to utilize the water resources for the benefits of the larger segment of population. He said that water is a precious element and there need to conserve the water as well.

Secretary of National Vigilance Commission Madhav Belbase said that the National Water and Weather Week 2019 are highly significant for Nepal’s present context.

Belbase said that this year’s slogan highlighted the need to equitable and inclusive availability of water. He said that there is adequate water but it not unlimited.

Former minister and Academician of NAST Dipak Gyawali said that we need to talk water every day. Minister Gyawali said that protection of underground water, wetland and rain water harvesting and protection of ponds are necessary to increase the capability of water storage. Former minister Ganesh Shah said that fresh water is life.

Member Secretary and joint Secretary of WECS, Rishi Ram Sharma highlighted the programs in his opening speech.

Director General of Department of Irrigation Sarita Dawadi, Director General of Department of Hydrology and Meteorology Sarju Kumar Vaiday, Country director of WWF-Nepal Dr. Ghanshyam Gurung and IWMI head of Nepal also addressed the program.

Nepal has been organizing the Nepal national Water and Weather Week Annually to celebrate the world water day. Organized under the leadership of Water, Energy Commission’s Secretariat, the aim of the program is to generate awareness on the important of water.

World Water Day (WWD) and World Meteorological Day (WMD) are celebrated worldwide every year on 23nd and 29rd March respectively. In Nepal, these two International Days have been combined and are being observed with a week-long program and activities under the banner of Nepal National Water and Weather Week (NNWWW).

The themes Water and Meteorology are quite related to each other. Luckily, both the observance days are also celebrated one after another. The main aim of this joint effort is to bring together all the stakeholders to advocate the pertinent issues of water and weather.

This year (2019) slogan for World Meteorological Day is The Sun, the Earth and the Weather. The slogan is particularly important to understand the global warming, occurrence of extreme weather events in the recent years and the impact on our Earth system and livelihood.

The Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS) of Government of Nepal along with the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) and others governmental and nongovernmental organizations are engaging to celebrate the events jointly.

More than 50 Water and Weather-related stakeholders including governmental and non-governmental agencies and private sectors, academia and youth led organizations are involving together to celebrate this week-long program. The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) has been serving as the secretariat for NNWWW since 2009. The event is a common platform to share and discuss the various issues related to water and weather, and come up with some policy resolutions.

World Water Day was first celebrated in 1993 just after a year of the UN Earth Summit in 1992 at Rio de Janerio to focus mainly on sustainable management of fresh water resources. Each year UN-Water coins a specific theme to celebrate the day. This year (2019), the theme of World Water Day is leaving no one behind on the use of scarce fresh water resources. This theme is also important to discuss and advocate the issues in policy making which ultimately helps to fulfill the sustainable development goal by 2030.

People from different groups are left behind for different reasons. Unless exclusion and inequality are explicitly and responsively addressed in both policy and practice, water interventions fail to reach those most in need and who stand to benefit most. Those ‘left behind’ need greater attention and representation in political as well as other dimension of the decision making processes, either directly or through civil society organizations with a clear mandate from those they represent. Therefore, public awareness and empowerment of communities is critical to enable the human rights to water and sanitation to be realized.

Likewise, World Meteorological Day (WMD) was celebrated first time in 1961 on the auspicious day of the establishment of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on March 23rd in 2050. Subsequently, in 1951, WMO was designated a specialized agency of the United Nations System.

All the member countries of the WMO celebrate this event to understand and communicate the science of weather. WMO also provide a slogan to celebrate the Day every year.

The program include Walkathon (Prabhatpheri), 10th National Symposium on Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources of the Nepal, National Water Café, Media Interaction on Climate Change and Water Resources Nepal, Graduate Conference on Water Entrance Café, Thematic workshop celebrating World Water Day 2019 Hotel Annapurna and Thematic workshop celebrating World Meteorological Day 2019 .

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