An Urbanized Kathmandu Valley

Kathmandu Valley is located between 27° 32’ 13”-27° 49’ 10” N and 85° 11’ 31”-85° 31’ 38” E. It comprises of three districts namely: Kathmandu, Lalitupr and Bhaktapur. There are 150 village development committees (VDCs) and five municipalities in the valley. The valley is a home of about 1,426,641 people living in 366,255 households. It is a dwelling place of people with diverse cast and ethnic origin. Its economy is based on trade, commerce, and industry along with service sectors like education, health, transport, hospitality, and tourism. The soil of Kathmandu Valley, which once was a lake, is considered good for agriculture. Paddy, maize, millet, wheat, barley, lentils, soybeans, peas, black gram, pulses, potatoes, and oilseeds are grown. In addition, many times of green vegetables, from outskirts of city founds its way in city market. For the past few decades, Kathmandu Valley witnessed land use changes brought about by increasing population. The increasing growth of population has affected economic activities and livelihood of valley residents. Almost all of fertile agriculture land has been converted into houses, roads and other infrastructures. Houses are built haphazardly without any planning posing risk of collapsing even in a minor tremor. The resources are getting scarce unable to meet the demand of new population. Drinking water is primary among scarce resources. Both natural and human provided water sources are getting depleted. Once rich in agricultural products, the valley is losing its share of vegetables and crop production. The question arises, what will be the fate of the valley in coming 20 years? If the current trend of houses construction goes on how will valley feed its population and how it will provided drinking water to its residents?

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