Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions

CASE STUDY

Reducing open defecation in the Kailash Sacred Landscape, Hindu Kush Himalayas

An estimated 2.4 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, most of whom live in developing regions; the lowest coverage is in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia (JMP, 2015). Eliminating open defecation is an important target under Sustainable Development Goal No 6. Community LedTotal Sanitation (CLTS) is an approach that empowers local communities to eradicate open defecation and to build and use latrines. It was developed as a response to failed top-down development approaches – merely providing toilets or subsidies to build them did not guarantee their use or result in improved hygiene and sanitation (Kar and Pasteur, 2005). The CLTS approach focuses heavily on behavioural change, working to trigger a collective desire to change practices. The approach has spread to more than 70 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Open defecation In the Hindu Kush Himalayan region remains an important source of pollution for some of Asia’s major rivers. The Kailash Sacred Landscape is an area shared between the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, the Indian state of Uttarakhand and the far western region of Nepal. The area attracts pilgrims of the Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Tibetan Bön faiths, who come on pilgrimages around Mount Kailash. The area is also the headwaters of four of Asia’smajor rivers: the Indus, Sutlej, Karnali and Brahmaputra (Shrestha et al., 2015). However, unmanaged tourism in the area has resulted in inadequate waste disposal and sanitation, open defecation near sacred sites, unplanned and unattractive development, water pollution from ritual bathing in sacred lakes and adverse impacts on Ramsar wetlands (ICIMOD, 2015 and 2016). The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has been working in the region to implement the CLTS approach within its overall landscape approach (Kailash Sacred

Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative). Efforts in the Indian part of the Kailash have focused on eliminating open defecation in the forest community of Van Rajis. A one-year awareness-raising programme has resulted in the construction of 89 concrete toilets in all Van Raji villages. Nine Van Raji villages are on track to be declared Open Defecation Free by December 2016. Encouraged by the success of CLTS, the district administration has initiated plans to replicate the process in neighbouring villages. In the Tibetan Autonomous Region CLTS has led to reduced incidences of open defecation in Huor and Darchen townships near Mt Kailash, through training of trainers and on the ground implementation support to local communities. On the Nepalese side of Kailash, the Humla district administration has adopted a CLTS approach to promote sanitation. The district is gearing up to an Open Defecation Free celebration in 2017. CLTS has helped to share best practices and transboundary knowledge to enhance sanitation and environmental protection in the Kailash landscape. Through a landscape approach, the initiative has been able to engage a broad perspective of stakeholders such as policymakers, practitioners, public agencies and local communities on this and other issues affecting this region.

Mount Kailash. Photo © iStock/birdigol

Himalayan toilet hut. Photo © iStock/Paul Scotland

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