Nawalparasi, July 6

Locals of Kawasoti today firmly rejected the idea of constructing a dumping site in the west of Syauli Bazaar at Kawasoti Municipality-8 in Nawalparasi to manage waste produced in the region.

A meeting of the municipal council had taken a decision on June 29 to construct a dumping site in that area, following which the locals submitted a memorandum of understanding to the mayor of the municipality, stating that prior consultation with them was not held and that it was inappropriate to dump waste in the area located in the middle of human settlement.

The irate locals demanded that the decision not be implemented as it would have adverse impacts on bio-diversity, human settlements and water sources of that area. “The municipality indiscriminately took the decision without first carrying out environmental impact assessment,” said Tej Ram Bhusal, a local.

Sodek, a non-governmental organisation, had been managing waste of the locality for the past 15 years until 15 months ago when the problem of dumping space cropped up.

After that, the locals started dumping garbage at nearby Shiva community forest and Manakamana community forest that resulted in their surroundings being infested by insects and being exposed to strong foul smell, said Krishna Devkota, a local forest officer.