The Bagmati Cleaning Campaign, that kicked off on 19 May 2013, marks its 500th week this Saturday, Dec 10. The cleaning campaign that started from the Kathmandu Valley has now expanded across the country. Since the beginning of the campaign, every Saturday, the team has been collecting around 1.5 metric tons of garbage from different stretches of the Bagmati river bank.  In its 100th week, 150,000 people formed a human chain. Similarly, in the 200th week, they had organized a formal program and requested schools and government offices to join the campaign. Not only that, the team requested all the local levels across the country to be involved in cleaning the rivers in their respective areas. This time the campaigners haven’t planned any special program to mark the 500th week. Mala Kharel, one of the core team members of the project says, “Due to the recent conflict between Kathmandu Metropolitan City and the squatters living on the banks of Bagmati, we couldn’t plan a special program.” They will instead be planting trees and cleaning as usual. We have captured the two sides of the Bagmati river—the clean and dirty. Because of the campaign there are now a few gardens and parks along the banks. However, the river isn’t as clean as it could be. The campaigners say that unless the government makes plans to divert the sewage system elsewhere, and stops it from emptying into the rivers, no cleaning campaign will ever be enough.