A Study on Public Participation in Environmental Management in Melamchi Valley of Nepal

Abstract

Democratic country use to practice the public participation approach in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of program. This is called 'bottom up approach' also; in this approach, last will be first. In this connection, the study aim was to explore the public participation in environmental management Melamchi Valley of Sindhupalchowak district of Nepal. The data was collected from the 404 people of surrounding 8 village development committee of Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP). MWSP is the mega project designed to supply the drinking water to Kathmandu valley and surrounding areas. The project is working since 1998. Melamchi River Water Diversion Subproject is doing different activities like; Land Acquisition & Infrastructure Development Program, Social Uplift program, Environmental Management Program, Water Treatment Plant and Melamchi Water Diversion Scheme. The study was based on the descriptive analysis. The result showed that around 55% community people had knowledge of environment management activities of MWSP. Around 39% physically visited the project office of MWSP. There was direct involvement of 16% - 20% community people in identification and evaluation of environment management problem and status of those particular areas. Public participation had contributed to enhance the communication and presentation capacity of community people also. People were aware about the proper management of their surrounding environment. They were also conscious about the prevention of communicable diseases. It was necessary to provide the skill based training to community people to manage their environment by using their indigenous knowledge.