Saidpur treats human waste to produce fertiliser for a cleaner environment

Saidpur Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant in Nilphamari has been producing organic fertiliser from human faeces to provide a better solution for waste management and to meet the increasing demand for fertiliser in the country.

Besides, Saidpur Municipality has been earning revenues from selling the fertiliser made in the plant.

Experts said the environment will be cleaner if the faecal sludge treatment model of Saidpur is followed by all other municipalities and city corporations across the country.

With a plan to build an integrated sanitation system and a clean city, Saidpur Municipality undertook the work of setting up the faecal sludge treatment plant in 2018 with the financial and technical support of WaterAid Bangladesh and started producing fertiliser in February 2021.

Municipality workers collect household and human waste from every house in 15 wards and take it to the plant. There it is mixed with solid waste and wood powder and converted into co-compost organic fertiliser through five steps. It takes 12 weeks to make fertiliser in this way.

The municipality uses four vehicles for collecting human waste from 33,000 families and six market places.

Saidpur Ward-6 Councillor Mohammad Ali told The Business Standard that whenever the owner of a house submits a written application, a vehicle with a huge tank goes there to empty the sewage. The money received for cleaning the tank is credited to the municipal revenue fund, which is used for paying sweepers' and the drivers' salaries.

Saidpur farmers are already using the locally produced organic fertiliser to improve the quality of their soil.

Ahashanul Haque Babu, a Saidpur farmer who won a national award for producing adulteration-free vegetables, is using the fertiliser in his dragon fruit garden and paddy field. He has bought 2.5 tonnes of fertiliser so far.

Ahashanul Haque Babu told TBS, "There is no organic matter in the soil of this region. I bought this fertiliser to bring back the organic material to the soil. Within a week of applying the fertiliser, the plants in my garden have turned dark green. Now I have been waiting to see how many flowers and fruits they yield."

SKS Foundation, a non-government organisation, has been working to raise awareness at the field level to encourage farmers to use fertiliser made from human waste and to remove the taboo in this regard.

Nazrul Islam Topader, project coordinator of SKS Foundation, told TBS that 132 home gardens and 74 farmers are using the fertiliser in Saidpur. About 40 tonnes of fertiliser have been produced so far.

"Initially the fertiliser was given for free to farmers to create awareness among them about its benefit. Later, 20 tonnes of fertiliser were sold at Tk15 per kg. Currently, around 8 tonnes of fertiliser are in stock. More farmers are becoming interested in using the fertiliser day by day," he said.

In 2015, WaterAid established the first Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant at Sakhipur in Tangail. That plant produces about 720 tonnes of organic fertiliser annually and markets it under brand name "Sakhicompost'' at Tk15 per kg.

Sakhipur municipality has been designated as a model in waste management in the government's eighth five year plan.

Shakhawat Hossain, programme officer engineer of WaterAid, told TBS, "So far, the plant has been using only the waste from Saidpur municipality. It is possible to produce 379 tonnes of fertiliser from this plant annually.

He said, "So far, we have been using only 15% of the plant's capacity. It is capable of treating waste collected from areas outside the municipality.

"We are providing technical assistance to Saidpur Municipality. Gradually the municipality will be given full responsibility for this plant. Saidpur and Sakhipur plants provide a model which the government can use in all municipalities and city corporations across the country."

Saidpur Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant was built on 170 decimals of land at a cost of Tk7 crore. Initially, its operating cost was Tk2.5 lakh, but it has come down to Tk1.5 lakh.

Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives Minister Md Tazul Islam visited the Saidpur plant last year.

He told The Business Standard, "The plant is doing well, but it is difficult to set up such a plant in a mega city like Dhaka. We have prepared a plan to use state-of-the-art technology in sewage management across the country."