Back to news
11 Apr 2017 | Blog

Waist-High In Wastewater

Nuvodita Singh

1 min Read

70% Complete
Photo Credit: Eklavya Prasad, MEGH PYNE ABHIYAN

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>>

Stay current

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.

Sign Up

Related Content

Continue exploring this topic

8 Mar 2017 Blog
Be Bold for Change: Gender Transformative Change in Nepal Mountains

Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to ...

26 Apr 2023 Cryosphere
Schoolchildren from the Himalayan valley of Langtang take in the changing world

Schoolchildren from the Himalayan valley of Langtang in north-central Nepal, 200 km north of Kathmandu, are acutely perceptive of the ...

9 Apr 2019 Blog
Stepping together for a sustainable future

As I entered the conference hall on a cold December morning in Khalanga, Darchula, far-western Nepal, I noticed a group ...

19 May 2019 Blog
Stepping up to the plate: Rediscovering wild edible plants for food, nutrition, and resilience in Nepal

For the Chepang, a highly marginalized indigenous community that primarily inhabits the ridges of the Mahabharat mountain range in Nepal, ...

22 May 2019 Blog
International Day for Biological Diversity 2019 “Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health”

Freshwater fish and fishing communities of the Hindu Kush Himalaya: looking at an oft-neglected ecological and livelihood challenge It would not ...

11 Apr 2016 Gender in Koshi
Water, Women and Livelihood Improvement

Water is the lifeblood of every household in Nepal's middle hills, but accessing it is a challenge. Hill hamlets depend ...

2 Nov 2016 Blog
Challenging misperceptions of far-western Nepal

Having never been to the far-western region of Nepal, my perception of Darchula was based solely on stories I had ...

20 May 2016 Blog
Mainstreaming Biodiversity: Sustaining People and their Livelihoods

George Washington once rightly said, “The most healthful, the most useful and the noblest employment of man is none other ...