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The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation
(UIAA) is the main governing body that represents and serves the
mountaineering community worldwide. The UIAA’s Mountain
Protection Commission agrees that there is an urgent need
to engage with its own community on the issue of waste. The
Commission, through the UIAA Mountain Protection Award, is
helping to promote the work of projects dedicated to raising
awareness of waste and providing solutions.
One of the recipients of the award is the Mt. Everest Biogas
Project. It addresses the issue of sustainable waste management
and disposal of human waste generated by the climbing
community, specifically in the Sagarmatha National Park and
the village of Gorak Shep below Everest Base Camp. The project
will adapt existing biogas digester technology that has been
successfully implemented throughout Nepal, China, India
and other countries, albeit at lower elevations and in warmer
climates. To bring this technology to the extreme conditions of
the upper Himalayas, the project will combine the basic design of
a Nepalese biogas digester with a low technology, off-the-shelf,
heating design that will allow the system to operate in colder
environments. It will provide communities in the region with
a form of a clean-burning, renewable energy source, as well as
nutrient-rich fertilizer and local employment.
The project aims to substantially reduce the staggering 12,000 kg
of solid human waste dumped at Gorak Shep every year, which
includes human waste carried down from Everest Base Camp.
Additional environmental benefits include a reduced reliance on
open burning wood or yak dung for heating and the associated
respiratory and ocular health risks; reductions in deforestation
of the area’s limited forest resources; and a reduced risk of
water contamination. Another innovation of the project is the
establishment of a primary management and decision-making
group in Gorak Shep, a committee of 5-6 teahouse owners.
Upon project completion, the committee will assume ownership
and responsibility for the long-term operation of the biogas
reactor. If implemented successfully, hundreds of other locations
could learn from the experience and benefit from high-altitude
biogas digesters to improve the lives of local people and their
environment by reducing pollution, deforestation, health risks
and the costs of alternate fuel sources.
CASE STUDY
From Poo to Biofuel: UIAA and the Mount Everest Biogas Project
Tents at Mountain Everest base camp.
Photo
©
iStock/iStock/Rafal Belzowski