The Bagmati River is gradually returning to its natural form, thanks to the cleaning campaign led by Chief Secretary Lila Mani Poudel. The Bagmati Cleaning Campaign, which entered its 39th week on Saturday, has changed the face of this holy river from Tilganga to the Manahara confluence at Shankhamul. Now the riverbed and the riverbanks in the area are free from plastic and other pollutants although the dust is still there to trouble the pedestrians. Moreover, clean water flows into the river up to the Tinkune Bridge as no sewerage flows into this portion of the river. However, the locals still dump raw sewage into the river down the Tinkune bridge as the works to build a separate sewerage system is still in progress. If all goes well, the entire river up to the Manahara confluence will be free from sewage within a few months. Around 1,000 people affiliated to different religious, social and other organisations, the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Kathmandu Metropolitan City and corporations, among others, throng the river banks at 8:30 every Saturday morning to engage in the Bagmati cleaning campaign. The number of participants goes up when a school, college or even a hospital is observing an anniversary. The cleaning campaign that began in May 2013 commences with an oath taken by all the participants from Chief Secretary Poudel. Then the people, wearing white gloves and blue masks over their noses, carry empty baskets and sacks to pick up plastic pieces and other pollutants. The police personnel and KMC employees enter the sewerage-like river wearing gumboots to pick up the garbage, while others collect the waste from the river slopes and banks. The trucks of the KMC ferry the collected garbage to the dumping site. Every week the campaign lasts an hour-and-a-half. School and college students, environmental activists, followers of Jivan Bigyan and The Art of Living, representatives of the Advertisement Association of Nepal, secretaries and senior government officials, chiefs of security bodies and representatives of environmental organisations are the regular participants in the campaign. In these 39 weeks, the volunteer cleaners have collected around 600 tons of garbage from the river. Mostly wrappers of noodles, tobacco, paan parag and chocolates and plastic bags are found polluting the river and its banks. In some areas, the locals have built temporary toilets on the river banks. Surprisingly, the participation of the locals in the campaign is rare. In some places, the locals just state at the unfamiliar faces picking up the waste materials they have thrown into the river. Instead, in some areas, the locals do not feel ashamed to litter the areas just cleaned by the strange campaigners. Again there are a few who tend to oppose the campaign claiming that picking only plastic items will not help keep the river clean. Indeed, they reflect the attitude of the majority of the Nepalese people, who wait for others to do the work for them. Yes, keeping the valley’s rivers clean is not easy, but if we contribute a little from our side, the polluted rivers of today will one day surely turn into clean rivers.