Bhaktapur, February 21:

Some private organisations are dumping garbage collected from Madhyapur Thimi Municipality (MTM) areas under the Manohara bridge due to lack of proper landfill site.

The pile of garbage has polluted environment of the settlement and the Manohara river, which is one of the clean rivers flowing through the Valley.

According to the MTM, four private organisations are collecting garbage from houses, offices and factories. “Each household, office and factory is being charged between Rs 100 and Rs 200 depending on the quantity of garbage,” the municipality said.

Pembe Sherpa, who was engaged in dumping garbage under the bridge, said, “The municipality officials told us to dump the garbage under the bridge.”

The MTM said it was unable to collect and dump garbage at a proper place due to lack of resources. With the existing resources, we are disposing the garbage on big pits. “We cover solid waste with mud on top,” Bishnu Dutta Gautam, executive officer at the MTM, said.

Community Development Officer Tulsi Bhakta Tako said 12 to 13 tons of garbage are collected from municipality daily and the private organisations collect two tons of garbage.

Tako said: “To lessen the quantity of solid waste collected from households, we are running a training under ‘Household Sewage Management Programme’.