WASTEWATER TREATMENT IN NEPAL

About 45 years ago, my cousin Jagan went on a bike trip to Nepal all the way from Bombay, on his newly minted Rajdoot.  Ever since that time, I have been fascinated by this little land locked Hindu Kingdom in the shadows of the mighty Himalayas.  Dev Anand further kindled this passion with one of his more memorable movies.  I finally made the trip to Nepal in the year 2009,  needless to say, with a fair share of adventure that has dogged me on all my travels in India and abroad.

42. WASTEWATER TREATMENT IN NEPAL

 

XYZ Limited, a major tobacco and cigarette manufacturer ( among other business interests) have a joint venture cigarette manufacturing factory in a town called Simara ( Simra), Nepal about 100 Km by Road, South - South West of the capital city of Kathmandu.  Reportedly the Joint venture partner is the Royal family of Nepal (as with most other major industrial and business ventures in Nepal, I suspect).  Simara is a semi industrial town with several minor small scale industries : about 20 Km further down along the same Tribhuvan Highway lies the town of Birgunj, the preeminent land entry point to Nepal from across the Indian Border town of Raxaul in Bihar.  Birgunj with its Special Economic Zone status is a tax free haven for several Indian Companies who have set up shop there.  Simara boasts an airport ( ICAO code : VNSI ) serving the southern border of Nepal with India.

The purpose of our visit to Surya Nepal cigarette factory was to investigate and assess performance of the Wastewater Treatment Plant there ( A DEWATS treatment plant), and determine if the same could be replicated in their proposed new facility in Ranjangaon, near Pune.  Three other officers from the project cell of XYZ Limited were my companions on this trip to Nepal.  Neither Ranjangaon nor the surrounding areas are tobacco country.  The plant location was dictated primarily by an archaic section and clause in the Tobacco Licensing Rules of the Government of India.

We flew from Bangalore to Delhi, transferred to the International terminal in a World War II vintage rattletrap of a bus and boarded the onward flight to Kathmandu. Jet Airways had convenient connecting flights for the two legs of the journey.  From Kathmandu International airport, we were to hop across to the domestic airport, a short distance away, and get on the Buddha Air flight to Simara.

And Lo and behold, just as we stepped into the portals of the ramshackle domestic airport terminal, the Buddha Air Flight had taxied to the end of the runway, serenely revving up its turboprops, readying for take off.  No amount of pleading, cajoling and entreaties with the airport staff could bring the 14 seater back to the apron for our benefit.  Resignation writ large on our faces, we watched helplessly as fat Buddha took flight to the clear skies of Nepal with a disdainful tilt of its nose.

With the forced change of plan, the folks from XYZ Limited made some frantic phone calls, and an ancient boxy Toyota Corolla was arranged late in the evening around seven PM for the road trip to Simara about 100 Km from Kathmandu.  As the setting sun cast an orange glow over the valley, anticipation rising, I looked forward to the thrill of a drive through the mountains on a late December night. Honking and weaving our way out of the city, I saw long queues of vehicles at every petrol pump we passed by, fuel being in acute shortage in the Himalayan Kingdom.  Thankfully our car was tanked up for the trip to Simara.  We plodded through the busy and unruly city traffic, and were finally out of Kathmandu by about eight PM in total darkness.

Immediately outside Kathmandu, the mountain ranges took over : two beams of light, a little askew, battling the twin hazards of darkness and  light fog clinging to the mountainsides, we crawled around bend after bend in the road.  Lumbering trucks ahead, grunting and groaning in low gear, slowed us down even more. The biting cold of the winter night seeped into the cabin of the car, further adding to our misery.  The anticipated pleasure of the drive quickly turned into an ordeal of Himalayan proportions.

Relief came around midnight, when we stopped for dinner at an all night Dhaba at a nondescript village called Nibuwatar.  The food, hot and fresh was excellent and raised our spirits.  What gladdened our hearts even more was the good news that the road ahead was better, long stretches of it in the plains of southern Nepal, bordering the Chitwan National Park, a world heritage site.

The drive along the broad and straight carriageway of the Tribhuvan Highway brought a tear to my eye, as my mind harked back to a description of this very road, ridden over by my cousin almost 45 years ago on his Rajdoot motorcycle.  On a fine summer day, Jagan Swamy had set out from Bombay on his Rajdoot, traversing the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar then on to Nepal and back to Calcutta as the final destination. The bike was then shipped back to Bombay, while Jagan took the flight home.  His travelogue typewritten on 20 pages and circulated to friends and family was the very first of this genre of writing for me : I have read and reread his story several times, with undiminished pleasure and awe, and always with a twinge of envy.  This was the seminal event in my life, sparking in me a lifelong passion for the romance, the mystery, the adventure and sheer pleasure of travel into the unknown.

 Jagan the rakish, swashbuckling adventurer passed away in Dubai at the young age of 42.  R.I.P

It was the wee hours of the morning when we finally hit the sack in a Lodge in Simara, mentally and physically exhausted.  The eight hour drive, punctuated with a flat tyre on the way, was one adventure I could have gladly done without.

The DEWATS system of waste treatment, a glorified version of the age old septic tank followed by an upflow filter was inspected the following day at the factory of Surya Nepal.  The trick of the trade in this technology is to provide a settling tank at source for each stream of wastewater, before it reaches the DEWATS treatment plant.  The technology was approved by me for implementation at their new facility at Ranjangaon, with a small aerobic stage of final treatment in place of the reed bed system in the original DEWATS design.

The journey back from Simara to Kathmandu by air that evening was not without its share of excitement and a minor flutter.  In the security frisking booth, my wallet was opened by a snub nosed Nepalese Armyman, whence he extracted several 500 Rupee Notes and was proceeding to confiscate them.  I was not aware that the Indian 500 rupee note was contraband commodity in Nepal.  I came to know later that this prohibition was on account of huge influx of counterfeit notes via Nepal courtesy the infamous ISI of Pakistan.   I had to leave behind a 50 Rupee note to retrieve the rest of the loot.

The flight from Simara to Kathmandu was delightfully pleasant.  It was just up and over, across a mountain range and before I knew it, we had landed in Kathmandu in all of 20 minutes from start to stop.  The foolhardiness of the self inflicted ordeal of the road journey the previous day hit me in the face like a ton of bricks.  Mercifully, the Hotel de l’Annapurna lived up to its reputation, affording a comfortable night’s sleep after the travails of the preceding days.  No marks for guessing the owners of the oldest five star hotel in Nepal, established in the year 1985.

The following day, before the crack of dawn, in bitter cold conditions, we motored to Nagarkot about 30 Km out of Kathmandu : here King Midas appears at sunrise, gently brushing the Himalayan peaks with his gliding touch, transforming to gold peak after lofty peak, mesmerizing the onlookers  for a few fleeting minutes with sublime magic.                        

Rest of the day was free for leisure  ( in tour itinerary jargon), and we spent time visiting the famous Pashupathinath temple, ( another world heritage site) the largest shopping mall in the city ( decidedly dowdy ) and taking in other sights and sounds of this multifaceted city.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                      Oct. 12, 2011