Rajbiraj, June 1

Managing garbage and finding a dumping site have become a great challenge for Rajbiraj Municipality in Saptrai.

Marketplaces are stinking with garbage scattered all over for a long time. “The municipality has not collected garbage for a couple of days,” said local trader Shiv Narayan Sah. Pedestrians have to cover their nose while walking down the street due to the stench emanating from the garbage piles.

Locals complained that negligence on the part of the municipality in collecting and dumping waste had forced the city dwellers to live in such a stinking atmosphere.

Municipality Information Officer Prafulla Shrestha said every municipal council meeting for the past nine years has decided to manage a dumping site. But, at present, other priorities have been overshadowing the issue, said Shrestha.

Civil Network Chair Sukhram Yadav said failure to control stray pigs have made the situation worse.

Samim Ansari, a local, fears that mosquitoes, garbage and pigs might cause Japanese encephalitis in the municipality.

Ansari raised the question over the silence maintained by the municipality officials over the worsening condition of garbage management.

Mayor Shambhu Prasad Yadav said that he was working hard to solve the problem of garbage management. Mayor Yadav said the municipality had already fixed the land at Dighawatol in Ward 10 for dumping waste and work would start from the new fiscal.