- Umesh Rupakheti

Background

 

Waste is a by-product of human activities which tends to increase with rapid urbanization, improved living standards and changing consumption patterns. Management of increasing amount of waste has become a major challenge in many cities in developing countries. If waste is properly used, it can be a valuable resource, but if it is not effectively managed, it can result in serious adverse impacts on environment and public health. Waste management is therefore a critical component within urban sanitation and it is also one of the most important and resource intensive services provided by municipalities and peri-urban centers. There are the ways to help reduce the burden of all this trash is by promoting decentralized waste management. Decentralized waste management means that waste is managed as close to its source as possible. Decentralized waste management begins at home where residents are taught about recycling and how to sort their trash appropriately. Organic or wet waste is composted at community level which can then be sold to farmers and landscapers. Dry waste is sorted according to type. The recyclable materials are aggregated and then sold to recyclers in bulk, who can then use the materials to create new products. The benefits of such a system are numerous: the amount of waste in the landfill is decreased, the local government saves money on transportation costs, air pollution and traffic congestion is reduced as fewer, large trucks are needed for transportation, waste is recycled to create useful products, and local jobs are created for those who collect, sort and manage the waste at the center.

 

In Nepal, urbanization is increasing at an alarming rate with 4.70 per annum (CBS, 2011) putting immense pressure on municipal services, particularly to manage the ever increasing amounts of waste. At most of the waste generated in municipalities and peri-urban centers are not being adequately managed thereby creating a serious health and environmental hazard. The history of centralized waste production in Nepal is not so long. With rapidly grown unmanaged city centers, a massive trouble has trapped almost all the cities across the country. The practice of centralized waste collection mechanism demands huge initial investment and high operation and maintenance cost. To overcome this problem, management of the waste at source level boundary is essential. 

 

Decentralized Waste Management System 
 

The integrated waste management system at community level transforms the waste to money applying simple ideas. The Layout shown above shows the conceptual framework of solid waste management at community level. 

 

Toilets coverage is basic indicator of sanitation. The toilet waste are, either discharged to sewer line, collected in pit/septic tank or used as feeding material for biogas generation.  Sewer lines are the facilities which transport the liquid waste to specified outlets. Drainage is constructed to give proper direction for surface run off. Pavement in pathways and open space are done to overcome muddy and slippery condition. Lack of toilets compels people to defecate openly. Direct discharge of waste to river produces pollution. Both of them help to spread out transferable and water borne disease. This increase the annual health expenses of family. The filled up pit/ septic tank requires expenses for cleaning/ removal. Without proper drainage and pavement in open space, the unwanted dirt may be transported inside house even into the kitchen which results unhygienic condition and ultimately leads to health hazard and economic loss. In one side, they loss saving, in other side, they become unfit for work due to illness. 

 

Waste Separation Buckets, generally provided to each household, in red, blue and green color to segregate solid waste at source. These buckets are also kept in suitable places of open spaces. Degradable wastes  which can be used as feeding material are collected in Green Buckets, degradable but which cannot be used as feeding materials are collected in Blue Buckets and non-degradable wastes collected in Red Buckets.  The waste collected in Red Buckets is stored in collection chamber. Those buckets are based on principle of waste separation at sources in very nominal cost or without cost.

 

Generally, the positive initiatives are highly appreciated. It brings recognition and develops new identity. Managing waste at community level do no harm against neighboring community. Many researchers, development practitioner, media houses of national and international level may visit to observe/explore the efficiency of system. On this account, community people must brief the system. As the briefing charge, they raise fund and some people voluntarily donate to encourage the community people.  These help to revenue collection and strengthen operation and maintenance fund.

 

Energy generation and fertilizer production from waste can be done with simple technology at less operation and maintenance cost. This stops the ‘burden transfer’ to the neighboring community. There are huge possibilities of exploitation of socio-economic benefit of waste. This has high internal rate of return in terms of energy generation and increment of agricultural productivity. The technologies are environment friendly. 

 

Solid waste can be managed by community and it develops entrepreneurship among community member. Households and community-based organizations (CBO) have important roles to play, not only as consumers or users of waste collection services, but also as providers and/or managers of local level services. In many low income residential areas, community-based solid waste management is the only feasible and affordable solution. The introduction of community-based solutions calls for awareness building measures as well as organizational and technical support. Local NGOs and community leaders may provide essential inputs towards building community capacity for waste management. Particular attention needs to be paid to the role of women, who normally bear principal responsibility for household waste management.

 

Solid Waste Management in Sano Khokana
 

Sano Khokana Settlement is a example against centralized waste management system. They have managed all the waste inside the community. They produce gas from toilet waste and degradable kitchen waste. They use slurry obtained from biogas digester in agriculture productivity. They also use waste water after treatment for irrigation. The systems were introduced in 2007."The settlement itself is a model eco-village by different media"(Adhikari, 2009,).  Locals of Sano Khokana had a problem in managing toilet waste, they thought of building a common storage system and link it with the Bagmati River which is 800 meters away from our village. Later, when they were told about this innovative idea and got financial support for setting it up, then they decided not to dump sewage in the Bagamati River. In a article, a journalist describes the impact of system: "because of this system, diseases spread due to dirt, especially, diarrhoea and cholera no longer afflict our village"(Sunuwar ,  2010) .

 

Gynanedra Maharjan, 57, resident of Lalitpur Metropolitan City Ward No. 22 (Sano Khokana) along with 5 other HHs use the biogas produced from digestion of human excreta and degradable waste. There are 47 HHs in Sano Khokana communities. All the individual toilets are connected to biogas digester, the degradable waste are fed in to digester, non-degradable waste are stored in temporary waste collection house and finally sold to scrap collector. Liquid waste from kithchen, bathroom, and latchet of slurry are treated on flow of Anaerobic Baffle Reactor and Reed Bed. The final effluent is usable water for farming, stored in a pond, and currently contributing on fishery.

 

Sano Khokana has regained its status of Model Community on July 2017. Before Earthquake 2015, people from different part of country and numerous students used to visit this community. After the big jolt, 24 HHs completely damaged, the waste management system got non-functional but people of Sano Khokana did not lose the hope. They dreamt to reconstruct the houses and system together. LUMANTI support group for shelter [who had supported on establishing the system in 2006/07] assessed the condition and tried to approach the donor  agencies, reported to her own partners.  On Jan 2016, REALL, UK based INGO and LUMANTI signed a partnership agreement to work on Sano Khokana along with other two communities in Kirtipur and Tokha Municipality.

 

"We should not pay high for waste collector, we can use excreta as manure and we do not require paying for sewer charge and we donot have burden of emptying septic tank in each 2-3 years. These are outstanding benefit from the system", says Buddhi Maharjan, 47, another Biogas user of Sano Khokana. Like Buddhi, other HHs are also happy on heavy decrease of the waste management cost. 

 

In fact, Sano Khokana Settlement is an example against centralized waste management system. They have managed all the waste inside the community. They produce gas from toilet waste and degradable kitchen waste. They use slurry obtained from biogas digester in agriculture productivity. They also use waste water after treatment for irrigation.  Community managed System like this can be a smart alternatives in places having clusters of households to obtain multiple benefits like obtaining biogas from their waste, their waste being managed, the forming of compost which is further utilized for agriculture, the waste water being utilized and water being saved for irrigation. 

 

People in Sano Khokana are reconstructing their households nowadays. Until July 2017, Only 7 HHs has started the construction out of 24 HHs. Mr Hiralalmaharjan has reconstructed home. Rest of the HHs are staying in temporary shelter.  The restoration of integrated waste management system enabled them to connect their temporary toilets to bio-digester which has reduced the risk of water contamination and contributed on improved hygiene condition. Ms. Dashmaya Maharjan, Female Community Health Volunteer is active on health and hygiene related awareness raising activities inside community. With sign of hope, she expresses: "Restoration of complete waste management system has encouraged the earthquake victims to rise again from rubbles and debris"

 

Who take care of the system? Mr. Surja,Lal Bahadur and Gyan Prasad Maharjan says, "Six HHs who are using gas are responsible to collect the waste and taking care of the system. The have turn of 5 days in a month. This has created indirect job to them. Instead of direct paying, Six HHs has got cooking gas in subsidized price. These HHs pay only Nrs. 150 additional cost on consuming gas. Normal market price of gas goes around Nrs. 450-600/- per month/family in the settlement. The subsidized cost is the reward to HHs who is taking care of the system. In communities, It has been set that each HHs has to pay Nrs 100/- per month for the cost of waste management [cost of liquid and solid waste management].  Normal trend in cities shows that a HH has to pay around Nrs. 250 to 300/- per month for sending the waste to transfer station. "Economically, the system is beneficial. We do not produce waste, we produce energy only", says Mangal Dash Maharjan.

 

The practice has been successful not only in creating totally sanitized community but also proved effective in connecting the community and creating a social bond of trust and harmony among the people within the community.  The system itself is the demonstration site for total package of environmental sanitation with economic advantage and livelihood strengthening. This practice is also of particular interest to the local bodies involved in management of solid waste.

 

With this waste management system, appreciable results and impacts have been achieved. This has been very effective in terms of improving the environmental sanitation of the village and thereby changing the traditional attitude of the people towards using the upcoming technologies. This has definitely boosted in the improvement of environment and in-house sanitation condition. The members of community, both male and female have contributed in the form of unskilled labor during the construction period. Thus, the feeling of ownership is dominant among the community members.  This has a direct economic impact in the community as the household had a burden of emptying the filled septic tank once in every year. Instead of paying charge for emptying the septic tank, community people receive free energy generated in the form of gas and organic fertilizer.   

 

Further, excess water from the sewer drain had to be diverted from the biogas plant as it is not good for biogas production, hence, waste water of the communities is managed through ABR (Anaerobic Baffle Reactor) and it is being used for irrigation purpose after treatment. This has again uplifted the sanitation condition as well as the water requirement without any constraints. The waste water which would have been otherwise simply flown improperly is utilized for the irrigation purpose benefitting the farmers and saving the fresh water as well.  People now come here to see and study community led biogas plant. This has created further opportunity to generate some income for the operation and maintenance of the system; furthermore it has changed their identity.

 

Matter of pride!
 

Generally, the positive initiatives are highly appreciated. It brings recognition and develops new identity. Managing waste at community level do no harm against neighbouring community. Many researchers, development practitioner, media houses of national and international level may visit to observe/explore the efficiency of system, which was known practice before earthquake.  On this account, community people must brief the system. As the briefing charge, they will raise the fund and some people voluntarily donate to encourage the community people.  These help to revenue collection and strengthen operation and maintenance fund.

 

The financial support from UN-HABITAT, REALL and technical support from LUMANTI has helped to taste the better solution in other two communities too. In Kirtipur and Tokha, Similar system has been introduced benefitting 44 & 76 HHs respectively. Briefly, for all the stakeholders who have worked to set up the model eco-communities, it is a matter of pride!  We do not produce waste, we produce energy only. It is an example of self-sustaining human waste, grey water and solid waste management systems to be operated in perpetuity, may serve as a model for replication in other low-income communities.

(This article is incorporated in a special bulletin published by Ministry of Urban Development, Department of Urban Development and Building Construction, on the occasion of World Habitat Day 2018)

 

References :

Adhikari S. (2009).Sano Khokana : A Model Eco Village .The Himalayn 

Times, p.14. August 28

CBS. (2011). National Population Census, Central Beureau of Statistics. 

Nepal: Government of Nepal.

Sunuwar D. K. (2010). Biogas Plant Facelifts Sano Khokana. The Kathmandu 

Post, p.3. October 21