March 22, a day celebrated as Water
day all over the world this time was marked in Nepal with a tagline “Water water everywhere but only if we share”.
And Paschim paaila, an informal youth network also thought of sharing the
information regarding water in the same theme via WASH forum which is a common
platform for Knowledge sharing and advocacy regarding water, sanitation and
hygiene and disasters/epidemics. In this forum, basically current issues,
concerns and initiatives of WASH are focused along with cross-cutting issues
and it even tries to address the voices of diversified youth, communities and
others.
WASH forum is conducted every last
Friday of English month and this time it was conducted on 29th March
2013 at ENPHO hall, Thapagaun with the mutual effort of Paschim Paaila and
Environment and Public health Organization (ENPHO).
Mr. Ajay Dixit, Water engineer and an
executive director of Institute of social & Environment transition was the
key person of the forum, which was facilitated by Roshan Chaulagain. It had
total of 25 participants.
On Acting upon the theme, Mr. Dixit
started his session with a question Why shall we share the water? Many
participants answered that it is a basic right, and it is a natural resources.
And that is why we should share water. Mr. Dixit acted like a selfish person
who is not willing to share any of his property. Later on in the seminar he
highlighted that people with such kind of attitude are still there in our
society that is why sharing of water is being almost impossible.
He described
with control over water resources means control over power and power definitely
means more & more money.
We can
consider an example of a stone spout, every individual used to gather around it
share water and even their thoughts. The whole notion of ancient system was to
share, but now, the idea of sharing is so complicated. Now Sharing is also
linked with politics, and power. The terms like social status, poverty and
gender, are also imbedded in it. Sharing in not only between individual to
individual but in between rich and poor, men & women, and even country to country.
He talked
about history, about ancient Nepal to describe where we went wrong which is why
sharing has been so complicated. We have to ensure water for everyone even for
the plants, animal and all those aquatic animals as well.
On a question raised How do we share
scarcity of water then Mr. Dixit also known as Paani Pandit answered first of
all we need to find out is the scarcity really because there is lack of water
or is it due to uneven distribution pattern. You know, sometimes artificial
scarcity s also created. It all depends upon the ethos and values that guides a
person that also matters the most.
He motivated
youths to recognize the need of sharing and see it from different perspectives.
Think innovative and get going in the direction. Lastly he suggested all the
youths, “In order to empower yourself go beyond google and share what you
know.”
Ms. Merina
Shakya, network coordinator of Paschim Paaila thanked Mr. Dixit for his innovative
sharing and for introducing all the participants with the various dimension of
the term Sharing. At the end of the session she handed over the token of love.
And it was ended with group photo.
