The Problem
The successful 1953 summit of Mount Everest by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary pioneered a booming industry of climbing tourism in Nepal. The highest peak on the globe now serves as the ultimate challenge and lifelong goal for hundreds of expedition climbers each year.
Statistics
From 1953 to 2016, nearly 4,500 individuals from all over the world followed in the footsteps of Hillary and Norgay, summiting Mount Everest more than 7,600 times. 2017 was a record-breaking season; 375 climbers were granted a permit to attempt the summit, the most climbers in one year since 1953.The launch point for climbing expeditions, Everest Base Camp (elevation 5,364m/17,598ft) sits on the Khumbu Glacier. For up to three months each year, this "tent city" is a bustling temporary village, home to hundreds of foreign climbers and Sherpas seeking to summit. Climbers may spend weeks at base camp acclimatizing and waiting for good weather, preparing physically and mentally to attempt their journey to the tallest location on earth, the Mount Everest summit (elevation 8,948m/29,029ft).
Impact
With decades of continued use and exploration, Everest Base Camp and the upper camps have become scarred by human impact. Human waste dumped in Gorak Shep has ballooned to 60,000 pounds (over 27,000 Kg) annually, causing environmental degradation and posing severe risks to clean water sources.
Clean-up Efforts
In an effort to clean up this renowned landmark, the Nepali government enacted regulations in 1991 to mandate the removal of waste generated at Everest Base Camp. The Sagarmāthā Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) was created to manage the environmental protection of the Mount Everest National Park, which includes the oversight of waste removal and disposal. However, due to the remote nature of the area, there has not yet been a feasible solution for the treatment or safe disposal of human feces left behind by climbers hoping to summit Mount Everest.
The waste managed by SPCC each year in the National Park is tracked and published here: https://www.spcc.org.np/report
Current Disposal Method
The current disposal method for this vast amount of human waste at Everest Base Camp, is to put it into blue barrels line with plastic bags, and transport it on the the backs of Sherpa porters down past Gorak Shep, where it is dumped into pits that are covered when full. Until 2014, porters were dumping the untreated feces into unlined pits, covered by rocks and earth, leaving the excrement to slowly dehydrate and break down. At high altitudes and cold temperatures, this organic material may never fully break down. There is no more space available above Gorak Shep to dig pits, so human waste is now carried to shallow excavated areas below the village. All the available dump sites, new and old, are located in the watershed of the Khumbu glacier's basin, risking impacts to local and downstream drinking water.
Despite the positive economic benefits brought to Nepal by the thriving Mount Everest tourism industry, the environmental consequences of hundreds of visitors to this region every year require urgent action. The presence of climbers on the mountain and the entire approach up the Khumbu Valley has left a trail of human waste for which there was no solution — until now.