Published article entitle “Changing cities, building
opportunities with Eco-friendly technologies”
“One planet, one
experiment” is a quote by an American author, Mr. Edward O. Wilson which is
very true, as we have only one living planet, The Earth. We share it not only with our own races but also
with other creatures. Above all, Human beings are considered as superior, who always
keep on wondering and exploring new things for quality life.
The Earth emerges as
constant and unchanging planet from a human perspective. But in fact Earth is a
dynamic planet that keeps on changing.
Earth has faced different eras starting from Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Paleozoic, and
Precambrian. Within these eras different human races had passed million of year
form Stone Age to this Modern age. Human races have also adapted themselves
with these changes. They had fitted themselves and now are expanding and
discovering new things for new generation; developing new technologies and
products to make life easier and more comfortable.
As
we know development is a process of producing or creating something new or more
advances. It is gradual growth of something so that it becomes more advance and
stronger. The present world would be incomplete with out all these development,
which has changed the appearance of whole world. New ideas, new dreams, strong
determinations of humans are fully supporting all these innovations. With these
innovations, we are actually changing these cities to something diverse places
Along with change and development,
momentum of urbanization increases which leads rural areas to change into semi-urban
to urban. Rural to urban changes depends upon different factors like good
lands, natural resources, trades, migration, development, facilities and
opportunities. With urbanization land
use changes, resource utilization has increased creating more employment opportunities.
Every human being wants a better
living standard than where they are now. Thus, urbanization amplifies the
desires of rural people to move to the urban centers. Consequently,
today’s world is experiencing continuous population growth especially at the
urban areas. Development
is mostly concentrated in the urban areas which intend to facilitate
interaction between people and businesses, benefiting both parties in the
process. There is a widely availability of all the infrastructures of
development and also modern services like the internet and satellite
communication facilities in the urban areas.
Population growth is leading to all the resources problems
including water, energy. With increasing population, the demands
for every other resource required for survival increase. A time
when the number in the population exceeds the natural resources
available to sustain it, is termed as overpopulation. Over population leads to faster
depletion of resources and also creates environmental problem.
People used to use traditional skill in different sectors
like agriculture, industries etc. But along with development, technologies have
been changed from traditional to modern. With new skills and advanced
knowledge, people have invented new technologies, but that are still degrading
the natural resources, depleting it and clearing out all the remaining. Due to this voracious nature of man, resources have already been depleted
and now, we are still degrading what we had remained in our hand. Resources are
limited whereas, we have our next generation standing back to survive in this
same world.
More we develop more we degrade. So, Shall we stop the
development and start preserving environment and natural resources? The answer
will obviously be negative because development is essential and we should not
stop it, instead we should develop but in sustainable approach. It is time to
change the perception of development. Therefore, understanding the need of
present and future world, it has come up with the concept of sustainable
development.
Sustainable development
requires the implementation of appropriate environment friendly technologies
which are both efficient and adaptable to local conditions. It allows
improvement of livelihood while minimizes environmental destruction.
Deforestation, water
contamination, groundwater depletion and pollution, waste management are some
of current environmental issues in context of Nepal. Today’s citizens are aware
of these environmental issues. They are using different technologies including eco-friendly
technologies and also trying to adopt these technologies into their day to day
activities. Different stakeholders are involved in inventing and promoting
these technologies. States, organization and civil societies all are actors for
the development, holding respective responsibilities and duties. Coordination
between all these three actors is required to develop the whole nation. In
coordination with different governmental bodies and international organization,
different local organizations have been conducting different programs promoting
these technologies under different community development projects.
Among
some of organization, ENPHO is also providing its service continuously since
1990. ENPHO is service-oriented scientific, national non-governmental
organization that envisages contributing sustainable community development by
combing research and actions through the integrated programs in the areas of
environment and public health. ENPHO runs a government accreditaed laboratory
and promote eco-friendly technologies such as SODIS ECOSAN toilets, rainwater
harvesting and waste water treatment through reed bed systems.
ENPHO
with aim of creating eco societies and promoting eco-friendly living for
sustainable planet is conducting research and developing appropriate
eco-friendly technologies that are acceptable to local communities. It is also demonstrating
eco-friendly technologies and practices; developing and implementing effective
strategies to promote eco-friendly technologies; implementing community
development programs by networking with partners for coordination and advocacy
and enhancing organizational capacity.
As
stated above water pollution is one of major environmental problem in urban
areas of Nepal. This is due to the discharge of untreated waste water into the
river system which is turning the rivers of Nepal into sewerage. Although some
areas within Kathmandu valley have water treatment plant but they are not
working properly. To address this issue new technology was introduced in Nepal
and ENPHO was first organization to introduce this technology named as
“Constructed Wetlands”. Constructed Wetland is simple,
locally manageable, cost effective and excellent performance in removal of
pollutants using reed beds for wastewater treatment.
Ecological Sanitation,
in short ECOSAN is scientific and hygienic way of using human waste as manure.
In other word, this system serves the hygienic sanitation. It is a simple
technology used for the excreta disposal. It is designed to divert urine from
mixing with faeces, and aids low-income farmers to apply urine substitute to
chemical fertilizer, and composted faeces for agriculture. This system is very
sound in areas having high water table where, low cost pit latrines is
unfeasible to be constructed. This technology addressed the waste management and
ground water pollution issues of the country.
Similarly, to address
lack of potable water issue, ENPHO has introduced SODIS. Solar Disinfection (SODIS)
is another eco-friendly technology to treat drinking water. It is cost
effective, energy saving, simple and applicable technology and is one of option
to treat drinking water in natural condition.
All these technologies
are environment friendly. Promoting these technologies in rural areas, raising
awareness to use eco-friendly technology to promote eco societies, motivating
others to reuse waste water, reduce water scarcity, reuse and manage waste, increase
soil fertility and agricultural yield, reduction in fertilizer cost, reducing land
and water pollution and also modify these technologies to make it further more simple
and applicable. These are all the new opportunities that we gain from adopting
eco technologies.
From very beginning, we
had faced different changes and got different chance to prove our existence. We
still need more development but with sustainable and eco-friendly approaches. We should remember that we are not the only
generation that will survive here. So, let’s explore new
vicinity for developing all these technologies, let’s change cities and create
opportunity that takes development,
sustainability and environment friendly together with it.
Nagdaha : Eutrophication
Nagdaha is one of the important cultural and religious sites for many local people and habitat for many floral and faunal species. The geological origin of the lake is not known as the lake is being surrounded by farmland, there is no forest near it, except few trees, but there are many macrophytes inside as well as around the lake. This is the major source of water for the local people. Nagdaha is the tourism place, promoting internal tourists .So, the lake should be preserved for development of surrounding areas.
Nagdaha is facing “Eutrophication” as major problem, which is the process of increased nutrient input to a lake over the natural supply. Eutrophication is a natural process and may take thousands of years; however it is possible to accelerate greatly the rate of change through human activities like municipal waste water, industrial wastes, and runoff from fertilized agricultural lands. Also dying and decaying of Algal blooms enhance the rate. Decomposition of dead algae uses available oxygen, resulting in oxygen depletion.
The major objective of my case study was to find out the status of Trophic characteristics of the Nagdaha and its verification against proven Vollenweider Model, to study the impacts from eutrophication regarding to its cultural, dependency aspects of the people and to assess fundamental water quality for the prediction of free aquatic life survival in reference to some water quality parameters like pH, temperature, hardness, dissolve oxygen. The study was intended to develop the knowledge of eutrophication of the selected site, which in turn, helps in improving and preserving valuable lakes with similar problem. The study provided the information on the trophic characteristic of the Nagdaha.
Through my research I found following conclusion:
• Nagdaha is considerably productive which is due to agricultural runoff from surrounding catchment area and increased pollution by human, which is indicated by intermittent blooms of algae and other phytoplanktons in the lake.
• The observed normalized phosphorous and chlorophyll concentrations entailed that the lake was hypertrophic.
• The area of lake is shrinking because of human interference, increased productivity and siltation in lake.
• Depth of lake is decreasing due to siltation.
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