Rescuers dug through mud and debris on Monday searching for bodies after a flash flood swept through west Nepal killing at least 20 people and leaving dozens missing, police said.

A torrent of water swept away scores of houses, vehicles and a bridge near the resort town of Pokhara, about 125 km (80 miles) west of Kathmandu, after an avalanche which had blocked the Seti River gave way.

Forty-four people, including three Ukranian tourists, were still missing after the flood hit on Saturday, police said.

Nobody can say for sure when Kathmandu denizens’ wish to get adequate drinking water supply from the Melamchi River will materialise. There are no solid grounds for predicting that the project will complete anytime soon.

The much hyped project has been mired in controversy ever since its inception in 2002. The deadline of the project has been revised several times, which increased the project cost as well as verification claims by contractors.

Not even 25 per cent of the brick kilns in the Kathmandu Valley are environment-friendly, pointed out the participants in a programme in the capital on Thursday.

According to RSS, the programme participants said this is because the brick kiln entrepreneurs are not environmentally conscious and they lack the environment-friendly technology as well as the appropriate know-how.

Air pollution parameters have soared up in the Kathmandu Valley on an unprecedented scale in recent times. Dry climate and unplanned urbanisation is adding fuel to the fire. We have severe air pollution in terms of particulate matters (PMs). This is largely because of unmanaged traffic and dusty roads in busy cities like Kathmandu.

Particulate matter provides substrate to micro organisms to grow and substantially increases vulnerability for throat and respiratory infections. Air pollution is also increasing in industrial sub-metropolitan cities such as Biratnagar and Pokhara.

Kathmandu Valley along with several parts of the country felt mild tremors on Wednesday afternoon after an 8.6 magnitude quake struck the western Aceh province in Indonesia.

The Ministry of Environment today launched the two-day International Conference of Mountain Countries on Climate Change in Kathmandu.

Organised by the MoE and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, the participants were scientists, researchers, policy makers, and climate change experts from more than 20 countries who have been working on climate change and mountain environment.

The programme aims to reduce the vulnerability of two million women and men in the Mid and Far Western regions of Nepal where the impacts of climate change are already being felt.

The Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Management Board has forwarded a new policy to the Cabinet for sustainable management of underground water. Hari Prasad Dhakal, executive director of the board, said the policy forwarded about a month ago is aimed at helping store and maintain the quality of underground water. “It will also help in regular distribution of drinking water.”

“The policy will also ensure access of drinking water to all as provisioned in the Interim Constitution,” said the director.

The fifth South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) is to be held for the first time Nepal with an objective of formulating policies and programmes by the governments of concerned countries by discussing and consulting with stakeholders on the sanitation of South Asia, RSS reports.

The NGO Fresh Water Action Nepal will organize the conference which will be participated in by representatives of all the countries including Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and stakeholders of all countries.

The metropolis is all set to boost public participation in keeping the city clean by introducing a campaign “Clean Kathmandu-Our Kathmandu.” The metropolitan city aims to deploy 10,000 volunteers everyday for the week-long campaign beginning April 6 in the first phase.

The entire metropolitan city area of 50.67 square km has been targeted for the drive. A 5-km radius of each side of the Bishnumati and Bagmati rivers will also be cleaned by volunteers with the help of excavators.