5 ways our mud houses help us realise Brown Gold

4 min readFeb 27, 2023

A photo of two huts built with mud. They have roofs made with star and yellow doors. There is a small wooden fence that surrounds them. There is a dirt path all around and large green trees with a blue sky at the top of the photo. — The mud houses in Lumbini Peace Park, Nepal, built by the Towards Brown Gold project with funding from the British Council Nepal. Credit: Sanjaya Devkota

Lumbini Peace Park in Nepal welcomes hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. As the park and the surrounding area rapidly grow in size, particularly with a new international airport, sanitation challenges are becoming more prominent.

The Towards Brown Gold project opened two mud houses in 2022 as interactive art installations and knowledge centres. Free and open to the public, the mud houses invite visitors to come and learn about second-generation sanitation issues through art and conversation with sanitation workers.

Nepal declared itself to be open defecation free in 2076 (2019 in the Gregorian calendar), but sanitation challenges still persist — particularly for sanitation workers. Second-generation sanitation issues go beyond toilet coverage. It focuses on existing and new sanitation challenges, such as the management and treatment of wastewater and faecal sludge, sustainability of resources and infrastructure, and the equity of sanitation workers. Despite their indispensable service, sanitation workers are significantly discriminated against, coupled with limited legal protection. Most do not wear or have access to protective equipment and work in terrible conditions.

In this blog, we share five ways our mud houses are helping us realise Brown Gold.

1. Engaging people through song

Songs and music are a great way to engage people, reach a wide audience, and spread messaging. We created a song to engage with sanitation workers and marginalised people from several communities visiting Lumbini Peace Park. The themes in the song related to the sanitation value chain, water contamination and sanitation workers. The song was performed and shared in the mud houses, and has been an insightful way to engage people. Those who participated can use the song to encourage their families and communities to adopt safe water and sanitation practices.

A photo of more than 10 people sitting on the ground. One person is holding a microphone and signing into it with the other people listening. There are two signs above them, one on the left and one on the right. Behind them is a large wooden fence. — A group of people perform a song outside of the mud houses. Credit: Sanjaya Devkota

2. Hosting community workshops

We hosted a community workshop with people from civil society organisations (CSOs), mothers’ groups, the Dalit Society, the Muslim Society, and youth clubs. With them, we collectively discussed the issues that they face and promoted sharing key messaging and practical steps for safe water and sustainable sanitation practices. The participants expressed their excitement to see the mud houses, and engage with the message displayed in them. During the workshop, they shared about the present sanitation practices in their communities and committed to conveying safe water, sanitation, and gender-related messages in their community. This came across most strongly when they shared the importance of following safety rules whilst de-sludging the toilet pit so that they can stay safe and avoid diseases.

A photo of a group of people with their backs to the camera, facing a mud house. There is one person pointing towards images painted on the side of the mud house. There are leaves from a tree hanging from the top of the photo. — A group of visitors to the mud houses learning about the sanitation chain. Credit: Sanjaya Devkota

3. Creating art with students

We held an inter-school drawing programme with the students from public schools. They drew pictures based on the sanitation value chain, the precautions that need to be taken for sanitation workers to clean toilet pits, and the seepage of faeces from non-water-sealed toilet pits.

A child’s drawing on paper. There is a large tree on the left and a river going diagonally through the middle of the drawing. There is a truck dumping faecal waste into the river. There is an elephant drinking from the river and a person carrying a bucket of water. — A child’s drawing of faecal waste being dumped into a river. Photo credit: Sanjaya Devkota

A child’s drawing on paper. There is a large tree on the top left and a house in the bottom left. There is a drawing of the sanitation chain on the top, with a person sitting on a toilet, which is connected by a pipe to a tank, which again is connected to a truck, another tank and then to another truck. People are farming in some fields. — A child’s drawing of the sanitation chain. Photo credit: Sanjaya Devkota

4. Collaborating with sanitation workers and local entrepreneurs

We held sessions with a range of sanitation workers who have earned their livelihood in the sector for years. The participants shared their experiences about the profession and the significant challenges they faced in the work they do.

One participant shared:

“Some consumers tell us to throw the faeces we collect directly onto the field, and it is also easier for us, but when they can’t provide us with an area for dumping, we need to search for open spaces such as water bodies and forests. During the course of our work, we have been scolded many times by local people for doing this.
Sanitation truck driver

Another shared:

“One time, we dumped the faeces we had collected onto the field as suggested by a consumer, but the same night, there was heavy rainfall and the faeces spread everywhere in the community. The next day, there was a community meeting and we confessed to our mistake and cleaned the water-logged area straight away”.
Local entrepreneur

5. Producing radio jingles

Radio jingles are another powerful tool to deliver messages quickly and widely in an easy-to-understand, melodious and interesting to listen to. We developed two radio jingles in both Nepali and Awadhi and Tharu (local languages), aired by local FM radio stations in Lumbini province. Their messages are about safe water and sanitation practices, sustainable management of human excreta and the role of sanitation workers. The population in this Rupandehi district, Lumbini Province, is nearly one million, with many listening to FM radio. We hope that at least one-fourth of the population has been reached by these radio jingles.

Looking ahead

We are continuing to interact with visitors to our mud houses, and to collaborate with sanitation workers and stakeholders from the Lumbini Province and beyond. Make sure to follow Towards Brown Gold on Twitter and Medium to stay updated with our work — or if you are in Nepal, come and visit us!

Author: Sanjaya Devkota