KMC unable to transport garbage to Sisdole’

Kathmandu, February 16:

The fuel shortage persisting in the country has affected the collection and disposal of solid waste materials generated in the Kathmandu Valley as the Kathmandu Metropolitan City has been unable to transport garbage to Sisdole today.

“Due to fuel shortage, we were unable to transport 80 per cent of the waste materials collected today to Sisdole,” said Rabin Man Shrestha, chief at the KMC’s Environment Management Department (EMD).

He added that if the fuel crisis persists tomorrow as well, they would neither be able to collect garbage nor transport it to the dumping site.

KMC’s vehicles which used to collect garbage and transport it to Sisdole have not been refuelled since the two days, said Shrestha. “Our 20 vehicles queued up to get refuelled for the whole day yesterday, but to no avail. This hampered the work of garbage collection and transportation.”

He said that only one KMC vehicle loaded with waste materials dumped garbage in Sisdole yesterday, but today none of the vehicles could transport garbage there. “We couldn’t collect waste materials without our vehicles getting refuelled.”

Around 30 to 40 trips have to be made to transport more than 350 tonnes of waste materials collected daily in Kathmandu to Sisdole every day and for this 1,500 litres of diesel is required daily, Shrestha said.

Shrestha added petrol pumps have assured them to provide fuel tomorrow. “If we face fuel shortage, we would not be able to collect and transport waste materials to Sisdol,” he said.