Dhankuta, February 13

Garbage management in all the seven local bodies of Dhankuta has become a daunting challenge due to lack of landfill sites.

Proper planning for garbage disposal was not done in the three municipalities and four rural municipalities of the district.

Mayor Parsuram Nepal of Mahalaxmi Municipality said during local level planning, budget was allocated to education, health, drinking water, electricity and motorway. “But managing garbage was missed during planning,” he added.

Reportedly, garbage disposal and drainage haves become the major problems in all the local levels.

District Coordination Committee Chief Tanka Bahadur Chauhan said garbage in all rural municipalities and municipalities had not been properly disposed. He added that migration of people from local levels to the centre had also contributed to production of excessive waste in the district.

Earlier, Pakhribas Municipality and Chhathar Jorpati Rural Municipality respectively had bought five ropani and 40 ropani land to built dumping sites. However, the sites could not be converted to landfill site as necessary infrastructure was lacking.

Sindhuwabazaar Management Committee Chair Shiva Kumar Shrestha said local bodies must bear more responsibility. Locals fear they might contract diseases from unmanaged garbage. Dhankuta Municipality Environment Chief Upendra Khanal said garbage and drainage management needed more attention in urban planning.