This site uses cookies, as explained in our terms of use. If you consent, please close this message and continue to use this site.
Nuvodita Singh
1 min Read
A colleague and I were discussing the theme for this year’s World Water Day – Wastewater. Immediately my mind conjured images of industries and factories churning out chemical laden waste, of urban sewage systems, and of frothy rivers as a result. The common themes running through all these images are- ‘Structure’, ‘Organization’, and ‘Linear Systems’.
These systems are designed to take wastewater away for disposal from its original source of production so that the order of mundane operations can be maintained, notwithstanding the occasional spanner in the works. A useful response to the ill effects of these operations is the implementation of infrastructure such as wastewater treatment plants that essentially create ‘feedback loops’ in an otherwise linear system and help further the cause of the ‘circular economy’. This is easy to visualize for an urban setting where the ‘building blocks’ such as procurement of land, labour, and resources are already in place, or at least available at hand. It is also a very sustainable pathway for urban development.
But what of communities far removed from these cityscapes? What of rural settings that might be relatively disorganized, or informal settlements marked by the absence of those ‘building blocks’, or any structural sewage or waste disposal system? Let us look at ‘Exhibit A’, Naya Tola Bishambharpur (NTB), a small village in the floodplains of Bihar’s West Champaran district.
<<READ MORE>>
Share
Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.
Related Content
The scars over the hills of Jure village in Sindupalchok district, nearly 40 kms south of the Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, ...
Women are increasingly getting an education in underdeveloped/developing countries, despite this by no means being the norm (for example, according ...
We finally stood up. Our eyes were closed, our hands held in a circle. Our ears were pricked up to ...
Nepal is experiencing a massive out-migration of the youth and labour migration is becoming an important factor in securing an ...
The number of brick kilns is burgeoning in Nepal: even from ICIMOD’s rooftop you can see chimneys smoking away in ...
Freshwater fish and fishing communities of the Hindu Kush Himalaya: looking at an oft-neglected ecological and livelihood challenge It would not ...
Between the three highest mountain ranges on earth – Himalaya, Karakorum and Hindu Kush – the effects of climate change ...
I’m placing my foot carefully on a stable rock. This is definitely a terrain to break your ankle. Or, I ...