News » पोखरामा ३५ जना बन्दकर्ता पक्राउ, ट्रक र मोटरसाइकलमा आगजनी -

A very delicate subject is the around three-year old law that says that the distance between the lake and the houses should be at least 65 meters. The District Development Committee made this decision to create a buffer zone. Suddenly the land of a lot of people became worthless. The logical agreement would be that those landowners receive a monetary compensation for the loss of their land. Sadly, that still did not happen. Megha Nath Kafle, Executive Officer of Pokhara Submetropolitan,  explains: “The District Development Committee didn’t get the support of the political parties for that decision. And with the current tension in the political world, compensation seems further away than ever.” That sums up an extra reason why people decided recently to start building for tourism, whether it is legal or not.

Though almost every house has some illegal aspect, the uncertain situation makes the owners insecure about their business. They would rather keep silent on the subject and if someone breaks the silence, he will get a warning with bricks and sticks. A sudden governmental change is not expected, but the long term vision stays uncertain and that scares people.Besides the numerous private constructions, there is currently also a public one. The goal is to enlarge the lake and keep it that way with the help of a dam made by stones. Last year, the lake was enlarged by 20 – 30 meters, by taking out mud and sand. The piles became the new contours of the river. “But the force of the monsoon would create erosion and make the job undone. That is why we want to protect the dam by building one of bricks in front of it,” explains Kafle.
Gathering the funds for this project was not an easy task. According to Kafle, ten million rupees comes from the development ministry, but besides that four million was collected from businessmen and tourism organizations, who all made some donations. Parajuli speaks of his vision: “I hope that there is enough money provided to finish this project before the tourist-season starts again in October. The dam can be nice for tourists and is a good initiative to support the Tourism Year 2011, although it would have been better if the job was finished before the start of 2011, but the funds were not there yet.With the dam, Pokhara tries to bring more structure. For example, the lake will be less accessible for women who now wash their clothes where they want and in the end the community will get a cleaner lake. In contradiction with these plans, stands another law from 1977.  Arun Raj Poudel, head of the planning and building permit section of the City Office explains: “There should be two meters between every house, so the Fewa Lake is easy seen by everyone. The Fewa Lake is seen as the wealth of the whole of Pokhara, it is not just the property of the Lakeside-people.” The dam will create an opposite situation.