Kathmandu, January 26:

Thirty-one households in Narayan Tole near Maharajgunj of KMC-3 have recently constructed ‘up-flow bio-filters’ to treat toilet waste produced in their houses.

They have constructed two such filters spread in over 342 sq ft area with the financial and technical support of UN-Habitat, Action Aid Nepal and Lumanti.

Only 16 households in the area had toilets until a year ago. They used to let their toilet waste mix directly into nearby rivers. However, things have changed now. All the households in the area now have toilets. They have constructed a 180-metre-long sewer to channel the toilet waste to the filters.

The filter first separates solid and liquid wastes and treats the liquid waste. After the treatment, the waste water is flowed into the rivers while the solid waste remains in the tank. The bio-filters were constructed with Rs 2 lakh collected from the donors and locals. The locals have formed Narayan Tole Sudhar Samiti (NTSS) to take care of the filters.

Kalpana Karki, treasurer of of the Samiti, told this daily today that it collects Rs 35 per month from each household for the maintenance of the filters.

“Earlier, locals used to catch diseases like diarrhoea and jaundice because of the lack of a proper sewage system and toilets. After constructing the filters, we now have no such problem. We also take pride in being able to reduce pollution in rivers to some extent,” she said.

“We will use the digested

solid waste as fertiliser in our fields,” Karki said, adding, “Many people are showing interest in our project these days.”