Locals positive on letting the metropolis dump garbage

Kathmandu, December 19:

Officials of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) are holding a meeting with locals of Sundarighat, Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City-4 to sort out the problem of garbage disposal. If things go as planned, the KMC will dump garbage in the area.

As people living around the Okharpauwa Landfill Site have prevented the KMC from dumping garbage at the site, the KMC has been dumping garbage along the Bagmati riverbanks in Sanepa for nine days.

“Today, we had second round of meeting with locals of Sundarighat and they are positive on letting us dump the garbage there,” said Rabin Man Shrestha, chief of the Environment Management Department of the KMC. The KMC has assured the locals that it will give continuity to development works at the place, he said. The next meeting will be held on Sunday, he said.

“We will have to seek an alternative site within a few days because the site being used for dumping garbage will be inoperable in a few days,” he said, adding that the KMC can dump garbage at the Sundarighat site for a few years.

Locals of VDCs lying around the Okharpauwa Landfill Site have been blocking the transportation of garbage since December 3.

Chief executive officer of the KMC Dinesh Thapaliya said the KMC is ready to finance development works in Sundarighat.

Thapaliya said garbage produced in the city can be dumped on the one-kilometre Chovar-Sundarighat stretch along the banks of the Bagmati river for three years. A corridor along with a parking place can be built there, he said.

However, he said that Environmental Impact Assessment of the area has not been conducted in the area. “The slurry of garbage can have long-term effect on the Bagmati river,” he said, adding, “We are also looking for other alternatives.”