Sajal on a journey for a sustainable environment

Inclined towards the idea of the sustainable environment, Sajal Pradhan has always thought she would do something to protect the environment. She was recently awarded Global Top 50 Most Impactful Leader in Water Award, in recognition of the work their team has put in Best Paani, where they have made an impact in the lives of 300,000 Nepali people.

Curious and caring about nature, she has been involved in various clubs while in school. She was the Nature club president and had active participation in different environmental clubs. She used to volunteer in various environment-related projects and programs, and that where she met Gokul Dangol, her business partner in Best Paani.

Best Paani was just an idea when Gokul, a water engineer, approached Sajal. But once they teamed up, the idea was implemented changing lives of thousands of people. With Gokul’s engineering skills and Sajal’s passion for a sustainable life, they have come across a long way.

Established in 2015, just a couple of months before the massive earthquake, Best Paani tried their best to provide their full service with all the crisis going around. They gave their best to keep up with the catastrophe, providing bio-sand filters to 20 districts in Nepal. That pretty much summed their first year.

Best Paani provides rainwater harvesting and water purification solutions for clean drinking water with sustainable local technology to Nepali households.

What does Best Paani do?

“What we basically do is collect the rainwater from the gutter on the roof, which is directed through pipes and then accumulated. We then filter it for showering, doing dish which requires two steps of filtration, and for drinking, you need to go through three stages of filtration.”

The process of filtration

There are three stages of filtration. There are different levels of filtration for different usage. Firstly, there is the First Flush; in it, the water from the pipeline through the roof is accumulated. Its the surficial level filter, like bird poop, leaves, where the water can be stored for 10 months. After the first flush comes rapid sand filtration, where the water is filtered through different levels of sand which is not drinkable but various work can be done. For the water to be drinkable, bio-sand filtration is done, which purifies water from arsenic, ammonia and various impurities.