While we normally pay for using public toilets, it is, however, a different case in Chitwan. Surprising as it may sound, Shreerendra Prakash Pokharel, a local of Darechok VDC-7 from the district, has been paying Re 1 to those who excrete or urine at his toilet in his village by the Prithivi Highway.

Pokharel has been selling off the collected human urine to the farmers for the last six years. The farmers in the district use a mixture of water and urine in their farms as manure.

Pokharel revealed to Republica that he himself uses those unsold human urine in his own kitchen garden as manure instead of chemical fertilizers.

The fifty-year-old principal at Majhagaun Secondary School has built special type of toilets using modern technology at his home, office and across the village for the collection of human urine. Different pans have been placed in a special type of toilet for collecting urine and excreta separately.

Such technology used for collecting human urine is termed as ecological sanitation, also known as eco-san. It is a form of sanitation that usually involves recycling of water and nutrients contained in human wastes before sending it back into the local environment.

Pokharel, a lead farmer for using eco-san technology in the district, had learnt the technology some seven years ago after the government facilitated training to principals.