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AquaSai
Briefing · Nepal Water & Urban Authorities

The Bagmati,
alive again.

Turning legally-protected riverbank corridors into living, self-financing botanical infrastructure — water that purifies itself, in public.

Kathmandu Valley · Bagmati River System 2026 Nature-Based · MSR Technology
01 / 10
The Strategic Window

Three forces have aligned — for the first time in a decade.

Restoring the Bagmati has been attempted for years. What is different now is not the ambition — it is the alignment. A rare, closing window where land, budget and need point the same direction.

01 · LOCKED CORRIDORS

The land is settled

Riverbank setbacks are now fixed as permanent no-build land. The contested land question is closed — but the land-use question is wide open.

02 · MISSION-MODE BUDGET

Appetite for visible wins

A national infrastructure push has created real demand for solutions that deploy fast and show measurable results inside a single fiscal year.

03 · A RIVER STILL DEAD

The core problem is untouched

Despite decades of clean-up drives, the river remains biologically lifeless. The real prize is unclaimed — and waiting for a credible plan.

AquaSai · Bagmati Initiative
02 / 10
The Problem

A sacred river, reduced to an open drain.

From its clean source at Sundarijal to the Chovar gorge, the Bagmati gathers the valley's untreated sewage — through Guheshwori, Pashupati, Thapathali and Teku. Decades of unplanned growth overwhelmed sanitation, while cleared buffer corridors sit empty and re-encroach the moment they are vacated.

90%+
Valley sewage reaching rivers untreated
~0
Dissolved oxygen in city stretches
13 yrs
Of clean-up drives, river still dead
High
Cost, energy & chemicals of grey plants
AquaSai · Bagmati Initiative
03 / 10
The Blueprint

Nepal already solved this — centuries ago.

Long before pumps and chemicals, the valley moved, stored, filtered and delivered water through the ground itself. AquaSai rebuilds that same continuous system as living technology.

Rajkulo

राजकुलो
Hill-to-city canal network

Pokhari

पोखरी
Detention & percolation basins

Aquifer

भूजल
Living groundwater filtration

Hiti

हिटी
The clean terminal spout

Surface flow → percolation → groundwater flow → clean spout. Nature did the treatment. We simply forgot the lesson — and AquaSai makes it living again.

AquaSai · Bagmati Initiative
04 / 10
The Solution

Botanical water parks — built on the corridors themselves.

Rather than leaving the buffer as a demolition line, AquaSai transforms these exact corridors into carbon-negative Multi-Stage Recirculating (MSR) constructed wetlands, presented as public botanical parks.

99%
Pollutant removal
~70%
Lower cost vs. grey plants
Zero
Chemicals used
100%
Regenerative & nature-based
Isometric view — a four-stage MSR botanical water park.
05 / 10
The Engineering

Not landscaping — parametric structural ecology.

This bypasses high-CAPEX concrete treatment in favour of engineered bio-filtration, modelled before a single bed is dug.

HYDRUS-CW2D Digital Twins

Flow, retention time and biochemical degradation are simulated against the real riverbank topography — filtration is optimised before construction begins.

Phytoremediation Root Zones

Valley-native wetland flora — narkat reed, pater cattail and khar grasses — form a biological mesh that filters heavy metals and breaks down runoff before it reaches the river artery.

Modular Deployment

No massive contiguous land or central piping. Beds deploy in fragmented, irregular strips — exactly the shape cleared buffer corridors take.

Sectional cutaway — the MSR treatment process, stage by stage.
AquaSai · Bagmati Initiative
06 / 10
The Return

What the corridor delivers back.

Impact VectorPublic Benefit
Socio-politicalReplaces volatile, empty buffer strips with beloved, accessible botanical parks — visible goodwill within a single fiscal cycle.
EcologicalDocumented, measurable reductions in BOD, pathogens and chemical load before water ever reaches the main river.
EconomicA fraction of the CAPEX & OPEX of grey infrastructure — plus tourism, events and water-reuse revenue.
EnforcementA planted, occupied, publicly-used corridor self-polices against re-encroachment. The park is the boundary.
AquaSai · Bagmati Initiative
07 / 10
Proof & Capability

Designed, modelled and already proven.

Proven Build

A live AquaSai system protecting marine ecosystems at Koh Phangan, Thailand.

Community-Owned

Owned and operated by the communities they serve — durable local jobs.

Skills Transfer

MSR Master PRO trains local hands to build, plant, operate and maintain.

Open Digital Tools

HYDRUS-CW2D simulator & MSR Visualizer for independent local design.

Koh Phangan, Thailand — a proven village-outfall retrofit. Capital is not the constraint; the mandate is.
08 / 10
The Path

From corridor to living river — in stages.

A single pilot is deployable within one fiscal year, then replicated strip by strip along the river.

Assess

Survey site, water & flow

Model

HYDRUS-CW2D digital twin

Build & Train

Construct with local hands

Operate

Community runs & monitors

Scale

Replicate river by river
Hands-on training at the wetland — knowledge that stays in the community.
AquaSai · Bagmati Initiative
09 / 10
The Ask

We are not asking for funding.
We are asking for a mandate — and 15 minutes.

1

Review

A 15-minute technical session — a live HYDRUS-CW2D flow demonstration on a real Bagmati corridor.

2

Pilot

Authorise one cleared corridor as a demonstration park, deployable within this fiscal year.

3

Mandate

A replication mandate to roll out, strip by strip, along the Bagmati and Bishnumati.

aquasai@uxrzone.com
aquasai.uxrzone.com
Kathmandu, Nepal · Koh Phangan, Thailand
10 / 10
1 / 10