Garbage Management In Benepa

By Madhav Prasad Adhikari and Ram Hari Gaihre

SOLID waste management deals with the refuse collection, storage, transportation and final disposal. In this paper, the municipal efforts and community participation of Benepa municipality are included.

Problem

In the past, solid waste disposal was not taken apparently as a problem owing to the relatively small size of population and availability of abundant vacant land. Absence of manufacturing industries and people’s over-dependency on primary products for fulfilling their daily requirements contributed to control the amount of locally generated waste Specifically, the non-biodegradable solid wastes including plastic, glass and metal, accounted for a negligible proportion of the total amount of solid waste. Being relatively small in amount and dumped on numerous sites, other types of organic wastes decomposed quickly and
changed into soil, thereby keeping the pace with assimilative capacity of environment.

The environment of the Benepa municipality is being highly affected due to the rapid growth of population, increase of non-biodegradable materials in the waste heaps and lack of awareness of people for the solid waste disposal. The Banepa municipality, in a study carried out to ascertain the town’s waste disposal activities is more paying attention to the waste disposal in dense areas then in the less dense areas. People’s participation is better in less dense areas compared to the slum areas. The study showed that the municipal efforts are way but insufficient.

The cleaning activities undertaken by the Banepa municipality consist of different components. Cleaning of street, waste collection, placing of containers, transportation and dumping of the waste are the principal activities. There is no proper dumping site in the municipality. It needs permanent dumping site that will probably accelerate the solid waste management. The municipal administrators undermined the need of training for the concerned staff. Instead, they emphasized more on action. The legal provision to control the haphazard disposal of waste is meaningless unless strict prohibition for the proper disposal of waste is applied.

Similarly, it was found that there is no any taxation system for the management of solid waste from the people, industries and institutions. There is not any scavenging in collection and disposal sites.

The municipality has initiated a programme to dispose the waste by collecting the garbage in tractors directly. The time and place for the disposal of household waste was provided by the municipality from 1st January 1998. Although the municipality does the rest of the collection and disposal processes, the people in this municipality should be made aware about the solid waste management. Likewise, the containers should be properly used while permanent dumping sites should be looked for. The shortage of manpower has hindered the collection of the waste. Therefore, proper budget should be allocated in order to fulfill the need of the municipality.

According to the study, the per capita waste generation in Banepa municipality is found to be 0.265 kg. per day which gives a daily waste generation of 3.55 tons per day. However, the dumping site chosen at ward number 10 of the municipality is not being used properly.

Due to the unscientific dumping, the adjoining river of the municipality is polluted. Some of the solid wastes have been composted by the farmers themselves, thereby giving rise to the environmental improvement. Drinking water facilities and sewerage system are insufficient in slum areas. The manpower and equipment related to solid waste management is also insufficient while the budget is limited in this field. People’s participation in waste disposal is not so much in commercial and residential areas compared to slum areas. There is a problem of permanent dumping site for the improvement of the solid waste management process. Most of the waste is not thrown properly due to the misplacing of available containers.

An organised plan is essential for the easy management of solid waste generated by the Banepa municipality’s dwellers. Municipal authorities should seek people’s involvement in every programme in order to gear up the people’s participation. Permanent dumping site should be searched and used properly. The impact on environment should be taken into account in order to reduce environmental pollution. Modern technique and improved equipment should be used for the good management of solid waste. Positive parts of the cultural aspects should be preserved to discourage the pollution of the environment.

The containers should be placed at the distance of 200 metres in the dense areas. At least 10 per cent of the municipal budget should be allocated for the solid waste management. The number of public toilet should be increased and cost of its use should be nominal.

More Efforts

Banepa municipality has rapid growth of the population. The solid waste management could not catch up with the growth of population. Most of the solid wastes in Banepa municipality consist of biodegradable materials, which can be composted. The manpower and equipment for the solid waste management is insufficient. Also the budget is limited in this field. People’s participation is not so exciting in commercial and residential areas compared to slum areas. There is a problem of permanent dumping site that hampers the complete solid waste management process. Most of the waste is not thrown properly due to the bad placing of containers available.