May 2, 2008 Everest Turning into
World's Highest Cesspool By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu
A deadly peril lurks on Mt Everest, the highest summit in the world,
which is far more dangerous than the freezing cold, gale winds and
recently posted security forces who are empowered to shoot at the
sight of political activities. The new hazard comes from human waste
scattered along the mountain slopes, which could run into hundreds
of tonnes.
"Toilet paper and human excreta litter the Everest base camp (at an
altitude of 6,400 metres), the slopes, and even the summit (8,848
metres) itself," says Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Nepal
Mountaineering Association, which is entrusted with promoting
mountaineering in this country.
"In summer, when the snow melts, the frozen human waste comes into
sight and starts raising a stink. The grave health and environmental
hazard the untreated excreta pose is a matter of great concern,"
Sherpa added.
While conscious mountaineers have been trying to clear the garbage
left on the mountains, nothing has been done so far to treat the
human waste lying there.
In the past, expeditions have collected used oxygen cans, tents,
food tins and other litter and brought much of it down but the human
waste remains.
"As it remains frozen during the expeditions, it is very difficult
to remove it and bring it down," Sherpa told IANS.
In a bid to prevent the world's tallest mountain from turning into
the highest cesspool, an expedition is now introducing, for the
first time in the history of the Everest, bio-degradable toilets.
Sherpa's son Dawa Steven Sherpa is leading the 24-member Eco Everest
2008 expedition to the summit in memory of the peak's greatest
benefactor, Edmund Hillary, to try and clean the garbage.
The team is carrying three "Clean Mountain Cans" with them, a
portable toilet manufactured by an American company. The bins are
lined with bio-degradable bags that decompose the human waste
deposited in them.
The expedition is armed with 200 such bags. Besides using them, the
team members will also try to remove the frozen waste on the summit,
put it in the bags and bring it down to the base camp.
The cans, which can be bought for $75 a piece in the US, cost a
thumping $150 when brought to Nepal, one of the poorest countries in
the world.
"The cans were gifted by the American Alpine Club, while some of the
bags were donated by the factories that made them," Sherpa said.
Sherpa, who runs Asian Trekking, one of the leading trekking
agencies in Nepal, said his company would henceforth use the cans
and urge other agencies to employ them too.
The expedition, that is also highlighting the dangers of climate
change in the Himalayan slopes, is tying to put into action a banner
in Kathmandu that urges citizens to use garbage wisely and turn it
into money.
It is offering each climber who brings down human or other waste
down from the peak to the base camp $1 for each kg of junk.
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