14th CREEW Research Grant Program concludes with final-term presentation

Kathmandu, Nepal – September 15, 2023 (29 Bhadra 2080)

The five research grantees under the 14^th CREEW Research Grant program have presented their final-term research work. With this, the grantees have completed all the requirements of the program.

Dr. Dhundi Raj Pathak, President of CREEW, welcomed the invitees- grantee supervisors, experts/professionals, CREEW Ex-Com members, and CREEW general members. He also discussed the success of the program since last 14 years in not only providing grant but also input and feedback to the grantees during their presentation, which is organized at least 3 times during 6 months grant period.  Prof. Sangam Shrestha, who has recently been the new dean of the school of engineering in Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand is also the advisor of the grant program chaired the presentation session. All the five grantees made good presentation. Valuable comments and suggestions, and queries were raised by the invitees, and grantees have been asked to incorporate them in their thesis and/or respond them in written to CREEW in consultation with their supervisor as per need. Other experts/professionals in the program were Dr. Vishnu Prasad Pandey, Professor of Water Resources at the Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal; Er. Robert Dongol, Assistant Professor at Nepal Engineering College; Dr. Shankar Shrestha, Executive Director at Nepal Development Research Institute; Dr. Ramesh Man Singh from Center for Energy and Environment, Nepal and also the supervisor of the grantee, Dr. Sanjeev Neupane, Chief Executive Officer at Smartphones For Water-Nepal and  Dr. Rabin Malla and Dr. Saurav KC from CREEW.

Grantees of the 14th CREEW Research Grant Program in the first row

The grantees were:

• Nujhat Ahamad, Department of Civil Engineering, Kathmandu University, Study on Sanitization Effect of Pure Lactic Acid in Fecal Sludge
• Prayon Joshi, Nepal Open University, Assessment of Water Quality in Lake Cluster of Pokhara Valley (LCPV) using Remote Sensing and Machine Learning
• Samikshya Baral, GoldenGate Int’l College, Tribhuvan University, Implication of Climate Change on Municipal Water Management Practices of Melamchi Municipality
• Shristi Mishra, Predicting Subsurface Groundwater Inflow in Tunnel through Surface Hydrogeological Assessment with Special Reference to Headrace Tunnel of Upper Trishuli-3b Hydroelectric Project, Central Department of Geology, Tribhuvan University
• Sopia Karki, GoldenGate Int’l College, Tribhuvan University, Waste to Energy Recovery: Partial Solution for Municipal Solid Waste Management in Gaindakot Municipality

In closing session, grantees Mr. Prayon Joshi and Ms. Nujhat Ahamad expressed thankfulness to CREEW for the grant and guidance in research while Mr. Prayon also thanked for the support in water sample analysis at CREEW. Dr. Ramesh Man Singh expressed gratitude to CREEW for continuing the grant program since last 14 years. Dr. Shankar Shrestha, praised the management team for organizing the program with excellence.

In closing remark, Dr. Shrestha congratulated the grantees on their achievements and emphasized the importance of their research contributions in addressing critical environmental and water-related challenges. He said that all the research topics and work of the grantees are excellent and that they should publish their work. He also asked the grantees to keep on utilizing the good pool of experts at CREEW.

CREEW Research Grant Program is funded by KWEF since 2008. This is a regular program of CREEW and research proposals are called annually.