Dear Jacky,

Our reply to your four questions is as follows:

>I checked your paper but did not find any mention on the observation
>well.
>Q1: Where and at what distance is this well located in
>relation to the location of the latrine-cum-digester site. ?

The first observation well is located at a distance of 7.2 m south-west from latrine-cum-biodigester and the second one of the same distance (7.2 m) towards south-east of biodigester.

>Q2:    How deep is the water level of the well ?

For setting up the establishment of the observation wells, 5 cm diameter polyethene pipe with filter and cap was installed to a depth of 3 m by means of manual boring procedure.

>The water quality of this observation well looks very impressive.
>Q3:    What do you attribute this high water quality to, i.e. is it
>because of slurry is contained in the digester and compost pits?
>Do you think that the use of compost will disperse any parasitic
>ova and cysts ?

One of the reasons for high water quality is the slurry contained in the digester is well digested. If the compost is well decomposed and matured, even if it has few germs, they are likely to be killed when mixed properly with soil but some experimental findings will be necessary to support this hypothesis.

>My questions as given above, were not answered:
>could you provide a
>detail list of pathogens being studied in your test.

In Nepal, usually the infestation of Ascaris  (round worm) is very common. Therefore, in addition to E. coli, other pathogenic test of the intestinal worms included
Round worm,
hook worm,
thread worm, etc.
(I will see the file and will complete the list, if any).

>Q4:What were the coliform and ova/cysts counts, if these were
>analyzed for the influent for the digester effluent of the digester
>in the compost pit after 3 months.

Because of expiry of the project, the digested compost was not analyzed with respect to chemical and bacteriological test that were originally envisioned.

>In your paper, you wrote: The total income generation from the latrine
users amounts to Rs 2,700 per month (i.e. Rs 2,500 from the latrine
>users and Rs 200 from the sale of kitchen garden; about US $50).
>Did you take samples for analysis from the garden soil and for
>whatever were grown in the watchman's garden?

In this case also, the test of garden soil used by watchman is not done because of expiry of the project. The watchman uses the effluent/compost from biodigester to fertilize his kitchen garden located inside the premise of the installation. He grows vegetables and sells it in the local market.

Best regards
Amrit & Upendra