NATIONAL10 [RELIGION (Spotlight Weelky)]

For KEEP's Sake

A message of Environmental Conservation.

BY AKSHAY SHARMA

Garbage problems in Nepal's climbing camps and trekking routes have become international news. One foreign publication chronicled how the 'apple-pie trek' in the Annapurna circuit turned into the 'toilet paper trek'. Various organizations have voiced concerned about the waste piling up at these places and have been working to control it.

Kathmandu Environmental Education Project (KEEP), a non-governmental organization, held a three-day workshop this month on ways of preventing tourism-led damage to the culture, heritage and environment of Nepal.

At another program last month, Junko Tabei, who became the first woman to scale Mt Everest in 1975, said, "The number of climbers in the Himalayas as well as other major mountain areas in the world is rapidly increasing. If climbers' attitudes toward the waste problem at high altitudes do not change, their impact would be destructive."

Addressing an international symposium on theHimalayan environment organized by Tribhuvan University's Institute of Science and Technology and the Graduate School of Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, Tabei said, "The waste caused by climbers at high altitudes has not yet been fully studied by scientists."

Tabei was the 38th climber to reach the Everest summit. She used oxygen bottles, tents, ropes and climbing equipment in the expedition, just as other climbers did. At that time, however, climbers had no real idea that such abandoned equipment would create a serious environmental problem.

From 1921 to 1999, there were 503 expeditions to Mt. Everest that had 5,690 team members, excluding Sherpas. The average load each climber carried in the Everest region and the waste per climber left in the region was estimated from questionnaires, field surveys and interviews. The calculated total amount of the garbage left in the high area ranged from 290 tons to 1,115 tons, according to experts.

Trekkers are another source of mountain pollution. A study estimated that trekkers left between 85.2 and 117.5 tons of garbage in the popular Khumbu region in 1998.

"KEEP is committed to working to promote the sustainable development of Nepal. To this end, we view we have become increasingly involved on a multi- faceted Poverty Alleviation Project in Salleri, Solukhumbu, where the emphasis is on local initiatives and empowerment of women," says executive director P.T. Sherpa "Kerung".

KEEP was established in 1991 by two British women, Joanne Chittenden and Tracey Talor Young. (Young died in a mishap as she was descending from Imja Tse.) The organization provides training to guides, porters, cooks and offers a course in lodge management.

Speaking on the topic "Himalayan environment and tourism: panacea for poverty?,"Jack D. lves of the United Nations University said, "It is now four decades since the Himalayas were recognized as a world-class opportunity for development of tourism. This recognition was based on the oft-state combination of unsurpassed scenery, flora and fauna, a climate characterized by two dry seasons, an immense array of colorful ethnic minority peoples with remarkable sense of hospitality, and innumerable architectural treasures. Binding this great range of assets together was the spiritual and mystical allure of the worlds highest mountains."

That allure is becoming less powerful as garbage dumbs accumulate on the mountains.