SODIS
PROMOTION
ENPHO
is in the process of monitoring the promotion of SODIS in
various communities. In this context, on November 4, ENPHO
organized a review meeting with SODIS promoters in Hetauda
and observed the activities in four communities. ENPHO is
promoting SODIS together with solid waste management in
Hetauda municipality where 17 trainings have been conducted
for about 500 households. Similarly, a one day refresher
training was organized for community health volunteers in
Bharatpur municipality on November 5. SODIS has also been
included in the female community health volunteers’
review meeting organized by District Public Health Office,
Lalitpur.
In
Sikkim, India, health assessment survey was done with children
under 5 years age group in Mazigaon community to assess
the impact of SODIS on health improvement. Two surveys were
carried out in control and SODIS users group. The result
showed high occurrence of diarrheal diseases in non-users
group compared to users-group.
PRE-TESTING
OF CLTS BOOKLET
ENPHO
initiated the pre-testing of a manual on community led total
sanitation (CLTS) which was jointly prepared by the members
of Resource Center Network Nepal (RCNN). RCNN is a network
of organizations aiming to facilitate knowledge sharing
by information collection and dissemination to promote and
improve water supply and sanitation services at community,
district and national levels with support of International
Water and Sanitation Center (IRC). The pre-testing of the
document was done amongst facilitators, motivators, user
committee & the volunteers at Lanagol VDC of Kirtipur
Municipality on Nov 16. A total of 12 persons participated
in the program and provided constructive feedbacks on the
content, layout and the language used.
INDOOR
AIR QUALITY MONITORING IN DANG
ENPHO
submitted an inception report to AEPC/ESAP on the on-going
project on “Assessment of Effectiveness of Improved
Cooking Stoves (ICS) in Reducing Indoor Air Pollution and
Improving Health”. The inception report mainly focused
on literature review, detailed methodology being/to be applied
for the study and the work progress up to now including
the preliminary findings of the first round IAP monitoring
conducted at Boch VDC, Dolakha last month. The study team
has recently completed the same first round of IAP monitoring
in Dang where a total of 16 households with traditional
cooking stoves (TCS) were monitored. The households were
selected in close cooperation and support from the Regional
Renewable Energy Service Center (RRESC) of AEPC/ESAP, which
was hosted by Center for Rural Technology Nepal (CRT/N).
The team is now preparing to leave for Ilam by early next
week, another district representing the mid-hill region
and is expected to monitor around 20 households currently
having TCS.
TRAINING
ON INDOOR AIR QUALITY
ENPHO
provided training on environmental and health impacts of
indoor air quality and indoor air pollution monitoring to
field based partners of Alternative Energy Promotion Centre
(AEPC)/Energy Sector Assistance Programme (ESAP), along
with several officials from AEPC on Nov 2 in Dhulikhel and
on Nov 22 in Godavari.
WORKSHOP
ON INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
Executive
Director of ENPHO, Bhushan Tuladhar, facilitated two strategic
planning workshops on Integrated Sustainable Waste Management
in Bharatpur and Nepalgunj. The three-day workshops were
organized by Practical Action Nepal and the respective municipalities.
REGIONAL
WORKSHOPS ON WATER QUALITY
Bhushan
Tuladhar, Executive Director of ENPHO participated as a
Resource Person at the “Regional Workshop on Water
Quality Improvement” organized in Pokhara from Nov
26-27 by Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS)
and UNICEF. The workshop, which had about 85 participants
from 16 districts, focused on water quality, drinking water
standards, water safety plans, and point of use water treatment.
The participants also visited two schools near Pokhara where
SODIS as well as School Led Total Sanitation Programmes
are being implemented. Similarly, Bipin Dangol, Programme
Manager was a resource person for a similar workshop organized
for the mid-western region from Dec 3-4 in Nepalgunj.
AGREEMENT
BETWEEN ENPHO & NATIONAL HORTICULTURE CENTRE
On
Nov 14, ENPHO and the Central Horticulture Centre at Kirtipur
signed an MOU to establish a Compost Research and Promotion
Centre at Kirtipur. ENPHO is already working with the Centre
to demonstrate composting and vermi composting of vegetable
market waste. The MOU will ensure that this work will be
institutionalized and expanded in the future.
PARTICIPATION
IN TRAININGS
- Project
Manager Rajendra Shrestha participated in an International
Training Programme on Water Safety Plan held in Dhaka,
Bangladesh from 14 Nov 12-14. ENPHO is in the process
of conducting some pilot projects to promote the implementation
of water safety plan in Nepal.
-
Program Manager Bipin Dangol and Project Officer Lerika
Gorkhaly participated in 2 days training on Arsenic Information
Management System (AIMS), conducted by DWSS/UNICEF from
Nov 29-30. The main focus of the training was to train
data entry persons and related stakeholders to use AIMS
database system.
ENVIRONMENTAL EXHIBITION AT CHOBHAR
On
November 24, ENPHO exhibited various eco-friendly options
on Solid Waste Management, Waste Water Treatment and Point
of Use (POU) drinking water treatments during a half day
exhibition organized at the starting & finishing point
of 8th Nepal National Mountain Bike Championship organized
by Nepal Mountain Bike Association (NMBA) and promoted by
Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). The participants under junior,
women, masters as well as open category observed the exhibition
and inquired about the application of simple technologies
like Composting, EcoSan and SODIS and rain water harvesting
at their households/institutions. People coming from adjoining
villages (Khokana, Bungamati etc.) en route to Jal Binayak
Festival and Adinath Mela also visited the ENPHO exhibition
stall.
MORE
TOILETS IN KIRTIPUR &CHAMPAPUR
ENPHO
has accelerated the construction of Ecosan and Sulav toilets
in Kirtipur and Champapur VDC as per the demand of the local
people. The owners are enthusiastic about the new toilets
and are urging other locals to construct new ones. In Champapur
VDC, improvement of traditional stone spouts has been initiated
with locals and construction phase has already begun. In
Kirtipur, common composting barrels have been installed
and Srijansil Mahila Jagriti Samuha, a local partner, organized
an awareness rally with support of Kirtipur Municipality
and ENPHO on December 1.
CLIMATE
PARADE
The
basic prerequisite for preparing a country and its individuals
to adapt with changing climate is to spread knowledge on
climate change and their effects. In this relation, ENPHO
in coordination with 15 other organizations working in the
field of Climate Change organized a Climate parade on Dec
8 in order to raise climate change awareness in the country.
More than 3000 participants joined the rally from various
sectors such as colleges/schools, organizations, media persons
etc. The rally, which began at 10 in the morning from Basantapur,
was addressed by Bhushan Tuladhar, Executive Director of
ENPHO at closing program.
MAINTENANCE
AND OPERATION OF AIR QUALITY MONITORING STATIONS
ENPHO
organized a training on operation, maintenance and troubleshooting
of PM10 and PM2.5 a air quality monitoring stations located
at six different places in Kathmandu. The training, held
from Nov 26-30, was delivered by a Danish engineer Soren
Hensen from INSTRUMATIC, Denmark. Participants from ENPHO
and Ministry of Environment Science and Technology (MOEST)
attended the training with practical sessions at the monitoring
stations.
RESEARCH
ON SOLVATTEN EFFICIENCY
ENPHO
has completed its efficiency test on Solvatten, a new technology
for point of use water treatment using solar energy. Various
tests were conducted in different climatic zones from June
to November 2007. Water samples were collected from local
sources and artificially contaminated to see the efficiency
of Solvatten in treating highly contaminated water. As Solvatten
also consists of filtration unit which removes big particles
containing in water, various turbidity levels of water samples
were tested to determine the effectiveness of Solvatten
for the removal of FC in relation with various turbidity
levels. ENPHO will soon organize a workshop to disseminate
the findings of the research.
FILTER
DISTRIBUTION
ENPHO
in coordination with Vision for Clean Water distributed
around 50 Colloidal Silver(CS) filters to the locals of
Adinath, Kirtipur. The filters were distributed as serious
need was felt to provide the people with drinking water
treatment option after coliform bacteria was detected in
the drinking water. This was confirmed after ENPHO carried
out the quality testing of drinking water which the locals
obtained from old water tanks. The locals were trained about
various point of use drinking water treatment options and
also briefed on the importance of health, hygiene and handwashing
technique.
INTERACTION
ON CLIMATE CHANGE
As
a part of its sharing Friday program, ENPHO organized an
interaction program in association with Green Youth Network
and Clean Energy Nepal on “Climate Change in the context
of Conference of Parties (COP 13)”. Bhushan Tuladhar,
Executive Director of ENPHO explained the current debates
regarding climate change and said that the government’s
effort to draw the world’s attention towards the threat
Nepal is facing from climate change is nominal. He also
urged that the government should pay timely attention towards
the possible impact of climate change in Nepal.
