Netherlands – Foreign affairs and other services – Market orientation concerning support on Nature Based Solutions to the Kathmandu Ecological Urban Renewal (KEUR) Project

The Partners for Water programme is commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, acting on behalf of the Interdepartmental Water Cluster. With this market orientation, RVO wants to collect information which will help with specifying a likely upcoming European tender regarding this project. In its Thematic Approach, Partners for Water 2022-2027 gives specific attention to the uptake and implementation of Nature Based Solutions (NBS) for increased water safety and security. In 2023 a strategic partnership was signed with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the form of a Letter of Intent (LoI), to support the ADB and its member countries with expertise and technical support on NBS during the project preparation phase. This assignment is formulated under this partnership. Under the auspices of its Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA), the ADB is working with Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) and Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC), and Bakhtapur governments in Nepal to initiate a comprehensive and integrated ecological transformation of the Kathmandu Valley urban fabric, and design initial solutions for KMC, LMC, and Bakhtapur. This project, named the Kathmandu Ecological Urban Renewal (KEUR) project, is meant to serve as a demonstrative model to be expanded to Bhaktapur Municipality and the entire Kathmandu Valley, and could serve as a model for emerging cities outside Kathmandu valley, which are suffering from similar issues. Another objective is to increase the ecological and urban services in fragmented green spaces in Kathmandu, a concept that gives economic value to restoring nature and the surroundings of cultural heritage.