Project Partner: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mahalaxmi Municipality, Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Management Board (KVWSMB), National Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM)
Project Area: Mahalaxmi Municipality and replication in two Municipalities (to be identified)
Project Duration: January 2019 – December 2021

Objectives:
• To test the application of ISO 24521 guidelines for the management of basic on-site domestic wastewater services and thereby help improve environmental sanitation conditions in Mahalaxmi Municipality, and;
• To draw lessons from this piloting experience and evidence to recommend adoption of the ISO 24521 guidelines at the national level through policy and practice changes.

Project Description:
ENPHO is supporting pilot implementation of the ISO 24521 guidelines for the management of basic on-site domestic wastewater services in Mahalaxmi Municipality. To achieve this, ENPHO is collaborating with the Municipality, KVWSMB, NBSM and other relevant stakeholders. The project, which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) under grant assistance, is the first of its kind in Nepal and globally.

The Project has three interrelated expected outputs:
Output 1: National adoption of ISO 24521 guidelines by National Bureau of Standards and Metrology;
Output 2: Implementation of ISO 24521 guidelines in Mahalaxmi Municipality as a pilot initiative and, based on lessons learnt, replicate in an additional Municipalities; and
Output 3: Documentation of impact of implementation of ISO 24521 FSM guidelines and influence policy and practices on domestic wastewater management.

Project Outputs:
• Trained 29 municipal technical staff and 39 engineers in Mahalaxmi Municipality on the design of the standard septic tank and its necessity on FSM;
• Oriented 119 sanitation workers on occupational health and safety and the importance of personal protective equipment at work;
• PPE distributed to 119 sanitation workers which included desludging service providers, sewerage cleaners and solid waste collectors;
• Containment improvement in 4 households;
• Developed IEC materials;
• Installed RTI septic tanks in 1 public toilet in the municipality;
• Provided PPE, medicines and Piyush to the health division of Mahalaxmi Municipality during COVID response.

Major Achievements:
• Prepared City-wide Inclusive Sanitation report for Mahalaxmi Municipality;
• Prepared report on Licensing Mechanism for desludging service providers;
• Upgraded vulnerable containments with RTI septic tanks at household level.