At a time when the whole country is expecting the political deadlock to be resolved to have a new constitution of Nepal, the youths in Khokana were inundated cleaning their ponds. Over a hundred youth participants organized the cleaning program of “Kha Phukhu” and “De Pukuh” at Khokana VDC to observe the Water Festival “Sithi Nakha” on May 27. The community in Khokana actively participated in the pond cleaning program supported by the Centre for Integrated Urban Development (CIUD) in association with World Vision International Nepal (WVIN).
At a time when the whole country is expecting the political deadlock to be resolved to have a new constitution of Nepal, the youths in Khokana were inundated cleaning their ponds. Over a hundred youth participants organized the cleaning program of “Kha Phukhu” and “De Pukuh” at Khokana VDC to observe the Water Festival “Sithi Nakha” on May 27. The community in Khokana actively participated in the pond cleaning program supported by the Centre for Integrated Urban Development (CIUD) in association with World Vision International Nepal (WVIN).
“I am happy to see the filthy pond “Kha Phukhu” at the entrance of the village been turned sparkling in a couple of hour’s effort by the community,” said Devraj Gautam, focal person at WVIN. This will now give positive image to the visiting tourist. Khokana has been a tourist destiny in the Valley.
Bekhamani Maharjan, president of Shree Rudrayani Youth Club is very happy that he could contribute to the cause. “I realized that how important our culture and festivals are,” he remarked, “Not only we have cleaned the ponds today but we also observed the culture that our ancestors have left with us as a legacy. If we promote this festival widely it can once again create awareness to propagate the value of pond in ground water recharging, irrigation, and environmental sanitation.”
Sithi Nakha is a traditional indigenous festival of the residents of Kathmandu Valley. It is celebrated at the onset of the rainy season. Indigenous community in the Valley celebrate it by worshipping Kartikeya or Kumar, son of Lord Shiva and Parvati, by preparing a small feast including traditional Newar dishes called Wo and Chatamari, and most importantly, cleaning the nearby water resources. Sithi Nakha is also the last day for performing annual offering to the ancestral or guardian deities amongst the Newar community.
Apart from religious and cultural importance Sithi Nakha is more related to water source conservation and sanitation. On the day, people clean traditional water sources like stone-spouts, dug-wells, ponds, water holes etc. They believe that the rulers of water wells Nagas leave the wells for other destinations, as the water level goes down almost to the bottom because of the driest period of the year and the monsoon rains have not come yet. Similarly, the festival activities include cleaning of the house and surroundings.
Many organizations working on Water and Sanitation sectors have been promoting Sithi Nakha as the National Sanitation and Water Conservation and have organized different activities of awareness, promotion and revival of Sithi Nakha activities. CIUD urges this festival to be supported nationally in an effort to both preserve water sources and promote rainwater harvesting.
Report by Jeevan Kasula