NATIONAL 2 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Nowhere To Dump

As piles of garbage lie uncollected at stake is the health of more than a million Kathmandu residents

By KESHAB POUDEL

It is 8:15 am - small children with heavy school bags on their backs make a bee-line at the bus stop at Bhotahity. Nearby lies a huge heap of filthy garbage. With the air hanging heavy with the unbearable stink emanating from the filth, children's feel uneasy even to breathe.

At 8:30 am - an old bus rolls in and the children in starched white uniforms disappear as does the bus in a cloud of grey fumes.

A heep of filth at city center : Shameful sight.

It's just a start of the new day for the population of downtown Kathmandu.

Such is the situation in core city area that one has to go outside to the ring road region even to breath fresh air. The children had to withhold their breath for long as the filthy garbage piling all along the road to bus stand was giving out terrible stench.

If you weigh the rubbish that you put in your dust-bin everyday for a week, then you realize the volume of waste you throw out in city centers like Bhotahity. If an individual estimates his\her wastes for a month and then a year, the result will be unimaginable.

As the individual's wastes releasing capacity continues to go up, the government seems to have failed to find the long term solution for it.

Thanks to the bankruptcy in thinking of the political leadership, one million people including small children are trapped in unhealthy physical environment.

Besides as the city is in the middle of monsoon, the outbreak of diseases like gastroenteritis, typhoid, jaundice, cholera etc is a frighteningly close possibility.

"If solid waste cannot be cleaned within a week, one cannot rule out the possibility of major outbreak of disease like cholera, typhoid and jaundice," warned Dr. Piush Kumar Rajendra, Director of Sukraraj Tropical Hospital, Teku.

The situation is however frustrating since main opposition party CPN-UML and the Ministry of Local Development continue to lock horns and the solution of the garbage seem to be far away.

The government's effort to dump the wastes along the Bagmati river was thwarted by the protest led by CPN-UML MP Bidya Devi Bhandari.

"Politicians are playing with the health of common citizens of capital. Although Nepal's parliament spent five hours to debate a nonsense issue last week, MPs have not found any time to discuss about the uncollected garbage," said Sobhakar Shrestha, a resident of Kathmandu. "At a time when even UML which has five representatives in Kathmandu is supporting agitators at Jorpati, what can we expect from others."

The Congress government is also responsible for this. In its nearly eight years rule, the party has not made any attempt to develop permanent land-fill site. Although the Congress government took a decision four years ago to develop Okharpauwa as a permanent land-fill site, no effort has been made to implement it.

Disposal of garbage at Gokarna began about 19 years ago. After the term expired three months ago, it was still disposed there for some more time. The garbage disposal at the bank of Bagmati river began last week when 79 trips of garbage were released without any disputes.

Instead of searching for the immediate solution of the garbage crisis, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Development Ram Chandra Poudel is considering to invite private parties to manage the solid wastes. In presence of Poudel, five private companies presented their proposals at Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries recently.

The companies said they would produce compost manures, electricity or gas from the garbage recycling factory.

"How can Poudel claim that he will give strong leadership in the Congress when he is unable even to find solution to a small problem," said a Congress insider.

Mayor Sthapit : Unable to manage garbage ?

With increasing industrialization and population growth, especially in urban setting, the government needs a permanent land fill site. Open dumping of wastes has created nuisance and has also become a persistent threat to public health.

According to Shanta Ram Pokharel, Head of Environment Department of Kathmandu Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), much of the wastes in Kathmandu comes from kitchens - food left-overs, packaging and plastic bags. Other household wastes include old clothes, worn-out and broken toys, ornaments, papers and envelopes, together with a number of objects that may be so large that they will not fit into the dustbin -worn out mattresses, unwanted furniture, broken television sets and even bicycles.

In addition to this vast amount of wastes from the household, the establishments such as offices, schools, shops and hospitals produce enormous quantities of wastes.

According to the medical practitioners, much of the domestic waste is hazard to health. If the food is left to decay, the flies may breed on it, spreading germs and diseases as they fly from the rotting matter to the fresh food that is waiting to be cooked. Waste food also attracts rats and other vermins, who may carry and spread diseases.

Open dumping is the only option in Nepal though technical waste management methods are used including open burning, simple waste burial, incineration in furnaces and recycling. While the alternatives often seem promising, inevitably it has become clear that there is not a single technological fix for all problems.

Experts argue that it is safer environmentally not to produce waste than to transport and manage it after it is generated.

"We need to have a waste management strategy for long term. First indiscriminate dumping should be curtailed and safer less costly forms of disposal be used," said Buddhi Raj Bajracharya, Mayor of Lalitpur Municipality.

As the problem of waste management is sharply rising, the municipalities cannot survive without its own plan for reduction and recycling. Private sector participation is necessary to reduce the cost.

In spite of all the attention to waste reduction, recycling and treatment, the dominant form of solid waste management remains land disposal. Even though its consequent threats to ground water, surface water and soil are well known, land is generally used for disposal.

"One of the effective solution for the solid waste problems in the valley is recycling. The products like polyethene, plastic bags, glass which consists of more than 20 percent of the wastes, can be easily recycled," said Bidur Mainali, acting mayor of Kathmandu municipality.

According to a survey, more than 80 percent of Kathmandu's solid waste comes from household which can be re-used as a source for making organic/compost manures.

Manufacturing compost manures looks promising as part of the waste management. At present only one such facility is operating in Kathmandu. High organic fraction of municipal waste may be an advantage to such factories.

At a time when the country is in the process to increase agriculture production, compost manure would have very high value for agricultural use and would reduce irrigation water and chemical fertilizer needs.

After the locals smashed 15 garbage dumpers, heap of filth in the city is gradually lessening as the government has finally deployed force to dump the garbage along the river Bagmati.

Although hundreds of tons of garbage are already on their way to the river side, it may take another week to totally clean the city.

On average, an urban Kathmanduite generates about 400 cusec of wastes per day. This is very low in comparison with other countries of the world. Total waste generation in Kathmandu is approximately 600 cusec meter per day. Of this 50-70 percent is organic waste, 20-25 percent is inert material (stone and dust) and the rest consists of paper, plastic, glass etc. As per capita and total waste generation in Kathmandu is expected to increase in the future, the development of new land fill site with the recycling facility is the long term solution.

Although portion of non-biodegradable such as plastic, paper, glass and other toxic wastes are increasing in the composition of wastes, most of the wastes are thrown in the public places and haphazardly piled in the streets.

"Recycling is the best solution for solid waste management problem of Kathmandu," said Chanda Rana, President Save the Environment Foundation. "It is only option for the long term solution of the solid waste problems of the valley."

Lack of long term strategy makes the capital look like hell. Even after five year long quest, the government is yet to find a permanent land-fill site to dump its problems.