I was born into a poor family of the Newar community in Kathmandu in 1966 and attended public primary and secondary schools. Despite, or perhaps because of my humble background, I was especially determined to do well and my hard work in school paid off when in 1983 I finished 9th nationwide among the more than 100,000 students who took the all important School Leaving Certificate Examination (SLC) that year. I was particularly proud that I was among the top handful of students in Nepal that year in English, because neither Nepali nor English is my mother language, as I come from a family of Newari speakers. Following the SLC, I enrolled in the “intermediate” course (like 11th and 12th grades in the US) in science (Biology), and again finished among the top ten nationwide. My strong academic performances earned me a Colombo Plan Scholarship to study Engineering in one of India’s best engineering colleges, Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College in Allahabad, from which I graduated in 1991 with a BE in Civil Engineering (specializing in Environmental Engineering), finishing among the top ten students at my college.
Following completion of my BE, I started my professional engineering career in 1992 by joining the Engineering department of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office (KMCO). My role in KMCO was challenging. I was involved in the design, development and management of all the construction work undertaken by KMCO, including being in charge of handling the solid waste management projects for Kathmandu. The national government’s Department of Water Supply and Sewerage, where I have been employed since 1996, has provided me an additional place to confront the challenges facing Nepal’s water system (both drinking water supply and for wastewater), solid and hazardous waste systems, their maintenance and future plans.
Nearly 80% of the nation’s population has access to safe drinking water supply, but Kathmandu, the capital and my native city, has for the last two decades been facing an increasingly acute shortage of drinking water. More than half the capital’s population depends upon ground water supplies, but ground water has been polluted due to untreated waste water discharge in to the rivers and extraction now greatly exceeds recharge at the rate of almost 60 millions liters per day.
Shockingly, Kathmandu, with a population of over 1 million, dumps almost all its sewage and solid wastes into or on the banks of the Kathmandu Valley’s two major rivers, the Bagmati and the Bishnumati. Currently, Kathmandu has only one small and inefficient wastewater treatment plant. Unless something is done soon, Kathmandu faces an ecological and a public health disaster. My life’s goal as a professional engineer and my plan if I am accepted into the Ph.D. program at the University of Hawaii is to develop and implement effective and affordable wastewater treatment plants and a ground water recharging program for Kathmandu.
Various sources of water are available for groundwater recharge. In recent years the use of non-conventional water resources including recycled municipal wastewater has received increasing attention worldwide, since it is available for reuse at a relatively low cost and provides a source of water even in drought season. Of course using recycled municipal wastewater for artificial recharge of groundwater presents a wide spectrum of technical and health challenges. Obviously, water of impaired quality can only be used with appropriate pre and post-treatment, and treatment gained from soil and aquifer processes. A major consideration is the possible presence of chemical and microbial agents in the source of water that are hazardous to human health and environment.
In 2001, I was fortunate enough to be selected for a Dutch government-funded scholarship to do a Masters in IHE (UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education), Delft, the Netherlands, where I chose to specialize in waste-water/solid-waste management (Prevention of Pollution Control branch in the Sanitary Engineering). After my initial educational experiences in Nepal and India, I was very impressed by the more practically-oriented nature of studies in the Netherlands. It was not possible for me to accomplish all the research work I am interested in, while in Holland, which is what drives me to pursue doctorate degree from the University of Hawaii and the East-West Center. I believe that, the development achieved by the US and its universities in the field of Environmental and Civil Engineering is unmatched.
In my Ph.D. research at the University of Hawaii and the East-West Center, I propose to study and explore various methods of wastewater treatment technologies (mechanical as well as biological) and basically, to deal with two problems. Designing the treatment plant is worthless until the appropriate treatment process is identified and available. Biological wastewater treatment technology identifying the nature and sources of contamination will thus cover the first part of my research, followed by the design and implementation to recharge the ground water sources.
The most popular wastewater treatment methods are simply amplifications of what occurs naturally. Microorganisms which would normally break down the waste products are cultured, harnessed, and pampered with "food" and oxygen so they break down the wastewater more quickly than usual. In general, obnoxious compounds are broken down and removed, and the water (with some impurities) is returned back to the ecosystem. It is my understanding that the city and county of Honolulu has six plants which use this natural method of treating wastewater, following which the treated wastewater is injected into the ground, discharged into a lake, or discharged into an ocean. Thus, I see Hawaii as an excellent place for me to study and observe this technology.
Mechanical treatment systems such as activated sludge, extended aeration or oxidation ditches may not be appropriate technical options of the poor country like Nepal. Facultative and aerated lagoons are often used to provide biological treatment but these treatments methods need large areas, which might also prove impossible for a crowded city like Kathmandu. Depending upon the influent characteristics and effluent standards, a fixed film system has been used in many cities of Australia, may be a viable option for Kathmandu. Following completion of the Ph.D., it would be my great dream to introduce the whole mechanical and biological treatment package of waste water treatment and reuse (especially in recharging the aquifer) to Kathmandu.
No comments:
Post a Comment