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Kathmandu Monday July 17, 2000 Sharawan 02, 2057.
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The garbage problem
The
week long deadlock over garbage disposal has been witness to ugly scenes between Kathmandu
Metropolitan Authorities and local residents of Jorpati who do not want Gokarna to be used
as dumping site any longer. This problem has to be taken seriously. The reason for this
state of affairs is failure on the part of the government to find a permanent dumping
site
even after a decade. The accumulation of garbage for days in the city's major
thoroughfares with its stench and all its accompanying hazards clearly shows that the
capital cannot be free of this problem until and unless a permanent site is found. If the
government fails to find a site, the problem will continue to pose a grave health hazard
apart from leading to the deterioration of the environment. Thus, the government must give
priority to the search for a dumping site.
Kathmandu
Metropolis had been dumping garbage along the Gokarna-Gujeswori section of the
Bagmati river for the last two months. Apparently, the government, which has been
maintaining this area as a green belt, has plans to construct a gravel road once the
garbage fills up this stretch. However, this plan met with opposition from the locals. An
inspection team that was sent to the site has subsequently ordered the Solid Waste
Management Council not to dump garbage there. As a result, the garbage problem has
resurfaced and the street corners of the city presently serve as dumping sites, with the
locals at neither Gokarna nor the Gujeswori-Gokarna stretch allowing trucks to dump waste.
More than 20 people were arrested and 17 of the 18 Kathmandu Metropolis trucks were
damaged by local residents in a week.
Garbage
disposal has, without any doubt, become a matter that generates more controversy than
solution. For this, political leaders have to be blamed as they are the ones who have
failed to provide a permanent solutions. In a week's time, more than thirty trucks
belonging to Kathmandu Metropolis have been vandalized by local residents and tons of
garbage has piled up in the city's major thoroughfares. This has no doubt given rise to
fears that an epidemic could break out. The question now is, how will Kathmandu Metropolis
or the government find a solution to the problem when locals of other areas which had been
selected as dumping site are opposed to the government's and the metropolitan authorities'
plans.
If
it is the responsibility of the metropolis to immediately clear the garbage from the
city's streets, then it is equally the government's responsibility to find a dumping site.
In other words, the government will have to intervene between the metropolis and locals so
that there can at least be one area that can serve as a temporary dumping site until a
permanent dumping site is ready. The government must treat this matter as urgent because
the piles of garbage in the city can only do harm to the people and the environment of
Kathmandu.
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