如何处理珠穆朗玛峰上的人类排泄物

Peak o’ poo
高山“流水”

How to dispose of human waste on Mount Everest
如何处理珠穆朗玛峰上的人类排泄物

Unsavoury problems at 18,000 feet
18000英尺高空的恼人问题

“TAKE ONLY memories, leave only footprints” is more than a clichéd hiking motto at the Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal. The large box of rocks sitting next to the metal detector at the local airport is a testament to that: tourists departing from Mount Everest have to dispose of material they have collected before stepping onto the dauntingly short runway. Fulfilling the second half of this mantra, however, is harder. Tens of thousands of tourists leave more than just footprints. They have created a mountain of faeces, which is becoming an environmental problem.
据英国《经济学人》网站10月25日的消息：在尼泊尔萨加玛塔国家公园（Sagarmatha National Park），“只带走满满回忆，只留下淡淡足迹”不只是远行者老生常谈的箴言。坐落在当地机场金属探测器旁的大箱石块就是此句箴言的证明：在踏上令人生畏的机场短跑道前，要离开珠峰的游客必须先丢弃此前收集的物品。奉行箴言的后半句更是难上加难。成千上万的游客留下的不仅仅是脚印，还制造了一座日渐构成环境问题的“屎尿山”。

In 2017, 648 people reached Everest’s summit, more than seven times the number two decades ago. Many more make it to base camp. Currently, toilet waste is carried and dumped into pits near the town of Gorakshep, an hour’s walk down the mountain. The amount of waste is increasing fast, says Budhi Bahadur Sarkhi, a porter who has been carrying poo from base camp to these pits for 12 years. When Mr Sarkhi started there were seven porters hired for the job. Now there are 30.
2017年，登上珠穆朗玛峰的人数达到648人，是20年前的七倍之多，到达珠峰大本营的人则更多。目前，这些厕所粪便被运至山下步程一小时的高乐雪镇（Gorakshep）附近的坑洞进行填埋。12年来，搬运工布迪·巴哈杜尔·萨基（Budhi Bahadur Sarkhi）一直把粪便从珠峰大本营运到这些坑洞。他表示，人类排泄物的数量正在迅速增加。萨基刚来时，这里只雇佣了7名搬运工，而现在已增加到了30名。

Dumping sites are filling up quickly, and the run-off is infiltrating the region’s water channels, some of which feed into wells that supply drinking water. When tests were done at nine water sources in the region, seven were contaminated with significant levels of E. coli. The presence of human by-products in the water, like nicotine and sunscreen, suggests that the contamination came from human faeces, rather than that of the many local yaks.
倾倒场地正被迅速填满，而径流正在渗入该地区的水道，部分流入到供应饮用水的井中。在对该地区的9个水源中进行测试时发现，有7处遭到大量大肠杆菌的污染。淡水中含有尼古丁和防晒霜等人体副产物的现象表明，污染源来自人类的排泄物，而非当地大量牦牛的粪便。

One innovative solution could help. The Mount Everest Biogas Project, led by two mountaineers, hopes to install a biogas reactor in Gorakshep at the start of next year. All of the faeces from base camp would then be converted into two by-products: fertiliser and methane gas, possibly for cooking. In which case the mountain would be a little less brown and a little more green.
一个创新的解决方案可能会对此有所帮助。两名登山者主导珠峰沼气项目（The Mount Everest Biogas Project），希望明年年初在高乐雪镇（Gorakshep）安装一座沼气反应装置，将所有来自珠峰大本营的人类排泄物转化为两种副产品：肥料和可能用于生火的甲烷。若是那样的话，珠穆朗玛峰或许会少一些棕色，多一些绿色。（译：林雅欣）

https://www.economist.com/international/2018/10/27/how-to-dispose-of-human-waste-on-mount-everest

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