Biodiversity Nepal
For the Future Generation

Critical Scenario of Sewage Management in Nepal

Bagmati is already dead, but we are happy to announce it as Holy River.

Bagmati River at Pashupati. POST PHOTO:PRAKASH CHANDRA TIMILSENA

Wastes are those discarded materials or things that cannot be further processed into something usable or profitable. This concept of waste is rarely understood by people, if closely observed. This is because almost every material is being discarded even after a single-use.

Animal excreta (dung) and kitchen waste that were previously regarded as waste or just used as manure only, are turned into both biogas and excellent manure. This has reduced the use of firewood and increases the high prospect of facilitating these biogas plants.

However various concepts and profitable businesses for recycling and reuse of plastic waste and other household waste had been established long ago. These businesses convert waste that we had discarded or thought of no use into dollars and are gaining high profit.

Even the business of waste pickers and local scraps collectors and dealers generate significant profit. The various second-hand shop has been installed and repairing companies are setting up. An organization like Doko Recyclers has done remarkable work.

Almost 191,576 kilograms of resources are recovered by doko along with other associative partners. Waste pickers, itinerant traders and waste buyers, local scrap dealers, wholesale dealers, and reprocessors are other helping body for waste management in Nepal.

Conditions of drainage pipes in Kathmandu. Source: UNEP

According to Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC), 258,811 biogas plant had been installed from 2061 to 2074 B.S. there are almost 5,427,302 households in Nepal according to Nepal in data. This shows only 4.77 % of households in total have installed biogas plants all over Nepal. Moreover, no exact data are available on where human waste is used to produce biogas.

This is the silent killing issue which is degrading the quality of life of people day by day. India, the second-largest populated country has started the management of human excreta and converted into energy at a different level. Universities and institutions where this knowledge is provided had installed a practical system as an example on their own.

The local government has a startup with these projects. Being one of the neighbouring countries, Nepal failed in implementing these environmentally friendly, cost-saving, and energy-producing systems. None of the institutions is available with waste to energy mechanisms on their own in Nepal.

People are unaware of the darkest future that this generation is going to handover to the next. I believe no pristine river will be left. The purity of water, its characteristics will lie at one side of the news or somewhere on amazing scientific facts.

Bagmati is already dead, but we are happy to announce it as the Holy River. “A natural river needs room to breathe. Yes, with Kathmandu’s rapid urbanization, availability of land is an issue, but a river needs its banks, a little space to flow” said Deep Narayan Shah, a natural resource management specialist in an interview on TKP.

It’s a shameful matter for those institutions where knowledge is shared but its application lags behind the walls of those lectures and presentations. Neither the government nor the university has any proper plans to work up for sustainability. Students with the brightest research ideas are kept in the long queue for sharing their proposals and funds.

Biogas produced from this waste can be electrified and used for various purposes as a general one. For this idea, local bodies at their local level must think and expose their ideas, have discussions, and move forward working for their own shake.

This contributes a lot to increase its local revenue on its own. Local bodies don’t need to rely on others for waste management and energy generation. Their physical environmental status will sustain forever and biological diversity gets enhanced. The rivers gain its pristine form and religious and cultural aspects are also maintained.

Waste to Energy is the system-based approach to manage the wastes from every building and convert into various energy sources such as biogas, thermal power, generate electricity or nutrients rich manures too.

This system can be installed and run smoothly because those discarded things from our houses are turned into energy and returned back to us at a very low cost for a long time. Some places of Nepal had already used this system and need to foster it all over Nepal.

waste water treatment plant of Bagmati river. Source: Rising Nepal Daily

Installation of Wastewater Treatment Plant solely is not effective for River Cleaning Activities. Proper treatment of sewage before discharge, segregation of plastics, and wastage, etc. can play important role in preserving the aesthetic and ecological beauty of the river.

If not “open sewer than a holy river” will turn out into reality from these phrases.

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