ENPHO with the support of BORDA South Asia, in collaboration with Kirtipur Municipality and Godawari Municipality organized closing workshop of Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) Project-Phase II on 28 December, 2021 at Hotel Himalaya, Lalitpur. The major objective of the workshop was to reflect on project achievements and learnings and share them with all the stakeholders.

The program was commenced in chairmanship of Mr. Rajendra Shrestha, Program Director of ENPHO and Ms. Saraswoti Rijal Khadka, Deputy Mayor of Kirtipur Municipality resided as Chief Guest during the program.

During the welcome speech, Mr. Santosh Dahal, Senior Engineer of ENPHO heartily welcomed all the participants. Ms. Bhintuna Shrestha, Project Coordinator of ENPHO briefed achievements, challenges and learnings of the project through her presentation. The achievements were focused on three aspects; renovation of water sources, improvement of sanitation service and capacity building of relevant stakeholders. Ms. Shrestha also mentioned that the project majorly focused on development of planning and strategic documents.

During the achievement sharing, beneficiaries of the project shared their views. Ms. Gauri Silwal, Secretary of Water Users’ Committee of Simako Dhara at Godawari Municipality expressed her gratitude to ENPHO for renovation of Simako Dhara. The water source is serving clean drinking water to 200 HHs of ward 2 of Godawari Municipality. Similarly, Mr. Sarab K. Maharjan, Executive Director of KFBS Pvt. Ltd. appreciated construction of WASH Center for Sanitation Workers in Kirtipur Municipality. At present, the sanitation workers of four private companies working for solid waste management are using the WASH Center at Kirtipur Municipality. Also, Mr. Samir K.C., Chairperson of Champii Water Supply and Users’ Committee shared about the enhancement of capacity on water quality testing and source management as training obtained from the training.

Mr. Rajendra Shrestha, Program Director handed over the Strategic Plan of Solid Waste Management to Ms. Saraswoti Rijal Khadka, Deputy Mayor of Kirtipur Municipality, and Detail Project Reports and Public Toilet Improvement Plan to Mr. Satya Narayan Lakhey, Senior Engineer, Technical Department Godawari Municipality.

In the program, Chief Guest of the program Ms. Saraswoti Rijal Khadka put forward her remarks thanking ENPHO for its contribution in improving water and sanitation status focusing on SDG 6.1 and 6.2 in the Kirtipur Municipality. She suggested for collaboration among municipalities, donor organizations, development sectors and other relevant stakeholders for future planning and actions. She also suggested to have intensive stakeholders’ meeting for further planning and project implementation. The program continued with open floor session for discussion and suggestions on project activities and way forward for future action plan.

Mr. Rajendra Shrestha during his remark highlighted the project’s action, and linked it with Water, Sanitation and Hygiene context of Nepal. He further requested all the stakeholders to have active collaboration and ownership for sustainability of project activities. With this, the program was concluded with the closing remarks from the Chairperson.

In the program, a gallery corner was placed exhibiting and disseminating documents and displaying videos of project activities. Altogether, 16 participants attended the program.