Tardy slur on mobile toilet project

UNESCO warns to remove it from Heritage site

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, August 21

Despite an agreement to install a mobile toilet each month in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), only one toilet has been installed even after four months of the agreement.

An agreement between the KMC and the Kathmandu Solid Waste Management Service, a private firm, was signed on April 4 to set up a mobile toilet every month for ten over crowded places respectively. Those places include New Bus Park, Old Bus Park, Sundhara, New Baneshwor, Basantapur, Thamel, Kalanki and Koteshwore.

“We could not establish such toilets each month one due to the delay in working,” said Basudev Uprety, proprietor of the KSWMS. “We are preparing next one, which will be installed at Kalanki within a month,” he added.

UNESCO WRIT AGAINST FACILITY

KATHMANDU: UNESCO has written a warning letter to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City to remove the mobile toilet from Basantapur, which falls under the World Heritage Site. “We received a letter from the UNESCO on Wednesdy, urging to remove the toilet from Basantapur,” said Rabin Man Shrestha, chief at the Environment Division, KMC. “We are searching for the next location. However, it will be kept around Basantapur or New Road,” he added. -- BPA

The first mobile toilet was set up on April 5 at Tundikhel and later it was moved to Basantapur. According to KSWMS, about Rs 800,000 is necessary to build a toilet. “Everything except steal pans is available in the local markets. A mobile toilet will be built in 25 days if two persons continually work,” said Uprety.

However, the workers are spending at least three months to construct a toilet, said Uprety. “Balaju Yantrashala took five months to prepare the first toilet. What can we do if the workers linger construction?,” he wondered. Now, nest toilet has been prepared at a local workshop in Teku.

Rabin Man Shrestha, chief at the Environment Division, the KMC, said admitted that the installation could not be done as expected in accordance with the agreement. “However, the company will be allowed to continue their job,” he said. “As the workers unnecessarily delayed in building toilet.”

KSWMS pays Rs 2,100 to the KMC per month for a toilet as per the agreement. “I earn Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 per month from one toilet,” said Uprety. “So I am excited to install other ones gradually,” he added.

This news was published on The Himalayan Times, August 22, 2009.