We would like to help our Nepalese friends who survived an earthquake to rebuild the tourist lodge in Langtang valley destroyed by a stone avalanche. The lodge will serve as a showcase of environment-friendly technologies and waste-free maintenance.
Author: Ecolodge Nepál
Community, Technology, Ecology
Langtang, Central Development Region, Nepál
All or nothing. Project finished on Jan 25, 2018 at 12:03.
In 2012 I took my son on the trek in Langtang, a beautiful Himalayan valley. There we met Dindu Lama, a sherpa who ran a hikers’ lodge with his nephew Pasang. We struck a lasting friendship with Dindu, who even helped me carry my son down from the peak of Tsergo Ri when he got an altitude sickness.
On an April morning in 2015, the ground shook in Nepal: the worst earthquake in centuries devastated the country. In Langtang, an enormous rock avalanche swept the Langtang village. Dindu and most of his family perished along with almost the entire village. Dindu’s ten-year-old son was the only member of the family to survive, with Pasang and his two sisters.
At 24, Pasang had to leave his university studies in Kathmandu to take care of the others. They went to Kathmandu and rented an apartment there with our financial help. But they always wanted to go back. In 2017, I went back to Nepal with my friends, and Pasang was our guide on a trek around Manaslu. There we learned about his dream of rebuilding mountain lodge.
We want to help Pasang fulfill his dream. But out project is not primarily charitable; it is environmental. Tourism is a source of income for the population, and it is growing rapidly. However, with numbers comes destruction: waste, especially plastic, is starting to glut the villages, the demand for electricity is increasing and water sources are strained. If this continues, Nepal could quickly lose the nature beauty people come for.
This is why we’ve agreed with Pasang to help him build the Ecolodge. This means addressing five main issues: sustainability, energy, water, organic waste and plastic. The lodge has been designed with earthquake-proof components. Small, water turbine will harvest power from a local stream, aided solar and wind energy. There will be a unit for water treatment by ozone. A biogas unit will convert organic waste into gas for cooking and heating. Thanks to a supply of safe water, the lodge will be able to avoid selling plastic bottles. The whole concept is set up to be able to run without further technological assistance from our side. Entire lodge will be run by Pasang and local people. We know that as mountain guides see the improvements others are making in their lodges the copy successful designs therefore the ideas could quickly spread. We would like to set up a technology awareness center at the lodge. We are determined to make this work; not just for Pasang, but for the mountains we love.
All the money we raise will be used for material and construction work. The total cost will be 40,000 Euro; now we want to raise the first part of the sum (about 12,000 Euro) so we can start in spring of 2018.
If we raise extra 4,000 Euro we will be able to install water treatment unit and therefore we can avoid selling PET bottles at the lodge.
We want also to install small biogas station combined with composting (2,000 Euro) to produce biogas for heating and cooking.
With another extra 4,000 Euro we can install small hydropower turbine and possibly small wind turbine to ensure constant supply of electricity for the lodge.
We also want to build greenhouse for vegetable production and try to grow oyster mushrooms on birch wood.
We have people among us experienced in similar projects and we do believe we will be successful. We will continue to collect further funds through transparent account of Ecolodge nonprofit initiative and we will not stop until the Ecolodge will be up and running. We believe our project will contribute to protection of beautiful Himalayan nature.
Please visit out web page or Facebook
www https://ecolodgenepal.wixsite.com/ecolodge
www.facebook.com/ecolodgeNEPAL/
Improve your karma by supporting a good cause. Please contact us through our web page with any questions.
We are a group of enthusiasts, biologist, two architects, civil engineer and others are joining in. We are pleased that our project has a support of outstanding climber Radek Jaroš who has climbed all 8 000-meters summits or eng. Jan Tillinger a founder of Suraya school in Ladakh, India.
Today, our HITHIT project has succeeded thanks to the help of all of you. We reached the amount of money needed for the beginning. We can now concentrate on planning, negotiating, consulting, preparing… not only here, in the Czech Republic, but also directly in Nepal. And we are getting the reward…
MoreRecently we have presented our project at important events like travellers festival in Prague Around the world or at The international Festival of Alpinism.
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