Waste management in all municipals toothless

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, January 23

Almost all the municipalities, which are taken as better developed cities and towns, in the country are operated without any proper management of waste and landfill sites. The Local Self Governance Act has kept mum regarding the landfill site and proper management of garbage as a source of income.

According to the Ministry of Local Development, of 58 municipalities across the nation, only Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City, Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City and Tribhuvan Municipality (Ghorahi), Dang have been using landfill sites to dispose garbage.

Neither the central government nor the local ones initiated measures to resolve the garbage problem in the cities and towns, said Bidur Mainali, general secretary of the Municipal Association Nepal. "The government should formulate visionary and scientific policies to address the problem regarding the environment and people's health," he said.

Twenty-two towns were en masse declared municipals in 1997. Earlier, there were 36 municipals while other 41 new municipals are awaiting the government nod for approval.

Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD, said that there was no specific provision of garbage management in the existing laws. "Population, income, electricity and communication, and infrastructure development are mandatory elements to be a municipal," he told THT. "Without any other detail, the present law has provisioned only collection, transportation and dumping of the waste," he added.

"Garbage must be used as a source of income at the present context while managing waste," Thapaliya said. "The government should allocate funds to manage waste in the local bodies," he added. "The new amendment bill on Waste Management, which is shelved in the cabinet since early 2009, has included concept of proper waste management."

The stories of Biratnagar Sub-Metropolitan City, Birgung Sub-Metropolitan City and Dharan Municipality about waste management are pathetic. BSMC purchased a plot of land for landfill site in 2001 but the Armed Police Force has been using the land since 2004. BSMC has been dumping refuse on a public place in a sorry state.

Sixteen municipalities are using forest lands for disposing garbage, which has been critically objected, said Mainali. "Remaining municipals have been depositing refuse anywhere they like," he said. "Bhaktapur, Madhyapur Thimi and Kirtipur municipals in Kathmandu Valley are forced to throw waste on river banks and public places."

Dr Sumitra Amatya, General Manager of the Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilisation Centre, said they were inspecting the municipals of the country. "With the help from UN Habitat, we designed landfill sites for Ghorahi, Dhankuta, Janakpur, Baglung and Tansen but it is yet to be implemented except in Ghorahi and Dhankuta," she said. "US$ 365,000 has been allocated for 10 additional municipals for landfill site management."

Of the total fund, SWMRMC will bear 35 per cent, while UN Habitat 45 per cent and concerned municipality 20 per cent. "We are going to expand this project to 10 more municipals soon," she added.