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
A society's progress can be assessed by looking at how women and children are treated in that society. In terms ...
The changes happening in Himalayan Rivers has been widely discussed in last decades which ranges from single catchment to large ...
Freshwater fish and fishing communities of the Hindu Kush Himalaya: looking at an oft-neglected ecological and livelihood challenge It would not ...
The handset shortwave radio finally crackled, 'Chimi ji, are you still there? Over!' asked Ngawang, the leader of the expedition ...
Calling cigarettes “torches of freedom” does not seem like a good marketing ploy by any stretch of the imagination. But ...
Growing up, our sense of the world – all that is right in it and all that is wrong – ...
With rapid urbanization and demand for construction materials in Nepal, brick kilns have proliferated across the country, providing livelihoods to ...
As I entered the conference hall on a cold December morning in Khalanga, Darchula, far-western Nepal, I noticed a group ...