Designed for both national and international visitors to the sacred Swayambhu site, the modern facility provides safe, hygienic, and accessible smart public toilet services. Beyond serving tourists and pilgrims, the project actively promotes public health and dignity by offering reliable and affordable sanitation facilities to local street vendors and vulnerable community members along the temple pathway.
1.
Neo Infrastructure
This Hub has two male
cubicles for defecation and 5 units of the urinal for the male. One wheelchair-accessible
cubicle for disabled users (it's free). The female block is comprised of 2
cubicles. The cubicles and urinals are equipped with a sensor-based auto flush
system to maintain cleanliness after each use. The water in the flush comes from
wastewater recycling. The hub also consists of the sensor light and turbo
ventilation fan for fresh air circulation. The handwash stations are also
sensor-based supported by the liquid soap auto dispenser, sensor-based hand drier
to promote a touchless handwashing experience and mitigate the contamination of
germs like Covid 19. All the cubicles are cross-ventilated. The cubicles have
an award-winning uniquely designed Squatease Pan that was helpful in a comfortable
squatting experience during defecation and further promotes toilet training.
All the cubicles have hooks to hang the user's coat, bag, and purse.
2.
Gender Friendly Public Toilet
The hub provides a gender-friendly
environment to reduce the problem that women and girls are facing. Women feel
difficult to use the public toilet since there are no light and water
facilities at the public toilet. There are also cases of molestation in the
dark public toilet and hence they feel insecure to visit the public toilet even
they need it badly. But this public toilet is spacious with abundant light
which makes the women feel comfortable and secure using the public toilet.
Menstrual hygiene facilities like pad vending machines are placed where they
can easily get sanitary pads inside the public toilet at a subsidized cost and
the safety pad disposal machines are available. Users need not hide the pads
above the doors or windows as there is a dustbin and also the pad vending
machine. It also has hooks systems in the doors of a female toilet to hang
their bags which has increased the safety among the girls. There is also a
diaper changing area for the babies in the female compartment.
3.
Environment-Friendly Systems:
a. Rainwater Harvesting System:
Rainwater is the purest form of water. But the proper utilization of rainwater
is very little. The hub consists of a 612 sq ft catchment area for rainwater
collection with 12000 liters of the storage tank. Annually
783,360 liters of rainwater is harvested. The rooftop rainwater is
collected through the sky water filter that removes the debris and works as a
first flush.
b. Wastewater Treatment System: The
hub utilizes the treated wastewater from the wash basin to flush the toilet.
The design capacity of the wastewater treatment system is 1000 liters per day
with a storage tank of 1200 liters. The wastewater treatment system is based on
natural filtration by aerobic settling tanks and the reed bed. In a year around
3 lakh, 65 thousand liters of freshwater can be conserved utilizing the treated
wastewater in the flush. This stops the wastewater from going into the natural
river system contributing to the reduction of pollution of the river system and
groundwater sources.
c. Biogas Digestor: Fecal waste management is a major problem in the cities like Kathmandu Valley. Most of the septic tanks are connected to the river system and those which are not connected are collected by tankers and then finally disposed to the water systems. But the Aerosan Hub has developed a bio gas digestor of 10 cubic meter capacity and is generating biogas (methane) that is being used for cooking in its café.
4.
5.
Educational Model
This
hub is regarded as the educational model. Rainwater harvesting system, biogas
treatment plant, waste water treatment plant, menstrual hygiene management
technologies, and other neo infrastructure are scientific learning sectors in
the hub.
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