On 26th July 2010, Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA) and Namsaling Community Development Center (NCDC), Ilam jointly organized a one day interaction program was organized on “River conservation, Today’s Necessity” at Wise-use House, ECCA Office, Jwagal, Lalitpur. The objectives of the interaction program were to establish co-ordination among different organizations working in river conservation, increase in networking regarding river monitoring and replication of river monitoring models in different districts and municipalities.

During the program, representatives from organizations like Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM), Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City, Kathmandu Metropolitan City, IUCN-Nepal, ENPHO, Central Department of Environmental Science, TU, CEMAT, DOLIDAR, NETIF and INLOGOS had actively participated in the program. The interaction program provided an opportunity to exchange the experiences and knowledge about the planning process of river conservation between the participants. The program also highlighted the issues about the pollution of river, sources, causes and protection measures.

Mr. Yogendra Chitrakar, Director of ECCA gave an insight about how River Monitoring was strengthened by Kathmandu Participatory River Monitoring Project (KAPRIMO project). He also highlighted the success of KAPRIMO project and discussed about the roles of different organizations in making the project successful. His presentation had highlighted about the importance of information and data exchange between different stakeholders with a brief about the possibilities of replication of river monitoring models by different other organizations.

Mr. Yogendra Man Shrestha, agricultural expert from NCDC Ilam, gave a brief presentation about the works of NCDC in Eastern Nepal. He highlighted about the adoption of river monitoring concept by NCDC in Ilam as Participatory Mai River Reclamation (PMRR) project in Ilam. Establishment of water testing lab has been done during the implementation of the project as a step towards river conservation. Lively discussions among the participants from Government organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations regarding coordination in the research works, establishment of river monitoring system in municipalities and participation or related educational institutes had added the charm in the discussion program.