Hon. Minister, Mr. Gachhadar kindly offered to receive national EWP Call from a school girl of squatter community Ms. Rina Parajuli. The chief guest Mr. Gachhadar addressed the floor with his political commitment towards due priority of water and sanitation sector. He also recalled his memory of participation in SACOSAN-III and expressed his commitment to fulfil the commitments made in the declaration. He urged all political parties and civil societies to come above the political ideologies and work together to solve the problems of water and sanitation.
Hon. Minister Mr. Ganesh Shah, Minister, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology expressed his happiness that call for right to water and sanitation has brought into the important gathering. He also informed the house that he will continue his engagement on fighting for water and sanitation right in new constitution of Nepal until it is finally included. He also highlighted on importance of climate change and its adaptation measure and need of WASH to look into this perspective as well.
Constitution Assembly Member Mr. Nabindra Raj Joshi informed the house that water and sanitation right is now included in the first draft of the new constitution after consultation with major political parties. He also questioned the house whether water and sanitation rights to be written separately or a combined statement will be enough. As CA member, he is in consultation on this agenda. He also informed the audience that he had submitted sankalpa prastab (Vote of Oath – one of the highest power a parliamentarian have had in the parliament of Nepal) to tackle water and sanitation crisis in Nepal. Appreciating international calls on Global Framework for Action, he appealed to G8 countries to listen to voices of people from around the world and urged to include WASH agenda in the forthcoming G8 meeting in Rome.
Ms. Barbara Frost, CEO, WaterAid UK briefing global End Water Poverty campaign expressed a need for a collective action to deal with the concerns that affects all human beings. She shared her experiences of trip to Nepal where people are suffering and attempts made by government and non government agencies to curtail these pains. She hoped for consolidated efforts at the country that would bring sparkle of collective initiatives at the global level. It would ultimately ensure inclusion of people's agenda in the global policies.
The international call was supposed to be received by representative from Italian Consul, however, sadly the representative met and accident and could not attend the event. The audience was informed of message from Italian consul that the international calls will be forwarded for formal processing. Expressing soon recovery of her health, the call was received by a campaigner Ms. Lajana Manandhar.
A warm welcome from Mr. Sanjaya Adhikary, Country Representative, WaterAid in Nepal emphasized on the need of consolidating efforts to address this moral issue where people of Nepal are going through deprivations and sufferings including annual death of 10,500 children below 5 years due to water borne diseases. Despite being consistently cited as top priorities in poor communities by themselves, sanitation and water have been overlooked in the global development agenda. He also linked importance of EWP with WASH improved governance.
To give insight of EWP momentum to the audience, Ms. Shikha Shrestha, EWP Campaign Coordinator presented “Trajectory of EWP Campaign in Nepal”—history from 2006 to March 2009 and forthcoming programme for the year 2009-10.
Recent EWP National call urge for integrating special sanitation needs of women including menstrual hygiene management in planning, implementation, monitoring and measure of WASH program outcomes. Thus in the event, Menstrual hygiene report was also launched on this occasion followed by findings dissemination by Mr. Om Prashad Gautam - Social Development Advisor of WaterAid in Nepal.
The occasion was made lively by cultural events –rhythm opening and WASH drama closing as beginning and ending of the program provide the long lasting impression of the events people attend.
A melodious rhythm of Jalatarang - literally meaning water waves was a symbol of initiation of a gathering where people participated to explore potentialities of creating synergy for dealing with the concerns of water, sanitation and hygiene. The musical beginning created a silence that let people forget their worries and enjoy the beauty of water rhythm played by Mr. Maila Dangol and Mr. Prem Chandra Ojhaiya.
There was a drama presented by Shilpee, a group of young theater artists who are well known for raising awareness in the social issues. They performed the drama depicting issues of inadequate sanitation and water. It highlighted need for ensuring water and sanitation as constitutional right and relevance of raising the concerns in forthcoming G8 meeting to be held at Italy during July 8-10,2009. They concluded drama showing need for joining hands together for ensuring water and sanitation for all thereby would support in promoting dignified lives of people.
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