SCHOOL FOR BAMBOO TECHNOLOGY + RIVER RESTORATION

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Over five hundred hydropower projects are currently in operation, or under development  throughout Nepal.  While hydropower offers the promise of economic opportunity at a national scale, it is taking a devastating toll on Nepal’s local ecologies and indigenous communities.  Hydropower’s impact is particularly evident on the Aadhi Khola (Aadhi River). Once renowned as a haven for golden mahseer fish, the river’s  fish populations declined dramatically after the construction of two dams in the 1990s. At the same time, the Majhi fishing communities that once thrived on the river’s banks have become increasingly marginalized.  The loss of traditional livelihoods has forced Majhi youth to seek work abroad, or in river gravel extraction, undermining community capital and further degrading the integrity of the Aadhi Khola. In response to these challenges, Traction is collaborating with the Nepal River Conservation Trust (NRCT) and members of Majhi fishing communities to design the School for Bamboo Technology and River Restoration.  The school will consist of classrooms, workspaces and shops constructed from Dhanu bans, a bamboo species that grows abundantly in the Aadhi Khola Valley. It will serve as a center for bamboo-craft,  river recreation, research and revitalization of river ecology.