Although Nepal has an epidemic of early-onset, aggressive, advanced breast cancer, breast cancer knowledge and screening practices of Nepalese women have not been assessed. This paper summarises the results of a physician-administrated survey of gynaecologic inpatients (n= 100) admitted between 1 December 2009 and 31 January 2010 at a Nepalese University. Mean knowledge score of the participants was 65%, significantly higher among highly educated women (P= 0.008), professionals (P= 0.014) and women counselled during medical visits (P= 0.030). Study participants, including highly educated women, had many misconceptions. This included lack of awareness of painless nature and non-lump symptoms of breast cancer as well as the belief that traditional health care can be curative. The majority of participants were unaware of clinical breast examination (68%) and mammography (56%). Only 10% of the participants had undergone breast evaluation in the last 2 years. The practice of breast evaluation was more common among Buddhists (P= 0.043), and women counselled during medical visits (P < 0.001), with high economic status (P= 0.022), higher education (P= 0.013) and a family history of breast cancer (P= 0.049). Counselling during medical visits and higher education level were associated with better knowledge of and screening practices for breast cancer in the studied population.

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Surface water pollution is one of the serious environmental problems in urban centers in Nepal due to the discharge of untreated wastewater into the river-system, turning them into open sewers. Wastewater treatment plants are almost non-existent in the country except for a few in the Kathmandu Valley and even these are not functioning well. Successful implementation of a few constructed wetland systems within the past three years has attracted attention to this promising technology. A two-staged subsurface flow constructed wetland for hospital wastewater treatment and constructed wetlands for treatment of greywater and septage is now becoming a demonstration site of constructed wetland systems in Nepal. Beside these systems, five constructed wetlands have already been designed and some are under construction for the treatment of leachate and septage in Pokhara municipality, wastewater in Kathmandu University, two hospitals and a school. This paper discusses the present condition and treatment performance of constructed wetlands that are now in operation. Furthermore, the concept of the treatment wetlands under construction is also described here. With the present experience, several recommendations are pointed out for the promotion of this technology in the developing countries.

This study demonstrates that microalgae can effectively recover all P and N from anaerobically treated black water (toilet wastewater). Thus, enabling the removal of nutrients from the black water and the generation of a valuable algae product in one step. Screening experiments with green microalgae and cyanobacteria showed that all tested green microalgae species successfully grew on anaerobically treated black water. In a subsequent controlled experiment in flat-panel photobioreactors, Chlorella sorokiniana was able to remove 100% of the phosphorus and nitrogen from the medium. Phosphorus was depleted within 4 days while nitrogen took 12 days to reach depletion. The phosphorus and nitrogen removal rates during the initial linear growth phase were 17 and 122 mg·L(-1)·d(-1), respectively. After this initial phase, the phosphorus was depleted. The nitrogen removal rate continued to decrease in the second phase, resulting in an overall removal rate of 80 mg·L(-1)·d(-1). The biomass concentration at the end of the experiment was 11.5 g·L(-1), with a P content of approximately 1% and a N content of 7.6%. This high algal biomass concentration, together with a relatively short P recovery time, is a promising finding for future post-treatment of black water while gaining valuable algal biomass for further application.

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