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Garbage Becoming New Tourist Sight in Nepal

by Jan Sharma
***Almost everywhere task force members were met by angry crowds who opposed plans to turn their neighbourhood into a dump site. Even the task force's recommendation to develop a 27-hectare land at Setidevi's Maudole Kholsha again ran into opposition from villagers.***
WITH tourism already in the doldrums in recent months, the industry is ekpected to suffer a further blow as the problem of waste management and disposal. worsens. A major headache for authorities is finding a dump site to replace Gokarna, the current disposal area, where residents now refuse to take the waste. Uncollected garbage may soon join the sights the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal will offer fojeign visitors.
It recommended Maudole village of Setidevi Village Development Committee as an interim site while the search for a long-term dump ground continues.: An environmental study is underway at Okha Pauwa in the Npwakof District, northwest of Kathmandu, the Nepali capital.
Almost everywhere 'task force members were met by angry crowds who opposed plans to turn their neighbourhood into a dump site. Even
the task force's recommendation to develop a 27-hectare land at Setidevi's Maudole Kholsha again ran into opposition from villagers.
Supposedly good about for two and a half years, the choice of Maudole Kholsha is being questioned as fears have been raised that the proposed dump site represents a major pollution threat to the Bog-mati river.
The river is the main source of water supply not Iust for the houses along its >anks but also for neighbouring villages.Villagers also refuted claims by the task force that only one crop is. growu by the farmers in the ’ proposed site. Local farmers say they get as many as three crops a year. They als,o complain that they were noty consulted on the idea which came from influential people in Kathmandu.
To make the villagers more receptive to the proposed dump site in their neighbourhood. they were promised a health centre, ambulance service, picnic park, and swimming pool. But the villagers are unmoved.
“Prevention is better than
cure, or so runs the wisdom. Why invite the disease and then seek the cure? It is better to prevent the disease by preventing Our village turned into a dumping site," said Tirtha Bahadur Magar, a member of Ward No 7 of the village development committee.
Local residents anticipate that the situation would be specially miserable during the monsoon when the entire area would be flooded. Major disease outbreaks can even occur.
The amount is less than the estimated Rs 300 million (US $6.07 million) heeded annually to keep the capital city clean. However, the available resource is far too small. The Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilization Centre (SWMRMCJ spends Rs 38 million (US$ 0.77 million.) and the Kathmandu municipality Rs 36 million (US$ 0,06 million)
annually for waste disposal. On their own, residents may also be spending another Rs 36 million. It is estimated that Kathmandu has a deficit of Rs 180 million (US$ 3.65 million) for keeping herself clean.
Meanwhile, while the search for a dumping site continues, the waste management and disposal problem worsens particularly in Kathmandu. The Nepali capital generates about oOO cubic metres of solid waste daily. Only 300 cubic metres are collected.
Although an Environment Protection Committee headed by Deputy Mayor Nabindra Raj Joshi has been set up to coordinate the efforts, lack of political will has hampered any progress in the matter. There is also ncucoordination between the SWMRMC and municipality in waste collection.
In an apparently desperate bid to dispose of waste, municipal authorities started to dump garbage along the banks of the Bishnumati river as a temporary measure. However, the action polluted the river and posed a health hazard to the local residents
Belatedly, the authorities
offered the lame excuse that the waste was being used to make an embankment and a road along the riverbank.
New Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Adhikari scathingly dismisses these efforts saying: "First make Kathmandu clean, green and healthy. Only then will we give a sympathetic hearing to your demand for proclaiming Kathmandu as the metropolis, "z
The mayor's slogan of "clean, green and healthy Kathmandu" was rephrased by . "The Independent" weekly newspaper as "Mayor's dirty, obnoxious and unhealthy Kathmandu".
, Mr Adhikari added that the city was fast turning into a "desert with the gradual drying up of Bishnumati, Bagmati and Manohara rivers."
The waste dumped into the rivers include rotting vegetables, dead animals, plastic bag?, tin cans, batteries, pharmaceuticals, bottles, pa-
pers, and construction materials like bricks and mud. From biodegradable waste in the past, the rivers now get non-organic materials and toxic chemicals and Kathmandu does hot separate bio-aadable and non-degra-
e materials. In concept, a management system for hazardous waste from hospital has been developed but this has yet to be implemented as there is a need for incinerators and trained staff.
Concerned about the waste problem's effects on tourism Yoeendra Shakya, president of the Hotel Association of Nepal, has proposed that a Garbage Management Authority be formed with an • investment of Rs 150 million (USS 3.04 million). Tourism-related establishments could shoulder 41 per cent of the cost, 20 per cent from the three municipalities in the Kathmandu Valley; 20 per cent from national and international donors; and 19 per cent from the government. Mr Shakya believes the authority will be financially self sustaining in 10 years.
— Depthnews Asia