7/31/2019 Nepal Water Action: Meeting the Sanitation Challenge: Low Technology, High Rewards

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Country water actions are stories that showcase water reforms undertaken by individuals,

communities, organizations, and governments in Asia-Pacific countries and elsewhere.

Coun t ry Wat e r Act ions

Nepa l : Meet ing th e San i ta t ion Cha l lenge : Low Techno logy , H igh Rew ardsJan u a ry 2 0 0 6

 

Less than a 30-minute drive outside Kathmandu, life in thetown of Madhyapur Thimi unfolds in scenes more commonto a different century.

On this particular evening, a group of elderly residents sitoutside the Bisnubir Temple offering incense, chants, stringsand flutes that usher in dusk. A barefoot couple work asmall corner plot of land with hand tillers. People stokesmall fires inside their centuries old homes and mountcandles outside. Women huddle together, hunched over,bundling grain, hay, and vegetables for the night delivery toa Kathmandu market. Women draw water from a well.

To the unfamiliar visitor, life in Thimi is idyllic. But one lookdown Thimi’s main river shows that something is not right.

 “When I was a young boy, I used to swim and bathe in thatriver,” said Mr. Madan Krishna Shrestha, former mayor of Thimi. “Then the donor groups came and sanitation systemscame. But when one of the treatment plants broke down,almost suddenly, the river got dirty.” 

One by one the other plants fell into disrepair until theystopped functioning altogether. Sewage is now dumpeduntreated into streams, like what is done in the whole of Kathmandu and surrounding towns.

UP FOR THE CHALLENGE

What has happened toThimi’s river is happeningto water resources acrossthe world. They arecarrying loads naturenever intended for them—tons of silt from erosion,industrial pollutants,agricultural chemicals anduntreated sewage.

Improving sanitation and wastewater treatment systems isone of many interventions that can help save naturalresources while improving people’s immediate environment.Almost one half of people living in Asia and the Pacific donot have access to improved sanitation. Target 10 of the

Millennium Development Goals call for this number to behalved by 2015.

The Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) inNepal is trying to revolutionize the way municipalgovernments approach their water pollution problems.

For years, ENPHO has watched local governments strugglewith the financial and technical capacity to manage themore modern and sophisticated sanitation and wastewatertreatment systems that donor money has bought them. Asan alternative and where it is feasible, ENPHO works withcommunities and local governments to adopt lowtechnology solutions. The logic: Keeping systems simplekeeps them affordable and manageable—the two keys tosustainability.

 

ENPHO concentrates on two modalities to improve sanitationand wastewater treatment:

Ecosan t o i le ts : A stand-alone unit for individualhouseholds. Unlike typical toilets, the Ecosan toiletdoes not use water to flush waste down and througha system. As a dry toilet, Ecosan involves twocompartments below the unit to collect and storeseparately the liquid and solid waste. Once a year,users should empty the compartments and use thewaste as organic fertilizer for backyard gardens.Reed bed t rea tm en t sys tem s : A system of reedbeds constructed near a town’s sewer outlet to

capture the untreated waste, treat it through anatural process of breakdown before it drains intostreams and rivers. The system mimics processesfound in natural wetland ecosystems. ENPHO says thesystems are simple, robust, effective and low cost.

LOW CASTE, HI GH PRI ORITY

ENPHO’s market forEcosan projects iswherever there are notalready flush toilets,mostly low-castehouseholds. Mrs. BinaKapali, a 45-year-oldwoman, had to resort tohumiliating practicesbefore receiving an Ecosanunit from ENPHO. Kapaliused the lot next to her house—the town garbage dump,where dogs and pigs trod and scavenge for food scraps.

 “When we used to have to go there—at that dumpsite, Iwould sit there, hidden, and think, ‘What if somebodycomes, especially a man? If only I had a toilet, I would notbe doing this here,” Kapali said.

Since receiving an Ecosan unit, “I have never gone back tothat dumpsite,” she said.

She has also never recycled the waste from the Ecosanstorage units for fertilizer, like what is encouraged of users. “I cannot,” she said. “These flowers are for the gods. I don’twant to throw urine on them.” 

 “There will always be cultural factors that even the besttechnology can’t get around,” said Dr. Roshan Raj Shrestha,founder and former director of ENPHO and now Chief Technical Director for UN-HABITAT’s Water for Asian CitiesProgram. “We have to do a lot of work on social acceptance… In the rural farming areas, everybody uses cow dung.They love it. But attach the same idea to a toilet andnobody wants it.” 

By the end of 2005, ENPHO estimates it will have installedmore than 150 Ecosan units in low caste households in theKathmandu Valley.

7/31/2019 Nepal Water Action: Meeting the Sanitation Challenge: Low Technology, High Rewards

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MAKI NG UP FOR LOST TREATMENT

The market for ECOSAN in the Kathmandu Valley is limited. “It’s too late for Ecosan in Thimi,” Shrestha said. Theinfrastructure for a sewage system is already in place and90 percent of homes have flush toilets. The greater problemis in treating the wastewater. Here is where reed beds offer

nature’s low-cost, low-maintenance, sustainable solution.

Getting people to buy the idea, however, is a project initself.

 “Whether it’s Nepal or the United States, nobody likes theidea of a sewer plant in the area. ‘Not in my backyard,’ asthe saying goes,” Shrestha said.

To help overcome the skepticism, ADB gave ENPHO a$50,000 grant from its Pilot and Demonstration Activitiesfund to pilot the reed bed system and use it as ademonstration site for other communities to see and believefrom.

PI CK A PROBLEM, A NY PROBLEM

The startup money onlywent so far beforeENPHO faced trouble onevery other front. Inearly 2005, when ENPHOneeded political supportto convince thecommunity to accept theproject, the kingdissolved all electedofficials.

In other political corners,Shrestha said ENPHOwas pressured to use

some of the grant moneyto construct a buildingfor a separate organization in the project area. “When werefused, all sorts of problems started. And basically, theproject fell through. We tried community mobilizations. Wewent door-to-door. Nothing worked,” he said.

Eventually, ENPHO turned their plans toward a different sitein Thimi. “Since 90 percent of the people in Thimi areNewari, it was easier to convince them. They are mostlyone caste. It’s a homogenous place and consensus iseasier,” Roshan Shrestha said.

In a strategic move, ENPHO first gained the support of theworshippers at the Bisnubir Temple, whose influence wentfar. Local volunteer labor has since built the reed bedsystem in just a few months, finishing in October 2005.

 

THE START OF SOMETHI NG GOOD

Local officials believe this could be the start of municipal-wide scheme. “This is a small town,” a deputy mayor said. “This kind of system is manageable and can be a model.” 

To bring 100 percent treatment to Thimi and plug a major

pollution source, officials estimate that it would take justeight more reed beds, at a cost of less than $25,000 eachand only a few months to implement each one.

RELATED LI NKS

Read ENPHO’s proposal [ PDF ] for the ADB Pilot andDemonstration Activities grant.PDA: Operational Research on DecentralizedWastewater Management and its Dissemination

 

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*This article was first published online at ADB's Water for All website in January 2006: http://www.adb.org/water/actions/NEP/meeting-sanitation-

challenge.asp.

The Country Water Action series was developed to showcase reforms and good practices in the water sector undertaken by ADB’s member countries. It

offers a mix of experience and insights from projects funded by ADB and those undertaken directly by civil society, local governments, the private

sector, media, and the academe. The Country Water Actions are regularly featured in ADB’s Water for All News, which covers water sector developments

in the Asia and Pacific region.