KATHMANDU, AUGUST 5
Piles of garbage around every nook and cranny of Kathmandu valley have again become a common site, as poor condition of the road to the landfill site in Sisdol has hit garbage collection in Kathmandu valley.
Not more than two months ago, the authorities concerned had managed to remove the garbage accumulated on roadsides in core urban areas of Kathmandu valley after persuading locals of Sisdol - the only landfill site identified for short-term disposal of waste generated in Kathmandu and Lalitpur metropolitan cities, as well as adjoining municipalities of the valley - to allow the waste to be dumped there.
On June 10, months-long deadlock ended after the government promised to build road network to the landfill site. However, continuous rainfall during the monsoon season has been obstructing vehicles from reaching the landfill site.
Shortly after the deal was signed between Kathmandu Metropolitan City and locals of Sisdol site, KMC, which undertakes the responsibility of managing waste produced in Kathmandu valley, on June 18, issued a public notice requesting households and businesses to manage waste at the source for a week, citing road maintenance work at the site.
However, even after all these days, the waste generated in Kathmandu valley has not been transferred to the landfill site on a regular basis.
Head of Environment Department at KMC Sarita Rai acknowledged that they had not been able to manage enough trucks to ferry garbage on a daily basis.
"We were able to send around 150 trucks on a daily basis earlier. But, since the waste has been accumulating on city streets for a long period, we acknowledge that our effort is not enough."
Rai said apart from the bad condition of the road to the landfill site, there have been incidents of landslides at two places on the way to Sisdol, which is 28 kilometres from the heart of Kathmandu. She said it would take a few more days for complete waste management if rainfall continued.
"After the weather improves, we will be able to ferry waste in a smooth manner."
Meanwhile, residents living around Sisdol and Bancharedanda have warned that they won't allow dumping of waste from August 17 if the government did not complete road construction as promised earlier.
KMC has also urged residents to separate the waste into biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste at the source before sending it to waste collectors. It has threatened not to collect garbage that is not segregated.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 6, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
