Soon after the auspicious occasion of the 21st Anniversary of its establishment, INPIM Nepal organized the Eighteenth INPIM Nepal Talk Program. The program was held at the Main Hall of the Department of Irrigation office at Jawalakhel on 14th May 2018 (31st Baishak 2075). The program started at 3:30 pm and went up to 5pm. More than thirty participants participated in the program.

At the onset of the program, the President of INPIM Nepal, Mr. Suman Sijapati welcomed everyone and congratulated them for the completion of 21 years of networking through INPIM Nepal. Mr. Sijapati also made a brief presentation on the INPIM Nepal Activities and it current status. He explained how INPIM Nepal has been providing the networking with its members for the last 21 years in a low profile. He, then, went on to give a brief introduction of the selected topic for the eighteenth talk which was: “Why measurements matter: The role of participatory monitoring in participatory management” and handed over the floor to Jeffrey C. Davids, President, SmartPhones4Water for his presentation.

In his presentation, Mr. Jeffery highlighted the importance of measurements and explained how S4W Nepal has been utilizing citizen scientists for collecting water data in a participatory manner. He also cited the six types of data that they have been collecting in Kathmandu valley and explained how these data are being processed. He further went on to explain how the system supports informed decision making in water and irrigation sector.

After the presentation, the floor was open for question/answers and discussion. The participants actively participated in this session. Several questions were raised on each of the presentations and there was a good round of discussion and many participants expressed their views as to how such data can be useful for researcher and irrigation managers.

At the end of the program, the INPIM Nepal President, Mr. Suman Sijapati wrapped up saying that it was a nice talk program in which the content of the presentation and utility of such endeavors was discussed from the perspective of their pros and cons.