1xbet

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 2018 Blog
Musings from Venus—A Collection of Thoughts

Of Shampoos and Conditioning< The first shock came when I ended up right at the back of the line in the ...

8 Mar 2018 Blog
My trip to Afghanistan

The question “Will you go to Afghanistan?” was not something I had expected to hear when I first joined the ...

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 ...

8 Mar 2018 Blog
Indoor air pollution from biomass fuels and health condition of the women in rural villages

My colleagues and I conducted a research study on the use of biomass fuel in the village and its effects ...

26 Jul 2018 Blog
Experiences from the Third International REDD+ Training at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand

When I confirmed my participation at the third International REDD+ training at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand, ...

21 Mar 2019 Blog
Every drop of fresh water matters, every little fish counts

The rivers of the Hindu Kush Himalaya provide numerous critical goods and services to nearly two billion people, residing both ...

8 Mar 2017 Blog
Kalchebesi’s Real Entrepreneurs: Women Spearheading Adaptation to Climate Change

Many experts and researches have claimed that women suffer the impacts of climate change more than men do. This is ...

13 Mar 2018 RMS
Empowering rural women: A shift from household chores to construction work

During recent fieldwork in Nuwakot, our team came across a group of women decked in safety gear doing construction work. ...