Water, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management - It can't get any messier

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FEATURE

Water, Sanitation andSolid Waste Management

By Sagar Tamrakar

It can’tget anymessier

Water, Sanitation andSolid Waste Management

land of scarcity. That’s what Nepal is fast turning into—especially by way ofwater supply. And in terms of sanitation and solid waste management, thecountry has to learn a lot more lessons—both at the administrative andconsumer levels. The concept that wastage is not to be recycled but to bedumped has also aggravated the problem further. Conserving water, followingthe due sanitation process, and recycling waste—that’s what the endeavour

should be; while NGOs, communities and even business houses have been involved in theseareas, cit izens at large are yet to fully buy into these concepts. Which is surprising; forexample, tradit ionally, in the field of waste management, Nepalis had their viable mechanisms.Says Bhushan Tuladhar, director, Environment and Public Health Organisation: “Our tradit ionshad some highly recommendable ways of dealing with waste. Some 60 years ago, Newarsused to sell their waste at Rs 0.5/kg which would mean three things—that waste had avalue, that waste could be managed and that one who generated the waste was responsiblefor its management.” He adds, “Besides household treatments, centralised institutional

treatment of wastes is also a must, and that needs to be led by the government and operatedby the private sector.”

FEATURE

WATER SUPPLYIn the national scenario, water supply

reaches 80 percent of Nepal’s populace. “TheDepartment of Water Supply and Sewerage(DWSS) targets to raise the coverage to centpercent by 2017 as indicated by the RuralWater Supply and Sanitation National Policyand Strategy, a joint strategy of thegovernment, donor agencies, DDCs, VDCsand the local communities,” says BirendraMan Shakya, chief superintending engineer,Water Quality Improvement and MonitoringProject, DWSS. But as Tuladhar points out,“Irrespective of the water-supply reach, the

reliability and quality of water stands as a majorconcern—the quality is poor. And in realit y,

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90 the boss 15 Jun - 14 Jul 2010

the supply is less than 50 percent of thedemand.” Shakya specifies, “Nepal’s statusin water supply is on par with that of otherSouth Asian countries; and this despite thefact that countries like Bangladesh and SriLanka have the benefit of plain land. Theproblem with our water supply is that 38percent of i t requires rehabili tation; only 12

percent of the population are being suppliedwith safe water which has come throughtreatment plants.” Shakya elaborates, “Sincethe basic water-supply reach is already 80percent, the 100-percent target can beachieved within the stipulated time; butincreasing the quality of water—as per theNepal Drinking Water Quality Standardsprescribed by the government on 27 June2006—to 50 percent is somewhatunachievable.”

DWSS has a five-year target t o providesafe water to cities or areas having apopulation of at least 10,000, but Shakya

now thinks that the target is not attainable.Therefore, a steering commit tee has beenformed to set a new date for fulfilling thetarget. Shakya points out, “The majorchallenge that hinders achieving the targetis inadequate resource allocation comparedto the size of the project. The total budgetrequired for the project is Rs 3.5 bill ion, but

this fiscal year, only Rs 9.75 mill ion has beenallocated for t he project.” But despite thebudget crunch, work has been going on. SaysShakya, “We have been carrying out our workas per the allocated resources and we havecompleted 29 Semi-Urban/Urban WaterSupply Projects which cater to 500,000people, and 15 water treatment plantprojects which cater to 200,000 people in15 different districts. This year, six drinkingwater projects are running, and 15 suchprojects have been planned for 2011.”Tuladhar, too, complains about the budgetaryconstraints. He says, “The budget isinsufficient, plus it is not being implementedproperly as no resource mobilisation hastaken place which is evident from thedisastrous situation of Bagmati.” But Shakya

points out that DWSS’s mandate excludesthe Kathmandu valley.

Shakya tries to sum it all up: “In all thedrinking water projects, we try to make surethat water remains safe at the source. Buteven if treated, the water quality remainsdependent on how the water is collected,

stored and utilised in the households. To makesure that these things are in place, DWSSconducts different awareness campaignsregarding different ways of purifyingwater, like boiling, filtering, chlorination andsolar disinfection (SODIS). We also plan tohave sustainable ‘safe-water campaigns’ toimprove health conditions, then we will haveSafe Water Zones and integrate them asHealthy Zones.”

SANITATION

Perhaps more than water management, it’ssanitation management that is of a biggerconcern in the context of Nepal where morethan half the population is devoid of toiletservices. Excreta management is also seriouslylacking—most of the time it is a case of simplydisposing it straight into the nearby river—Bagmati, a dire example of this practice.

“There exists 43 percent sanitationcoverage, particularly in hand-washing, safedisposal of human excreta in toilet andhousehold cleanliness in Nepal. DWSStargets

The major challenge that hinders achievingthe target is inadequate resource allocation

compared to the size of the project. The totalbudget required for the project is Rs 3.5billion, but this fiscal year, only Rs 9.75

million has been allocated for the project.BIRENDRA MAN SHAKYA

chief superintending engineer

Water Quality Improvement & Monitoring Project, DWSS

The perception of the toilet as a tangible

indicator of sanitation has changed now – when we talk about sanitation, we make surethat the area is Open Defecation Free (ODF).

KAMAL ADHIKARYsociologist, DWSS

Population growth rate estimated at 1.7%

CURRENT SITUATION TO ACHIEVE MDG TARGET NUMBER OF LATRINES

2001 2015 TO BE BUILT

Distr ict h h N o. of la tr ines cover age estimated hh no. of latr ines MDG target tota l ea ch yr each mth

Kailali 94,430 36,906 39% 119,565 83,695 70% 46,789 3,342 279

Bardiya 59,569 16,347 27% 75,425 48,272 64% 31,925 2,280 190

Banke 67,269 33,882 50% 68,413 51,309 75% 17,427 1,245 104

Morang 167,907 69,939 41% 212,599 150,946 71% 81,007 5,786 482

Siraha 98,754 18,730 19% 125,040 74,399 60% 55,669 3,976 331

Mahottari 94,229 16,785 18% 119,310 70,393 59% 53,608 3,829 319

Rautahat 88,162 15,150 17% 111,628 65,302 58% 50,152 3,582 299

Chitwan 92,863 73,412 79% 117,581 105,234 89% 2,273 189

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Sanitat ion coverage in Nepal




An MBA graduate who was running asuccessful restaurant in Thamel, DeepeshBudhathoki quit the restaurant business torun a solid-waste compost plant and anorganic farm. This paradigm shift, althoughhe att ributes it to his poor health and late-night schedules in the restaurant, was fuelledby his father’s passion for the field and hisbotanist mother’s technical guidance. Putt ingall his efforts into collecting and recycling/ composting waste, Budhathoki has beenproviding a cheap and reasonable way out forsolid waste that is finding no firm way ofdisposal in Kathmandu, while at the same

time advancing to a lucrative career. Hiscontention is that the world is facing a foodcrisis because agriculture is gradually beingdisplaced either because people are gett ingengaged in other activities or that the fertilesoil is being contaminated due to excessiveuse of chemical fertilisers/pesticides.Budhathoki believes that the entire crisis canbe overcome by going organic. Yes, he knowsthat chemical fertilisers give instant benefit,but those benefits amount to nothing in thelong run because the chemicals will ultimatelykill the fertility of the soil. As a middle path,he says he would prefer the use of “mixed

fertiliser” because ordinary compostfertilisers do not contain as much chemicalsas are required for the crops. But resourceslike bone meal and oil cake which are requiredfor composting are not easily available; healso feels that it ’s the lack of awareness amongthe farmers that compels them to usechemical fertil isers excessively.

“Composting is showing a growingtrend; it s future prospect is good becausepeople are gradually becoming conscious ofnutrit ion, health and hygiene. People paypremium amounts for organic vegetablesnowadays because they are health conscious

and want to stay away from vegetablesproduced by using chemical fertilisers/

pesticides,” he says. It has been a year and ahalf that he started the four ton/day-capacitycompost plant, but the current productionlevel is at one ton per day due to insufficientsolid waste which he gets from the Kalimativegetable bazaar. Initially, he was working ona trial basis, but now he has achieved somesort of perfection in decomposing solid waste,and has been able to think of capacity building,mechanisation and going commercial.

Composting helps get rid of solid waste,70-75 percent of which is organic; it also getsrid of our dependency on chemical fertilisers/ pesticides from foreign countries. Along with

fertilisers, Budhathoki has also beenproducing bio controls, pesticides likeTrichoderma harzianum, Viridie pseudomonas,and Bacillus. He points out that Trichoderma is the best—albeit slow in its effect—forfungal infections in plants, except mushroom;and it has also multiple functions with its usesas fertilizer and pesticide

For Budhathoki, the initial days of runningthe plant were all about experimentation withfertilizers and pesticides—much more sobecause of the contrasting topography ofNepal—mountains and plains. It’s only recentlythat the trial sessions came to an end.

Budhathoki has his complaints against thegovernment. He says, “The government isacting ignorant and neglecting an area wheregovernments of developed nations and evenIndia are showing great interest. Themonitoring of the quality of compost leavesmuch to be desired. The quality of fertilisersdiffers from place to place—normally, thereis a country-specific standard, but in Nepal,the standards have not been specified by theagency concerned.” The Department ofFertiliser, Ministry of Agriculture, is thegovernment body supposed to be in chargeof the sector, but i t’s conspicuous by its lack

of action, says Budhathoki. On its part, thefertiliser department ought to bring out soil-

friendly policies—it’s only then that thepeople would be encouraged to do the kindof business that Budhathoki is doing. This

also means the government should draftentrepreneur-friendly policies. Budhathokisays that the government needs to play therole of a facilitator and open up “efficientpaths” for entrepreneurs like him by offeringsubsidies on equipment and/or othermaterials required for the plant.

TurnoverBudhathoki aims to upgrade the capacity

of his plant to 5-6 tonnes per day over a periodof the next one and a half years. He revealsthat the profit margin is about 10 percent,and the average selling price Rs 15/kg, giving

him a net profit of Rs 1500/day by producingone ton/day of compost fert iliser.

Distr ibut i on netw orkHe distributes his products via agro-

vets, co-operatives, farmers’ groups andNGOs. Currently, his market is spread overthe periphery of Kathmandu, in places likeDhading, Kavre and Bhaktapur. He now plansto expand it to Panchkhal, Kaski, Chitwanand Makwanpur. In the meantime,Budhathoki has also been conducting trainingsessions for farmers at his compost factory,which, he says, would be both beneficial to

the farmers and his own business.

THE ORGANIC PATHDeepesh BudhathokiMD, Nepal Kalpabr iksha, www.nepalkalpabrik sha.com

FEATURE

to achieve cent percent sanitation coverageby 2017 as per which, approximately 14,000latrines need to be constructed each monthfor the next 12 years,” says Kamal Adhikary,sociologist, DWSS, Environmental Sanitationand Disaster Management Section. He says,“The allocated central budget is utilised in twoways—a water supply project embeddingsanitation promotion or stand-alone sanitationcovering only hygiene issues; besides, in

collaboration with private organisations, weconduct advocacy and awareness campaigns

through radio and TV advertisements. Inaddition, DWSSalso sees to it that the budgetsof the District Development Corporation,Village Development Corporation andmunicipality are used to improve the localresources for sanitation—these bodies haveadequate budget, insti tutional strength andcommunity penetration, but lack adequateorientation towards sanitation. The perceptionof the toilet as a tangible indicator of sanitation

has changed now. We borrowed the newconcept from the South Asian Conference on

Sanitation (SACOSAN)—held in Bangladesh in2003— that when we talk about sanitation,we make sure that the area is Open DefecationFree (ODF). Since then, we have also beenenhancing Community-led Total Sanitation andSchool-led Total Sanitation programmes, andhave declared 55 VDCs, 250 school catchmentsand 250 communities as ODF. On a small scale,the trend has had a sweeping effect.”Meanwhile, under the aegis of DWSS, the

National Hygiene and Sanitation Master Planhas been formulated recently. It is a strategic

FEATURE



92 the boss 15 Jun - 14 Jul 2010

vision document on how the scattered effortscould be synchronised and how the fundingmechanism could be streamlined. A steeringcommittee involving representatives fromMoLD, MoPPW, MoHP, MoE has been formedto materialise the master plan whose agendais the declaration of ODF zones, total sanitationstrengthening, capacity building of usercommunity, and reaching seemingly

inaccessible rural areas. This master planultimately targets poverty alleviation.

Although Kathmandu is 100 percentequipped with latrines, the capital, apparently,is more unsafe than the rural areas—again,the state of the Bagmati river being a soreindicator. Adhikary comments, “The efforts atcleaning Bagmati are ceremonial—good interms of advocacy/awareness point of view, butwithout a tangible output. A special fund is amust if we want a clean Bagmati, guided by astrong institution run under regulatorymechanisms. It’s not that nothing is being donein the case of Bagmati—there’s been a lot of

effort, but it all ends up nowhere due tofrequent changes in the

government. There is a seriouslack of synchronisation in theefforts to make them have a

cumulative impact.” Tuladhar looks at thematter this way: “There are plenty of solutionsfor cleaning Bagmati, but they have only beentaken up on a small scale by organisations likeNepal River Conservation Trust, Friends ofBagmati, Bagmati Service Commit tee, RotaryClub Yala, etc. What’s lacking is centralisedinstitutional-level treatment. Bagmati’srecharge sources have slumped—as in the case

of the Sundarijal’s water which has beendiverted for drinking water purposes andgroundwater generation. Massive urbanisationhas also played a big role, what with all theconcrete structures of Kathmandu. The onlyway to revive Bagmati is to recharge it withtreated waste water. A Waste Water

Management (WWM) model has been put forthby the government as a Bagmati Action Plan.Here, the government should play the role ofa facilitator and encourage private players tobe involved.” Some of the challenges that thecentralised waste-water management is facinginvolve the transportation of waste water tocollect it at the central plant, and the installationof a high-tech central plant which cannot

presently be borne by Nepal’s electricitysupply; therefore, Tuladhar points out: “Themore practical way to go about it is localisedwaste-water treatment. Nevertheless,decentralised treatment alone cannot be asolution for a city like Kathmandu; we shouldgo for combined waste-water treatment.”

Hari Govinda Prajapati’s

family used to manufacturegoods out of clay, and back

in 1980, they startedmaking clay water filter

tanks by fixing Indian

candles and sold them.

Later in 1987, on receivingtraining from the Ceramic

Promotion Project,Prajapati became a lab

technician and gained the

technical know-how of manufacturing filter candles. Prajapati says,

“The candle-making business could not last long as we do not get

white clay in Nepal; even other raw materials as well as steel caps

CHEAP AND BESTHari Govinda Pra japat iPioneer CS Filter manufacturer, Madhyapur Clay Craftwww.solutionsbenefitinglife.com

needed to be imported which made our candles more expensive than

the imported ones.” This halted his filter candle production until2004 when he came to know about a more advanced filter system, the

colloidal silver (CS) filter disc, and started producing it. As it was

totally new for Nepal, that year, he was able to sell 30 filters only. But

today, his annual sales have crossed more than 2000 filters. He sellsCSfilters largely to the rural areas—as it turns out to be cheap—but

faces problems in transporting them because they are made of clay.Therefore, he started manufacturing the filters in different parts of

Nepal—Kailali, Nepalgunj, Deukhuri, Tulsipur, Nawalparasi, Kapilbastu

and Damauli—for their distribution in those areas. Prajapati also trained

people in those areas on how to make filter tanks, and supplied themwith the CS filter discs. He has set a distribution channel through

cooperative societies in the respective districts. He is the only CSdisc producer in Nepal; therefore, he faces no competition.

CSdiscs are much more efficient than filter candles because their

filtration rate is 16 times higher, cost half the price, and the raw

materials are available in the country itself. Prajapati claims, “The CSfilter that we have been producing is probably the cheapest filter in

the world, which is capable of filtering substance as small as microbes

and keeping the water cool. The 18-litre filter costs Rs 500.”

The government-endorsed Bagmati ActionPlan should be implemented, which will

certainly solve the seemingly unmanagableproblem because Bagmati is a small river and

Kathmandu is a small city in comparison to

highly polluted cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

BHUSHAN TULADHARdirector, ENPHO




Farmers in Siddhipur, Lalitpurwho have been applying human urine asan organic fertiliser in their farmland, tookan innovative initiative for environmentalsanitation by establishing the first UrineBank in Nepal. The bank started itsoperation on 17 May with the support ofNGOs EAWAG (Swiss Federal Institute of

Actually, there are four centralisedwaste-water treatment plants in the valley,but all of them non-functional—likeGuheswari because of poor management andelectricity supply, and Sundarighat because thewaste water never gets there. Tuladhar claimsto have a completely sustainable model for

Bagmati, which includes Shivapuri watershedarea protection with minimal use of chemicalferti lisers/pesticides in the surrounding area,use of toilets for disposing excreta, waste-water management of houses constructed in amassive scale in the downward region, andthen the recharging of Bagmati with therainwater that collects at the TIA premises.Tuladhar says, “By taking these steps, the entireBagmati can be recharged. But it has to be acombined effort—waiting for the governmentto get everything done is simply silly.” Hesays that individual households, hotels andoffices should be encouraged to recycle waste

water to save the subsurface water, the levelof which is decreasing by the day at a highrate. Says Tuladhar, “The government-endorsed Bagmati Action Plan should beimplemented, which will certainly solve theseemingly unmanageable problem becauseBagmati is a small river and Kathmandu is asmall city in comparison to highly pollutedcities like Delhi and Mumbai of India.”

Another key problem adding stench tothe Bagmati is the existence of slums alongits banks. This is detrimental to both - theslums heavily contribute to the pollution ofthe river and it is a matter of health hazard for

those who dwell along the flood plains.Therefore, they should be relocated to someother places for the betterment of both. Ifthe slums are relocated to some other placesthen corporate houses like VOITH, ChaudharyGroup, Hotel Dwarika’s and many more areready to build gardens along the banks ofBagmati as a part of their CSR.

SOLID WASTE

Dipendra B Oli, legal officer, Solid WasteManagement and Resource MobilisationCentre (SWMRMC), Ministry of LocalDevelopment, says, “Solid Waste

Management (SWM) has been guided by twolegislations—the Solid Waste Managementand Resource Mobilisation Act which governsthe centre and Local Governance Act; and theLocal Governance Act Article 96 Ga 7 whichdefines that the solid waste should beregulated by the municipality, with itsresponsibilities including collection,transportation and final disposal of waste tothe dumping site of the valley, and providingtechnical assistance (municipality/HR capacitybuilding and landfill site selection) to themunicipalities outside the valley. The dailyactivities should be handled by the

municipality itself, whereas the constructionand maintenance of the landfil l site ought to

FEATUREFEATURE

Aquatic Science and Technology) and UN-HABITAT. Urine collection centres havebeen established in other parts of thevillage to ease the farmers in collectingurine from the bank.

In the past, villagers had to depend onchemical ferti lisers, which offered theminstant benefit of high yield but loweredthe nutritional value of crops and decreasedsoil productivity to a greater degree.Hence, they began using fertilisers derivedfrom urine which is eco-friendly and

doesn’t cause any harmful healthimpact. Urine is diluted by addingsufficient amount of water prior toits application in cultivation.

A staff does door-to-doorcollection of urine and brings it tothe bank. Thus collected urine is

stored in two reserve tanks, each with a1000-litre storage capacity. The bank

provides urine to the farmers at the rateof one rupee per lit re to generate fund forits operation and management. Fiftypercent of the amount raised in this way issaved in its own bank account, while theremaining is paid to the staff.

URINE BANK IN

SIDDHIPUR SETTINGAN EXAMPLE

be handled by the centre.” But Tuladhar findsa major discrepancy in the Act. He says, “Wekeep hankering after the dumping site, butthe ground reality is that we should be tryingto learn about solid waste managementthrough recycling/reusing.”

Of late, SWMRMC has started makingefforts to recycle SW via different ways, but onsmall scales—composting, vermicomposting,paper recycling and biogas production. Oliopines, “Although they are being done on a

The government has formulated policiesto encourage the public to invest in ventures

which use solid waste as resources; theencouragement comes in the form of land

lease, and tax rebate on the equipment beingused for recycling the waste.

DIPENDRA BAHADUR OLIlegal officer, SWMRMC, MoLD

small scale, they are proof that solid wastemanagement can be done on a large scale byimprovising on these practices.” Since solidwaste management is being carried out in ahaphazard manner in the major cities of Nepal,SWMRM is attempting to solve it by takingsolid waste as a resource and utilising it insteadof simply dumping it—the project is to be apublic-private partnership venture, and already11 bidders have been short-listed. Says Oli,

“The government has formulated policies toencourage the public to invest in ventures

which use solid waste as resources; theencouragement comes in the form of landlease, and tax rebate on the equipment beingused for recycling the waste.” But Tuladharcounters, “SWM entrepreneurs have not beengetting such facilities and they are onlyconfined to documents. Yet, they have beengenerating substantial amount of income fromthe business. There are about a dozenentrepreneurs running compost plants ofvarious kinds.” The SWM Act 2066 has been

tabled in the parliament, but has not yet beenpassed, and the reason for it , says Tuladhar, islack of priority accorded to the sector. SaysOli, “Policy implementation is lacking largelydue to the lack of local government—electedlocal bodies. SWM is not the topmost prioritybecause there are a lot of other problems thecountry is facing. Still the budget for SWM hasbeen increasing annually, but the centralbudget on solid waste is focused on

Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur and Biratnagaras ‘Phase 1 districts’.”

Water, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management - It can't get any messier

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