<figure><img width="1500" height="1125" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13ad9c7e80680e0a9935jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Newly constructed public toilet in Patan Dhoka is being inagurated on 19 November, World Toilet Day. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>The tactile pavement leads into a reception area inside a cylinder-shaped red brick building. The user pays Rs10, and the staff hands out a token for turnstiles that lead into the male and female lavatories. Visitors do a double take. This looks more like the entrance to the London Underground than <a href="https://www.aerosantoilets.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a public toilet in Kathmandu</a>. The shiny new facility has motion-detector flushes, taps with sensors, a diaper-changing station, turbo-fan ventilation and a menstrual hygiene dispenser for tampons. The effluent goes into a biogas digester, rainwater from the roof is harvested in this new toilet plan that is being built across the Valley. The design was selected among top five projects at the Sarphati Sanitation Challenge during World Water Week this year. <figure><img width="721" height="960" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13b19c7e80680e0a9936jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Photo: PRAKASH AMATYA</figcaption></figure>“Our priority is to operate public toilets sustainably and hygienically, and making latrines comfortable, especially for women and people with disabilities,” says Prakash Amatya of Aerosan Sustainable Sanitation that has built six model public toilets ‘hubs’ in Baneswor, Mangal Bazar, Buddha Park, Tripureswor, Ratna Park. In 1980, only 2% of Nepali homes had toilets. By 2018, 97% of Nepalis had <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">latrine facilities</a>, and this improved hygiene and sanitation leading to a dramatic decrease in gastric infections, typhoid and other diseases, especially among children.Last year, amidst much fanfare, Nepal was declared ‘Open Defecation Free’, but the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Toilets-for,250" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">problem of sanitation and water-borne diseases</a> persist.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/do-not-fail-students-in-wash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Many schools</a>, for example, have toilets but no water for hand-washing. The facilities are poorly maintained, and so dirty that students prefer the outdoors.Functioning <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/where-to-take-a-dump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">faecal sludge treatment</a> plants are limited and with overflowing septic tanks and mismanaged household sewage systems, the waste often ends up in rivers.Across villages in Nepal, latrines built by local governments have been turned into storage space for neighbourhoods. Many in the Tarai still prefer to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">defecate in nearby fields</a>. The problem is even more pronounced in the case of public toilets. Only a third of the 84 public toilets in Kathmandu are operational and even those remain <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nature-calls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unhygienic and poorly maintained</a>. Most of the waste is left untreated and is often overflowing from septic tanks. <figure><img width="1500" height="1125" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13b39c7e80680e0a9937jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>A menstrual hygiene dispenser for sanitary pads at the Patan Dhoka 'hub'.</figcaption></figure>Now, the municipalities in the Valley are out to change that with the new model toilets. Aerosan’s designs incorporate an underground anaerobic bio-digester tank which turns the effluent into methane. The biofuel generated by the public toilet in Swayambhu, for example, is used by a nearby tea stand. The interior design is made as touch-free and hygienic as possible, and <a href="https://www.aerosantoilets.ca/copy-of-nepal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Aerosan</a> has installed flushes that use minimal water. The facilities are also women and disability-friendly, conforming to international safety and cleanliness standards. The ‘hubs’ now sees 500 customers a day, of which 59% are women compared to 13% in other public toilets. Amatya is aware that maintenance and sustainability are key for any public facility in Nepal, which is why the toilets pay for themselves, and are managed with strict protocols for operations and hygiene.“The major reason public toilets are not maintained or are dirty in Nepal is because cleaning and sanitation jobs are frowned upon and are reserved for those from the so-called lower castes. We are trying to change that outlook by dignifying the job,” adds Amatya.  <figure><img width="960" height="720" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13b79c7e80680e0a9938jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Budhha chok</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="1600" height="1200" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13b99c7e80680e0a9939jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Mangal bazar</figcaption></figure>The company employs 20 people at its six ‘hubs’, with each facility assigned three cleaners who are provided with gloves, personal protection equipment, work shoes, and other necessary equipment. Trained in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/covid-19-revives-nepals-wash-drive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sanitation</a>, each staff member is also ensured paid leave, medical insurance, a smartphone, and a monthly salary starting from Rs15,000. Aerosan has also established the Sanitation Workers’ Cooperative to help staff and marginalised communities through work placement programs. The government provides the land for the hubs, and the construction is financed through local municipal taxes. For now, Aerosan relies on grants to pay for the toilet fittings staff salaries. Aerosan is now working to mobilise more public finance to build the model hubs outside Kathmandu, and is looking at locations in Pokhara, Biratnagar, and on highway waypoints which are notorious for the lack of proper latrines.Says Amatya: “We need legal frameworks to maintain standards and norms in all public toilets, incentivise their use, and monitor management. Only then will we achieve sanitation and health for all in Nepal.”

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Toilet-trained in Nepal

<figure><img width="1400" height="1050" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110811110/636a28a59c7e80680e045883jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: SONIA AWALE</figcaption></figure>For someone who jet sets around the world, hobnobbing with governments and scientists to promote affordable and ecological toilets, Roshan Shrestha found out for himself just how difficult maintaining loos can be during a recent visit to his home in Nepal.The Seattle-based 55-year-old sanitation expert (pictured below) found that the septic tank at his family home below Swayambhu was overflowing. But he had no clue who to turn to, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/where-to-take-a-dump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how to get it emptied</a>. “I did not know where to go,” recalled Shrestha during a break at a Faecal Sludge Management Conference last week in Cape Town. “If it was so difficult for me, I can only imagine how hard it must be for the general public.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toilet trained</a>, Sonia Awale<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/where-to-take-a-dump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Where to take a dump</a>, Bhushan TuladharShrestha finally got in touch with a private service provider and got the problem fixed after a few days. With over 30 years of experience in improving sanitation, Shrestha was promoted last month as Deputy Director of the Urban Sanitation Markets at the <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</a> (BMGF).Shrestha is a leading authority in the field, and involved in the BMGF’s <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Growth-and-Opportunity/Water-Sanitation-and-Hygiene/Reinvent-the-Toilet-Challenge-and-Expo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reinvent the Toilet Challenge</a> that has scientists around the world competing for the best design of a new generation of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">toilets</a> that do not use water, are cheap to install and easy to operate.Shrestha has been recognised for promoting water and sanitation projects in Nepal with his new responsibility at the BMGF, a philanthropic arm of the founder of Microsoft.Says environmental expert Bhushan Tuladhar: “Roshan is passionate about sanitation, and does not treat it as just another job. He has great commitment and perseverance. His success is well deserved and it is only fitting that the foundation has recognised it.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/getting-our-shit-together/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Getting our shit together</a>, EditorialThe Gates Foundation’s Brian Abrogast said of Shrestha’s promotion: “Roshan Shrestha has been the best ambassador the foundation could ask for, exuding respect and compassion while generating admiration – and impressive results.”The BMGF’s toilet challenge has prompted top scientists from China, India and other parts of the world to come up with innovative new designs, from solar-powered smart toilets that generate hydrogen and electricity to sanitation systems that convert human waste into biological charcoal, fuel gas, minerals and clean water.Shrestha had humble beginnings in a public school in Kathmandu before getting an MSc from Tribhuvan University in 1988. He worked in a water analysis laboratory to test the water in the Bagmati River. And later founded <a href="http://enpho.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Environment and Public Health Organisation</a> (ENPHO) that specialises in research and monitoring. Later, he got a PhD from a university in Austria in limnology, the study of inland water bodies. On his return, Shrestha successfully marketed the popular water purifier called Piyush.Shrestha went on to introduce Nepal’s first wetland system in Dhulikhel for small-scale wastewater treatment and reuse, and designed Nepal’s first faecal sludge treatment plant in Teku in 1998.“It was at this point that I realised that water quality would never improve without upgrading sanitation. At the root of water pollution is poorly managed sanitation,” said Shrestha, who then became involved in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/dont-wait-for-melamchi-nepal,3765" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rainwater harvesting</a> and turned his residence into a model eco-home complete with urine diversion dry toilet.After a stint at UN HABITAT as a South Asia region technical adviser, he was convinced toilet technology had to be less water-intensive to improve sanitation in the developing countries. “We claim to have over 90% <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/getting-our-shit-together/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">latrine coverage in Nepal</a> but most structures do not meet required standards, and that is why we need a new breakthrough in toilets,” said Shrestha.The Gates Foundation has invested heavily in developing new  technologies that can destroy pathogens on site through faecal sludge management.“If a vast country like India can clean up its act, why can’t Nepal? All we need is political will and proactive leadership committed to improving sanitation,” adds Shrestha, whose foundation is currently developing a new course on sanitation at Kathmandu University, and working with Nepal Bureau of Standards on a new <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15235#.XHfVCMAzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">toilet</a> standard.Here in Cape Town at the global conference he helped put together,  Shrestha says his goal is still to go back to Nepal: “I plan to head home, but after we have developed an adaptable technology for safer sanitation in developing countries so we can promote it in Nepal as well.”

Sonia Awale

Toilet trained expert

<figure><img width="1400" height="1016" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111148/6368e2aa9c7e80680e03333ejpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>RAW FOOTAGE: A drainage pipe emptying raw sewage into the Manohara River in Kathmandu on Thursday morning. Swollen with overnight rain, the river carried human excreta, dead animals, plastic bottles and other refuse just upstream from its confluence with the Bagmati. Pic: Bikram Rai</figcaption></figure>After a <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16988#.WxoJx-6FO70" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cholera epidemic swept Jajarkot</a> in 2010 killing 300 people, mostly children, the government was jolted to action. With help from UNICEF, it launched a campaign to make all of Nepal’s districts open defecation free. The drive has saved many thousands of lives. A toilet is no longer just a place to relieve oneself, it has become a health facility. At the end of another National Sanitation Week, three more districts including Lalitpur have been declared open-defecation free. Nearly 97% of Nepali households now have latrines.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toilet trained</a>, Sonia AwaleThe campaign has shortcomings: many toilets are poorly maintained and lack water supply. However, Siddhi Shrestha of UNICEF says, “Nepal’s progress in sanitation is a global success story. It changed the mindset of people, a toilet at home became a matter of pride, more than just infrastructure.”The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/poor-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">health outcome has been dramatic</a>. In 2011, nearly 7,000 children in Nepal died of diarrhoeal dehydration, and it was the third biggest killer of children under five. By last year, that figure dropped to less than 1,000.But Bhusan Tuladhar of UN-Habitat has a word of caution: “While we celebrate Nepal’s success we now need to also work on managing what has accumulated in the toilets.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/where-to-take-a-dump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Where to take a dump?</a>, Bhushan TuladharIndeed, pit latrines and urban sewage have now become serious health hazards across Nepal.Kathmandu is one of 22 remaining districts still not open defecation free. The capital’s breakneck and haphazard growth has poisoned its rivers and turned the air toxic – making the city a symbol of governance failure. There are token cleanups and slogans, but no political will to address the crisis. Smart cities are those which treat and recycle their waste. Kathmandu is not a smart city, it has become ugly and dangerous for its inhabitants.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/getting-our-shit-together/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Getting our shit together</a>, Editorial Nepal urgently needs sewage treatment plants, and a mechanism for the removal, recycling and disposal of faecal sludge. In the absence of government initiatives, private entrepreneurs across the country are stepping in to set up collection services, and produce biogas and fertiliser from waste.Says Bipin Dangol of the Environment and Public Health Organisation (ENPHO): “It is time to think beyond toilets. Unless human excreta is safely disposed, we will continue to face health risks.”Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/%20jajarkot-open-defecation-free,2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Learning the hard way</a>, Sahina Shrestha

Nature calls

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111148/6368e2a39c7e80680e03333cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"/><figcaption>Bikram Rai</figcaption></figure>At personal, family, community or national levels, we Nepalis are generally not given to maintaining high hygienic standards. Waste management is not our forté. <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/recycle-reuse-reduce-garbage-kathmandu,1279" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Littering is a national trait</a>, we are genetically programmed to dump garbage at our own doorstep, we let household sewage flow into the drainage system which empties into the river we worship.Jesuit missionaries who were the first European travellers to pass through the Nepal Valley en route from Tibet to India in the 17th century described the towns here as the dirtiest they had seen in their journey. In those days, that was saying something.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toilet trained</a>, Sonia AwaleGranted, Kathmandu eradicated open defecation in the streets within one generation. But other than that, we have regressed in every other respect of urban management, acquiring an international reputation for polluting our rivers, poisoning the air, and tolerating squalour.Google <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/cleaning-up-everest,1408" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mt Everest</a>, and the top news items will be about <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expedition garbage</a>. Search <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/incompetence-of-kathmandu-airport-magnified-during-shutdown,2086" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kathmandu Airport</a> and this pops up: fetid toilets and a terminal building redolent with the odour of urine. Kathmandu is no longer known as a valley with historic temple towns, but a dust bowl with garbage landfills along a reeking river, and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Sick-city,108" target="_blank" rel="noopener">air so toxic it is unbreathable</a>.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nature-calls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nature calls</a>, Sonia AwaleWe spoke to anthropologists, urban planners, ecologists and governance experts to get to the bottom of this chronic failure to pick up after ourselves. They said the problem is not confined to Nepal: disregard for waste management pervades the subcontinent from Peshawar to Chittagong.Flush toilets were invented during the Indus Valley civilisation, but today Pakistan’s rivers are sewers. Mass defecation by the tracks greets passengers on early-morning train rides in northern India. Plastic landfills are new topographical features on Dhaka’s outskirts.Are there cultural reasons that span religions, ethnicities and nationalities for this regional inability to recognise and handle waste? Is it the inherent fatalism in our societies? Does it have a gender angle in our patriarchies? Are individualism, greed and selfishness factors? Are we hardwired to wallow in our own waste?Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/where-to-take-a-dump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Where to take a dump?</a>, Bhushan TuladharFinding an excuse in cultural determinism for unhygienic behaviour is a cop-out. The reasons lie instead in the failure of education, collapse of governance, lack of accountability, in corruption and impunity. It is <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-plastic-wars,612" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filthy politics</a> that force people to live in filth. Dirty streets are a metaphor for dirty politics.We are confronted with evidence of chronic state failure everywhere as we move around Nepal: the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/the-ecology-of-worship-bagmati,3380" target="_blank" rel="noopener">putrid Bagmati</a>, government hospitals which spread infections instead of curing them, vehicle emissions that have made Kathmandu so toxic the daily pollution average is five times higher than the WHO threshold.Nepal’s holiest temples are the dirtiest parts of its towns. Cremation sites, instead of evoking transcendence and spiritualism, feel like purgatory. Devotees throng festivals in uplifting mass displays of faith, but once the gods have been appeased, they go home leaving mountains of trash and the gory remains of sacrifices.<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/The-sewage-canal,1161" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cleaning up the Bagmati </a>every Saturday is a valiant gesture, but alas, it is doomed because it does not address the structural root of the solid waste problem. Two weeks ago this newspaper printed <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/industrial-scale-litter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an investigation into why plastic bag bans have been sabotage</a>d by successive governments: the manufacturers enjoy political protection.Plastic bottles are the new global scourge. We reported that Langtang Valley alone has 5 million discarded plastic water bottles, used once and thrown away. Yet, by placing a value on the bottles, they are now <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/virtuous-cycle/." target="_blank" rel="noopener">being collected for recycling</a>. To reduce single-use plastic trash, Nepal has to upscale such upcycling.This week, the world marks World Environment Day with the theme #BeatPlasticPollution. There is growing global awareness about ocean plastic that is killing marine life and contaminating seafood.Also in this issue we look at the government’s <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/%20jajarkot-open-defecation-free,2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open-defecation free campaign</a> which, although it has raised awareness and reduced child mortality, has concentrated on building latrines but not on sludge disposal and ensuring water supply. There is a danger they will spread the infections they were supposed to control.A civilisation is judged by the way it manages and disposes of its waste. Ministers sweeping streets for tv cameras, or donning masks to test vehicle exhausts are just for show. The government has to go far beyond tokenism with policy reform and its implementation.Smart cities are those which have learnt to generate energy, produce fertiliser and recycle raw materials from their waste. To be smart, Nepal’s municipalities do not have to reinvent the wheel. The solutions are all there. Just Google it.

Getting our shit together

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111148/6368e26c9c7e80680e033327jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1021" height="567"/><figcaption>LOADS OF CRAP: Asmin Lama came back from the Gulf to start a septic tank emptying venture. He has been so busy servicing clients, he hasn’t even got a license plate yet for his tanker truck. Pic: Bhusan Tuladhar</figcaption></figure>As Nepal marks National Sanitation Action Week, it is time for stock-taking. The statistics are dramatic: in 1990 only 6% of households had toilets, and that figure has risen to 95% today. The numbers went up sharply after the Sanitation and Hygiene Master Plan 2011 was implemented.Nepal could not meet its target of being open-defecation free by 2017, but the government is confident the goal will be attained this year, even though reaching the last 5% who either cannot afford to build toilets, or prefer not to have one, will be difficult.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toilet trained</a>, Sonia AwaleNepal has also signed up to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which calls for safely managed sanitation services, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater, and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse by 2030.While having a toilet in every household and putting up a sign declaring a district 'open defecation free' is a major achievement, it is only the first step. Having a toilet is different from using a toilet. A recent study by the Global Sanitation Fund Programme in Nepal showed that 3% of households in communities declared 'open defecation free' did not have toilets, and in 5% of families at least one member still defecated outside despite having a toilet at home.A bigger challenge is what to do with the excreta in toilets built in the last few years that have pits or septic tanks that are starting to fill up. Cleaning services for septic tanks are now a booming business, particularly in the Tarai.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nature-calls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nature calls</a>, Sonia AwaleAfter coming back from the Gulf, Asmin Lama of Itahari invested Rs3 million in a truck, which still doesn’t have a license plate since he has been too busy responding to clients who want their septic tanks emptied. Lama’s challenge is where to dump the contaminated faecal sludge.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111148/6368e26e9c7e80680e033328jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="619" height="542">At present, there are only three effluent treatment facilities in Nepal: in Pokhara, Gulariya, and Mahalaxmi Municipality east of Lalitpur. Human waste collected in Kathmandu by the 25 or so private trucks in operation just dump the liquid waste into the Bagmati.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/getting-our-shit-together/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Getting our shit together</a>, EditorialThe river also receives raw sewage from the 1,200km of sewer lines in the Valley. Four of the five sewage treatment plants in Kathmandu are unserviceable because of poor management, though the government has a $137million ADB loan to renovate and upgrade these plants and the sewer network.The Bagmati Clean-up Campaign marked five years recently. Every Saturday morning hundreds of volunteers wade into the river’s fetid banks to remove tons of trash. Although the river looks cleaner, the water is still smelly from all the raw sewage draining into it. The government occasionally pretends to do something about this problem, fining private sludge collectors, but in the absence of a treatment facility this is just an eyewash.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111148/6368e2709c7e80680e033329jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1711" height="959">Treating faecal sludge is not necessarily rocket science. There are a range of technologies from simply drying the sludge to more advanced systems. Last week, experts from 30 countries were in Kathmandu to discuss and finalise ISO standards for non-sewered sanitation systems, which would include treatment of faecal sludge.Doulaye Kone from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who chairs the ISO committee says he is willing to help Nepal come up with systems for managing its fecal sludge. But for this the federal and local governments need to look beyond toilets to establish appropriate systems for collection, treatment and reuse of faecal sludge. This can be done in partnership with the private sector, which is already engaged in the business.Nepal has a history of reusing human excreta. Gopal Singh Nepali in his 1965 book The Newars mentions that nightsoil as fertiliser cost 50 paisa per tin in Kathmandu Valley. People traditionally understood the value of waste, they realised it needed to be recycled, and had developed a system in which the private sector and waste generators worked hand in hand to manage this resource.Urine was collected separately in brass kopra containers and emptied in naugaa, the ash pit. Our ancestors understood that nitrogen-rich urine when mixed with ash or farm residue with high carbohydrate content made excellent compost.The challenge now is to revive such traditional knowhow in treating waste as a resource, and re-establish waste management as a business. Nepal is ready to take the next step beyond building toilets.Bhusan Tuladhar is UN-Habitat's Chief Technical Adviser for South Asia.