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Very few documents exist regarding the status of stone spouts located in the urban areas of Nepal. Those that do provide some information about only the spouts which are located in urban areas of Kathmandu Valley. In contrast, this study has analysed the physical and socio- cultural aspects of 69 stone spouts located in both the peri-urban and urban areas of Kathmandu Valley. Out of a total of 69 spouts, 22 are located in peri-urban areas and 47 are found in urban areas; as first discussed in chapter five. Those spouts located in non-heritage areas are in better physical condition and are functioning better than those in the heritage areas. This contradicts the primary hypothesis of the study.

This study has shown not surprisingly that all 69 stone spouts studied have been negatively impacted to greater or lesser degrees by human activities. None are in perfect condition but those spouts located in non-heritage areas overall have better water flow, and lesser pipe-line connections than those in the heritage areas.

Further analysis of the perceptions of people living in the heritage areas shows that historically, spouts were sustained or managed partially through superstition and belief driven actions. For instance, traditional beliefs regarding the worship of naag and other water deities, avoiding wearing shoes and washing undergarments, excluding women going through their monthly period and excluding the lower caste who did unsanitary works such as cleaning toilets were all driven by such social systems. Cooperative community efforts helped also to manage and maintain the spouts until approximately the mid-1980s. Findings show that people used to clean spout platforms, water sources and open and clean their drains while worshiping water deities, thus helping maintain spouts. Initially, people held strong beliefs that violating the social or cultural rules and damaging or polluting spouts might be risky for them, inviting retaliation from water deities. Furthermore, traditionally, guthi had responsibilities for maintaining stone spouts. After the enactment of the Land Reform Act of 1964 and the breaking down of the caste system due to modernization the guthi system gradually disappeared. This study has highlighted that both heritage areas are affected to a

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greater extent than the non-heritage areas due to the privatization of guthi lands. For example, no private or public groups accepted responsibility to look after the state canal that fed water to most spouts of the urban heritage area after the guthi stopped functioning about 40 years ago. Likewise, most spouts in the peri-urban heritage area lost their water quality and flow when water guards and their source of income; the guthi lands, became obsolete. Findings further show that it was considered a sin to desecrate the spout infrastructures in the past but nowadays people do not possess as firmly entrenched spiritual values. Partially due to the relaxation of prior social controls most of the traditional water channels, earthen pipes and other traditional structures, were replaced by modern pipes. Many spouts were modified or connected with modern pipe-lines and their platforms were also encroached. Furthermore, images and inscriptions attached to spouts were misused or stolen and the state canal that provided water to many spouts in the urban heritage area was also encroached. Following these events people withdrew financial support and became less aware of social imperatives to manage spouts thus leading to the more pronounced deterioration of spouts in heritage areas than that experienced in the non-heritage areas.

In contrast to this, initially the majority of spouts in the non-heritage areas were managed by local people and the initiators of spouts. Therefore, it became clear that the spouts in non- heritage areas are less affected by the privatization of guthi lands and the breakdown of guthi systems than the spouts in heritage areas. Additionally, the analysis of perceptions of people outlined in chapter six shows that local people in non-heritage areas are less dependent on government organizations to conserve and manage the spouts than in heritage areas. For example, local people in the Jhaukhel and Madhyapur Thim areas have collected money to maintain the Taleju and Nuh hiti by themselves. Outcomes of the study also reveal that some castes in non-heritage areas rely on their specific spouts to perform funeral rituals for a full 13 days following bereavements. These spouts as a result came to be more frequently cleaned while performing funeral rituals and worshiping naag. Similarly, research results demonstrate that some people in non-heritage areas still do not want to change traditional pipes and sedimentation tanks. Such perceptions create social pressures which help keep spouts in close to original condition. For example, out of the 69 spouts studied, Mogar Tole Dhara in the Jhaukhel area is the only spout remaining which still has earthen pipes and the traditional sedimentation tank. This combination of ownership and spiritual connection appears to

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explain why the majority of spouts located in non-heritage areas are in better overall condition and have suffered less impact from changing socio-cultural beliefs, thoughts and traditional institutional norms and values than those in heritage areas.

Also important in this analysis is the finding that in heritage areas, permission should be obtained from the Department of Archaeology before constructing or maintaining any infrastructure relating to spouts. Furthermore, traditional bricks and other appropriate construction materials should be used for maintaining them. Such traditional materials cannot be sourced with the limited budget such as is currently provided by the government. Accordingly, results from this research demonstrate that local users in both heritage areas of Changunarayan and Bhaktapur Durbar Square are not willing to sustain and conserve spouts as there is not a sufficient supply of technical and financial support to maintain them to a culturally acceptable standard.

Comparing peri-urban and urban areas, spouts are more degraded in the urban Bhaktapur Durbar Square and Madhyapur Thimi areas than the peri-urban areas in terms of: clogging of drains, encroachment on ponds and spout areas, destruction of infrastructures, damage and theft of inscriptions and images, reducing or drying of water flow and dumping wastes. These outcomes are similar to these reported by Kharel (2016) who found that Konti hiti in the Patan area was turning into a dumping site after losing its water flow. This is due to the prevalence of building and other construction activities. Sithi Nakha is considered as a common day for water resources maintenance in Newar communities of the Kathmandu Valley (Khaniya, 2005; NGO Forum, 2011; UN-Habitat, 2008). However, this study reveals that the Sithi Nakha festival is not associated with the tradition of cleaning of stone spouts in the peri-urban areas. Field data show that local people in peri-urban areas celebrate the Sithi Nakha festival but cleaning water resources especially spouts is not a part of the festival. Only the people in the urban areas, Madhyapur Thimi and Bhaktapur Durbar Square, clean the water sources including spouts during Sithi Nakha. However, this is not done to the same extent as in the past.

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8.3 The Combined Effects of Modern Pipe-line Systems and Other

Development Activities on Spout Management Systems

Several scholars have identified modern-pipe lines and other development activities as adversely affecting traditional spouts of Kathmandu Valley (K.C., n.d.; Khaniya, 2005; Muzzini & Aparicio, 2013; Spodek, 2002; UN-Habitat, 2008). This study supports the contention that neglect of maintenance and continued construction of traditional spouts initially ceased after pipe-line water first became available in Kathmandu Valley in 1895. All spouts in the study areas were gradually neglected or completely abandoned after the introduction of new water technology and pipe-line water supply systems. For instance, Sarashwoti, and Gamdhoka and Gahhiti in the Changunarayan peri-urban heritage area, were completely forgotten for about 30 years and a modern water tap was placed between the sangdaha spouts which have now been dry for over 20 years. Results from this research confirm that after the establishment of public water taps and dug/tube wells and private pipe-line connections in the Bhaktapur Durbar Square urban heritage area, traditional spouts and the state canal that fed water to spouts started to suffer from the effects of neglect.

Currently, there are 11 drinking water schemes using groundwater as a source in the Jhaukhel peri-urban non-heritage area (Shrestha et al., 2013). The majority of respondents in the Jhaukhel area assumed that water flow in spouts has been constricted and in some cases completely dried out because of the demands on groundwater by these water schemes for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes. Findings from this study, based on field visits and people’s perceptions, further reveal that most spouts in the Madhyapur Thimi, urban non- heritage area are also badly affected by extraction of groundwater via dug/tube wells and deep boring, primarily by migrants.

It has been established that spouts in three (Jhaukhel, Bhaktapur Durbar Square and Madhyapur Thimi) of the four study areas have dried out because of the demands on ground water by affordable modern technology such as pumping or deep boring. In contrast, another finding is that most respondents in the peri-urban heritage Changunarayan area have strong beliefs that the groundwater table in this area has been depleted following the establishment of pine trees in the Chagunarayan Community Forest. No studies have been undertaken to examine this assertion.

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Based on people’s perceptions reported in chapters six and seven, this research found that the majority of spouts in urban areas lost or reduced their water flow due to the reduction of open spaces, encroachment onto the recharging areas of ponds that supply spouts, the construction of roads and buildings, the construction of private or public dug/tube wells near spout’s sources, the construction of drainage and pipelines crossing the water networks of spouts and finally the connecting of water sources of spouts into modern pipe-line systems. For example, most respondents assumed that many spouts in the Bhaktapur Durbar Square area dried out after the construction of sewer systems in city areas of Bhaktapur by the Bhaktapur Development Project (BDP). Likewise, Sanutar hiti in Madhyapur Thimi was thought to have dried out due to connection of its water source into the modern pipe-line system. These results are supported by the findings of Shrestha and Maharjan (2016) and UN-Habitat (2008) where they reported development activities have destroyed spouts’ recharging ponds and the underground water path to them.

In contrast, findings of this study confirm that in the peri-urban areas, deforestation, the digging of deep boreholes for irrigation, the water demands of the brick industries and other commercial purposes and also sand mining activities have affected the flow status of spouts. In addition, road construction, dug/tube wells and building construction also have compromised some spouts in the Jhaukhal area.

Upadhya (2009) noted that hundreds of spouts have become dry in the Kathmandu Valley because of urban encroachment. As reported in Chapter six, the findings from the peri-urban and urban non-heritage Madhyapur Thimi and Jhaukhel areas also suggest that land partition for migrants and construction activities have affected the water sources and water distribution networks of the spouts in these areas. The research results from this study accord with the hypothesis that spouts in Kathmandu Valley are affected by the modern pipe-line systems and other development activities, but also identify the importance of land tenure, social frameworks and social change. The next sections explore these and related findings from more theoretical perspectives.