Jhapa- The human waste treatment center built in Mechinagar-14 with a grant of NPR 78.1 million (7.81 crore) from the Gates Foundation, founded by Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates, has remained unused.

The foundation, through the Asian Development Bank, had provided this grant five years ago to process human waste in the municipalities of Mechinagar, Birtamod, and Buddhashanti in Jhapa, converting it into organic fertilizer.

As part of the funding partnership, the local municipalities contributed NPR 13.8 million (1.37 crore), bringing the total cost of the center to NPR 91.89 million (9.18 crore). The facility was constructed with the goal of processing human waste from the three local municipalities and producing organic fertilizer. However, five years after its establishment, no achievements have been realized. The equipment and many of the structures remain unused, and most of the facilities have become non-functional.

The treatment center, which was transferred by the Asian Development Bank to the Third Small Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector, has been managed and operated by the Fourali Small Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Consumer Organization.

The aim of the center was to process human waste collected from the three municipalities and produce organic fertilizer. However, during the five years of operation, there has been no successful testing of organic fertilizer production. Rajan Chimariya, the president of the organization, explained that the center has not been able to meet its objectives due to the lack of essential raw materials, skilled workforce, and operational resources.

“Each month, 150 tankers of waste are needed for processing,” he said. “But we never receive more than 18 to 30 tankers a month. Private tankers have been dumping waste into rivers and forests to avoid the fee of NPR 500 per tanker.”

Private tankers charge NPR 500 per tanker for waste disposal, while the center’s own tanker charges NPR 3,000 to transport waste from residents’ homes.

Out of the 28 tanks built for processing waste, only 14 have been filled in five years, while the remaining 14 tanks remain empty. The state-of-the-art laboratory, set up for chemical and biological testing of waste, water, and organic fertilizer, has never been used due to the lack of skilled technicians. The organization’s secretary, Premraj Ghimire, mentioned that the center has been running at a loss of NPR 300,000 annually.

“The donor provided the infrastructure, but we were unable to arrange skilled personnel and operational resources,” said Ghimire. “We believe that the center should be operated under a new public-private partnership model involving the government and the private sector.”

The donor had provided a tanker for transporting human waste, as well as a two-story building for office purposes, a laboratory building, numerous processing technology structures, and a permanent shed to store and dry the produced organic fertilizer.

Monitoring by Donor Team

On Sunday, a team from the Koshi Provincial Government and a British donor agency conducted a monitoring visit to the Fourali Human Waste Treatment Center, which has not been operational.

The monitoring team was led by Liza Ruge, a Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Advisor from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and Krishna Prasad Rajwanshi, Chief of the Water Supply and Sanitation Division of Koshi Province Government.

During the visit, Rajan Chimariya, the president of the Fourali Small Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Consumer Organization, along with the former president Lal Bahadur Thebe and secretary Prem Ghimire, briefed the team on the center’s condition, its issues, and the necessary resources and tools for its operation.

The monitoring team was alerted to the need for technical personnel for the laboratory, maintenance of equipment, an additional tanker, more manpower, and legal provisions to prevent private tankers from dumping waste into rivers and forests.