KATHMANDU, MAY 5

AEROSAN, a Canadian NGO currently working on the design and implementation of holistic sanitation services in the largest urban area of Nepal, has won a United Nations award for Innovation towards the Sustainable Development Goals of UN 2020 for its AEROSAN HUB, a model public toilet design.

The toilets so designed are community based, modern, clean public toilets. They especially tend to facilitate women and persons with disability with their full sanitary, menstrual hygiene management and baby's changing facilities, creating dignified jobs for minorities and featuring an integrated waste-to-value system.

AEROSAN has renovated as many as four toilets in Ratna Park, Mangal Bazar, Baneshwar and Buddha Park, and is currently constructing two new ones at Patan Dhoka and Tripureshwar, in the capital city.

Prakash Amatya, Country Representative of AEROSAN Nepal, shared, 'AEROSAN specialises in adapting technological, business, and policy solutions to challenges in the sanitation industry. Working with toilet operators, NGOs, marginalised groups, and governments, the innovators adopt a social public toilet business model with an improved design for women and children, a biogas plant that converts the waste into energy, bundle services to increase profit; it is ICT integrated and an evidence-based cleaning compliance programme.'

Furthermore, the organisation is working to establish 50 smart toilets in Kathmandu that will not only make cleaning job dignified but they will also let all use public toilets more confidently.

The organisation will be presenting its model to the virtual UN conference on May 5. Out of 1,000 competitors, AEROSAN has been selected for this invitation wherein David Gallagher, CEO of AEROSAN Canada, and Nepal's Country Representative Amatya will represent the organisation.