?Nepal is driving its sanitation for all by 2017 campaign rapidly and ODF declaration has been a major tool for it. Almost each day a VDC is being declared as ODF but is it really promoting sustainable sanitation?? Participants of WASH Forum June series jointly organised by Paschim Paaila and Environment and Public Health organization (ENPHO) on 28^th June 2013 were eager to know the answer. Bipin Dangol Program Manager at ENPHO was ready to answer the question and address the mass with the topic ?Faecal Sludge Management: Current need for Sustainable Sanitation.?

?Every morning when you sit to defecate please think where your faeces are going.? Dangol started his presentation. Sharing the information on comparatively new concept of faecal sludge management Dangol highlighted on the passage of our faeces to the environment. He clarified that no matter if we have on site sanitation for example safety tank or we have off site sanitation that is sewerage the ultimate disposal site is nature which is polluting nature.

He suggested learning from case of Bangladesh which is having trouble with managing faecal sludge at present which promoted ODF few years back and achieved good sanitation status. Nepal is  also promoting onsite sanitation at present as a part of ODF campaign which has to be emptied one day. ?If we do not start developing mechanism from now we will also have serious issue of faecal sludge management in future,? he warned.

?Improved sanitation does not necessarily mean sustainable sanitation we all need to be aware of it,? he stressed and told that ODF is the first step for improved sanitation but there is a lot more to do for sustainable sanitation.

He also pointed out lack of awareness and clarification in concept, high cost, techniques and social acceptance as major challenges in promoting faecal sludge management. Also he pointed out at some failure projects of faecal treatment projects at Pokhara and Teku due to similar reasons.

However he also showed faecal management as an opportunity to maintain our water resource and environment clean. Faecal sludge management starts right from the collection of the sludge to final disposal/reuse, however the management practise greatly depend upon character of sludge such as fresh or digested with varied degree of concentration.

He suggested faecal sludge co-treatment as one of the suitable faecal sludge management practices for which solid-liquid separation is must. ?Since it?s a comparatively new topic no one can suggest a method with certainty but so far faecal sludge co- treatment seems to work,? he justified.

He also pointed out some topics for research as its new topic in the world itself. ?Inventory of characteristics of sludge and the current status of offsite and onsite sanitation practise with reference to its usefulness in sustainable sanitation could be two good topics for research,? he suggested.

Altogether 45 participants from different institutions School of Environmental Science and Management (SchEMS), Ratna Rajya Campus, KMC, NAMS, Khwopa College, Tri-Chandra Campus, Asian College and Hope Int?l College attended the program with great interest and enthusiasm.

Merina Shakya, the network coordinator of Paschim Paaila thanked Dangol for his sharing on Faecal Sludge Management and handed over the token of love. The forum ended with a group photo session.