Govt plan to manage garbage falls in a predicament

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Lalitpur, December 12

Despite Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal's direction to manage solid waste of the Kathmandu Valley in scientific way after his succession seven months ago, the achievement is nothing significant yet.

According to the Ministry of Local Development, the government included it in its current fiscal programmes to form a high level empowered commission, which would deal an agreement with the private sector to set up garbage-fuelled plant on the basis of public private partnership concept to finalise the deal by mid-November.

The High Level Committee on Solid Waste Management (HLCSWM), headed by Dr Dinesh Chandra Devkota, member of the National Planning Commission, was formed on August 30 with the authority to sign the agreement with the private sector by mid-December. There are only three-days remaining to end the first tenure of the committee. However, it is yet to call Expression of Interest from the private sector.

The seven-member committee comprises of secretaries from the Ministries of Local Development, Physical Planning and Works, Land Reforms and Environment, executive chief of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, and general manager of the Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilisation Centre. It has also recruited three experts on waste management.

Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD, said that the committee was not empowered as the spirit of the government budget to work without any hassle. “The problems and confusion related to the policies dampened the speed of dealing with the private sector,” he said.

Though the HLCSWM can carry out all the process, it is not eligible to sign on final deals with the private sector. The MoLD is legally entitled to decide on the issues finally and the HLCSWM need to forward the process through the ministry.

The HLCSWM tabled a proposal in the cabinet on November 3 to extend its tenure by mid-April and empower it so that it could carry out its jobs smoothly. “But the cabinet extended the tenure of the committee, which was sent back on December 3, directing the MoLD to deal with the case,” said Dr Sumitra Amatya, GM of the SWMRMC and member secretary of the HLCSWM. “Because of the dilemma, the process was halted amidst the confusion,” she added.

The committee was formed but only the MoLD could deal with the process as per the BOT (Build Operate and Transfer) Act, said Amatya.  “We have prepared the final draft of the EoI and submitted to the MoLD for publishing it,” she said. “It will be published soon.”

Thapaliya said that it would be better to empower the committee rather than to assign the Ministry to deal with the issue. “The government could not approve the amendment of waste management act owing to the obstruction in parliamentary session. Formation of powerless committee was another lapse of the government,” he said. “This has made us worried about the waste management, which is likely to fall in more complicated situation if the process could not achieve the target,” he added.