Sunday, November 05, 2006

KMC says no to garbage from ‘outside’

Razen Manandhar
Kathmandu, November 4[2006]:

Now on, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) will not allow emerging urban areas to dump garbage in the city area. Garbage produced in these areas accounts for 15 per cent of total garbage produced in the KMC.
Government records still mention these areas as ‘villages.’ The decision to bar these ‘villages’ from dumping garbage in the city area was taken some days ago, but it was not implemented.
However, today KMC officials prevented the dumping of garbage produced in the ‘villages’ in the city area.
As legal loopholes allow people to construct huge buildings in these ‘villages’, they are fast turning into urban areas. But these ‘villages’ lack infrastructure to manage solid waste.
“We have decided not to let villages dump garbage in the city. They are called villages, but they shelter a big population. They account for 15 to 20 per cent of garbage produced in the KMC,” said Rabin Man Shrestha, chief of the Environment Department of the KMC. Jorpati, Sitapaila, Gongabu, Bansbari, Budhanilkantha, Dhapasi and other areas are dumping garbage in the City without getting KMC nod, he said.
“We can’t take it any more. Garbage brought from villages accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of total garbage, compelling us to spend an additional amount of Rs 15,000 per day on garbage management. The KMC has to face problems due to the increased garbage load at the landfill site in Sisdole and Teku station,” he said.

The KMC found it difficult to manage waste when locals of Sisdole, demanding that their demands be met, barred it from dumping garbage at the Sisdole site and locals protested against the continued operation of the 18-year-old Teku Station. Though VDCs allow people to construct huge buildings in villages, VDC offices do not manage waste. “Even after talks with the ministry concerned on the issue, we remained silent for quite some time. We had to take this decision,” Shrestha said. “If the villages want us to manage their garbage, local administration offices must pay us. Otherwise, we will return rickshaws or tractors which come from villages to our working area to dump garbage.” Private companies used to collect garbage from the peripheries and dump them in river banks and the Teku station.