NATIONAL 3 -(Spotlight Weekly)

Cleaning The Environment

A new program is launched to upgrade the urban environment of Nepal

By A CORRESPONDENT

As urban regions of Nepal are suffering from many policy failures including in the areas of waste management, a new program is set to be launched under the name of Colorado-Nepal environmental exchange program.

Due to unplanned solid waste management and haphazard urban development, Kathmandu, culturally important city like Kathmandu is facing major crises. The city can learn a great deal from the experiences of Colorado, an American state.

"The program will provide us an opportunity to exchange ideas of urban management in the developed areas like Colorado and underdeveloped city of Kathmandu," said Chanda Rana, President of Save the Environment Fund (SEF). SEF is organizing the program as a local partner.

Unplanned urban growth in the Kathmandu valley and lack of infrastructures has already made the situation worse as there is no place for dumping the hazardous wastes.

"There needs to be a system to dump the hazardous hospital wastes in a safe manner," says Rana.

With the aim to facilitate urban development in Nepal, Save the Environment Foundation (SEF) and Clean Wheel Nepal (CWN) will coordinate the project implementation.

One of the objectives of the program is to share the ideas between the experts from Colorado and Nepal. A high level interactive urban policy management workshop will be held in Kathmandu. The workshop will promote the Colorado's urban policy and waste management practices that are applicable to Nepal and to promote Colorado's urban management equipment and services.

During the program period, SEF will prepare case studies for waste management in Nepal. The Asia Foundation, Nepal will help during the program implementation and coordinate activities with local program partners SEF and CWN.

In an introduction program, speakers from different sectors stressed the need to take immediate steps to clean up the city. From the President of Nepal Chamber of Commerce to Bhusan Tuladhar, senior officer of Kathmandu Metropolitan Corporation, all expressed the concern over present pattern of solid waste management in Kathmandu. Resident Representative of the Asia Foundation Nick Langton and project coordinator Rachna Thapa also highlighted the importance of the program.

On its part, SEF has already formed an advisory committee of business leaders, urban planners, environmentalist, medical practitioners and solid waste experts to effectively undertake the program.