At a public discussion organized to explore ways to mitigate waste, Mayor Dhana Raj Acharya assured to reduce waste and turn the lake city green and resilient. For this, he has prioritized recycling and upcycling of plastics to create green job opportunities.
POKHARA, NOVEMBER 25
Various stakeholders in Pokhara have committed to collaborative efforts to mitigate the waste crisis, build a resilient city and create green job opportunities.
The stakeholders– local leaders, development partners, social campaigners and entrepreneurs already involved in recycling and upcycling waste, especially plastics– said their joint efforts would be expanded in a coordinated manner. The increased use of plastic poses a serious threat to biodiversity of this area, home to 10 key natural lakes including Phewa, Begnas and Rupa.
At the interaction program organized by the UN Development Program Nepal in association with AP1 Television, Dhana Raj Acharya, mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City, said waste segregation would begin at household level from where the waste generates. Before starting waste segregation at the doorstep of locals the municipality is constructing a new landfill site spanned in 96 ropanis.
Separated glass and plastic would be given to those private companies which have already involved recycling and upcycling plastic. Only biodegradable waste will be taken to landfill. The metropolitan city has a plan to build an exhibition center for promotion and business of trash-made goods in Pokhara. UNDP Nepal's Green Job Creation through Recycling and Upcycling (GCRU) project is supporting the city in all fronts ranging from recycling and upcycling to construction of exhibition halls as well business promotion of such recycled products.
The metropolitan city has started the process to build a landfill site with the capacity to manage 250 tons of daily waste. According to a study conducted by the World Bank, Pokhara metropolitan city produces 188 tons of waste daily. The bigger landfill site is being constructed keeping increased solid waste in mind.
Mayor Acharya said the municipality wants to segregate waste before sending it to companies that have started to recycle and upcycle plastic, glass and reusable pet bottles as a pilot project.
"Our target is zero waste," he said.
In Pokhara, the private companies have taken various initiatives for twin goals: reduce plastic and create green job opportunities. By using recycled plastic Green Road Waste Management company has built two different road sections. Plastic mixed bricks produced by the same company are used to construct a public toilet. The Green Road Waste Management P. Ltd. aims to replicate the same asphalt road construction model in other areas as well to mitigate plastic. Himalayan Life Plastics, Nepal's only recycling plant for PET-plastic bottles, recycles 40 million bottles annually bringing single used plastics in Pokhara from all across Nepal.
Himalayan Life Plastics provides multi-layer plastic to Green Road Waste Management for asphalt road and brick making purposes. Rest of the plastic is recycled and upcycled by the Himalayan Life.
Mayor Acharya vowed to give more roles to recycling companies, intensify awareness campaigns and explore sustainable waste management schemes from the municipality side.
Tourists from all over the world keep flocking to Pokhara to see snow-capped mountains, enchanting lakes and natural beauty surrounding them. They trek to far flung villages taking food cans and plastic. Further, people from hilly regions are migrating to this area widely known as lake city. Increased human flow around sensitive wetland areas has added challenges to save shrinking watershed areas. Lakes around the city are getting polluted and shrinking due to increased use of plastics and sedimentation.
Efforts taken to reduce waste
To address the increased waste problem the municipality has taken a few initiatives. They include regular mobilization of sweepers and trucks with music to collect waste. Over 200 sweepers –double from previously recruited 100– scramble early in the morning to collect waste.
In collaboration with the Nepal Army, Pokhara Municipality army collected 10 tons of waste from Mount Annapurna last year. The municipality plans to plant 256,000 saplings to promote greenery. Mayor Acharya said he's launching collective campaigns like my clean house, my clean school and my clean village campaigns so that the locals themselves will take care of waste management. Under this campaign biodegradable and nonbiodegradable waste will be segregated before taking compost waste to the waste treatment center. This will create green job opportunities for local people.
Keeping the city clean, authorities say, still remains a herculean task.
Locals sometimes throw waste into the streams, sewages and open areas before waste collectors arrive at their houses. The waste and sedimentation threaten original shapes of wetland.
"When we conducted sewage clean-up campaigns a while ago, we found 191 televisions, more than 300 ghee tanks and several other plastic objects," said mayor Acharya adding, "This shows locals are still throwing waste before sweepers reach their house. So, behavioral change is still an issue."
Acharya said their timely intervention made Phewa almost free from jalkumbhi. "We destroyed the roots of jalkumbhi in winter so only 20% of the lake area is covered with the plant this year," he said, informing that jalkumbhi used to cover half of Phewa lake area in previous years.
Officials say Pokhara is making cash from trash. The municipality collects Rs 20,000,000 from eight companies awarded for garbage collection. It plans to segregate plastic and glass from waste and promote trash-based enterprises once the new landfill site comes into operation.
Vijaya Singh, a policy advisor at the UNDP Nepal, said more and more waste is being piled up in city areas because of climate change, biodiversity loss and air pollution. "Worrying issue is that plastic comes from fossil fuel and that's being dumped in cities and forest areas," he said adding, "And there are three principles to tackle it; reduce, recycle and reuse."
The collaboration between Pokhara municipality and private firms for reducing plastic was praiseworthy. "Now, those efforts should be developed as a circular economy," he said, stressing to discourage the use of single-use plastic.
Prakash Bharati, general manager of Himalayan Life Plastic said his company is recycling Pet Plastic waste collected in Kathmandu, Parbat, Mygadi and Baglung. He demanded that a concrete policy is needed in addressing the plastic mitigation campaign.
Ramkali Khadka, the founder of Women Skill Development Organization, appealed to the government to support especially if any organizations that create job opportunities for single women and disadvantaged groups by using biodegradable waste. She recalled the government had provided 8 ropanis of land to her organization in Shrijana Chwok of Pokhara in 1975 but the same land was seized by the government later.
That led her organization which has been able to provide employment to thousands of women to operate from a rented house. "There's no lack of raw materials to produce handicraft from waste," Khadka said, "Sadly, people often think products made of waste are cheaper. Producing biodegradable products from waste takes lots of hard work and dedication."
Public Concern
Participants from diverse backgrounds gave their inputs on ways of tackling Pokhara's waste to make their city green and resilient. Some of them sought clarification from the mayor and top officials.
Ram Bahadur Poudel, a civil society leader, urged the mayor to fix nets at Firke so that waste coming from that point to the Fewa lake could be prevented. "Check dam collapsed seven years ago but the same hasn't been repaired so far. Waste coming from the hilly area has destroyed wetland areas like Firke."
Bimal Bastola, executive director of Green Roads stressed on the need to segregation waste from sources and use plastic for road construction. "Segregating waste from source is the best way to mitigate plastic," said Bastola, "By using recycled plastic a 100-meter road section has been constructed in our ward. This apsthal road model can be replicated in other areas as well."
Bastola urged the government to waive 2 percent waste tax being imposed by the local government while importing recycled plastic. He was for constructing small-sized waste collection centers instead of a single waste treatment plant meant for the entire metropolitan area.
Mitra Bandu Pokhrel, who has been producing plastic pipe from recycled plastic, urged the government to prioritize goods produced from trash. "That will encourage all of us to mitigate plastics," he said.
At the event, some participants suggested the metropolitan city collaborate with the universities for waste related research and distribute free biodegradable bags at hospital areas. Likewise, the local government was suggested to seek alternatives of plastic tunnels while growing vegetables, promote recycling and upcycling business, and make policy intervention.
"We have to do many things to manage waste. Managing glass bottles has emerged as a challenge. None of the companies are ready to take back beer bottles," said mayor Acharya hinting to collaborate with the startups and development partners, "Managing human urine and dung is another challenge. But we will address these challenges anyway.". We are always open to collaboration with stakeholders for any good cause," mayor Acharya said.
