Finnish Ambassador to Nepal Visited Bajhang

Finnish ambassador HE Pertti Anttinen along with his beloved wife Ms. Katriina Anttinen and Dr. Chudamani Joshi, Special Advisor for Embassy of Finland, Nepal visited Thalara Rural Municipality of Bajhang at 6-7 April 2019 to inaugurate a Water Supply Scheme and declare a village total sanitized. RVWRMP Team Leader Mr. Michiel Verweij, Deputy Team Leader, Mr. Narayan Prasad Wagle, Technical Specialist Mr. Parikshit Shrestha, among a few other RVWRMP staff, accompanied the mission.

The ambassador inaugurated the newly constructed Bhamka Tatopani Water Supply and Sanitation Scheme of Thalara RM-5, Bajhang on 6th April 2019. The scheme was constructed with the support of RVWRMP financed from GoN, GoF, EU, local government and users. The inauguration was done in a big mass meeting, attended by the beneficiaries, elected representatives of Thalara RM, existing constitution assembly member Mr. Man Prasad Khatri, chief of the District coordination committee, Bajhang, some neighboring local level representatives and other stakeholders. The inauguration ceremony was conducted by the chairperson Mr. Sher Bahadur Saud, the water users committee chairperson. The ambassador was honored as the chief guest.

Numbers of welcoming gates were built to welcome the ambassador and then Thalara people warmly welcomed him and the team with flowers and a tika. The Ambassador thanked the Thalara people for warm welcome and congratulated them for having quality water supply scheme. He expressed his happiness for proper utilization of the money also from Finnish Government side. The programme was managed by Thalara RM, RVWRMP TSU and field team.

At the same time, the Ambassador's beloved wife Ms. Katriina Anttinen got a pleasure to declare the Dignified Menstruation Management (DMM) campaigning year (FY 2076/77). The objective of the declaration was to announce the Rural Municipality DMM friendly within three years.

During the visit, the ambassador also attended another programme on 7th April 2019. He announced Seralagaun Bhatgaun as a Totally Sanitized village. After fulfilling all the indicators of Total Sanitation in all the households, the village was rewarded with a totally sanitized zone status.

The ambassador concluded the visit by attending a meeting with RME/RM members of Thalara RM. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Bhubaneshwor Upadhaya, chairper son of RM and the ambassador was respected as chief guest. The meeting was focused on the discussion about development issues of Thalara RM. The ambassador suggested the RM to have Child, Gender and Disable sensitive development activities. Finally he thanked again to Thalara RM, RVWRMP Bajhang unit, and other involved in planning and organising the successful programme. The Municipality honoured the Project and the Embassy honored with a letter of appreciation.