KATHMANDU, AUGUST 31
Kathmandu Metropolitan City has stated that the waste accumulated in the valley will be collected from tomorrow onwards.
It has also warned of stern action if the locals continue to hinder the transportation of waste materials to the landfill site.
Roadsides in Kathmandu valley have been littered with garbage for the last couple of weeks after the KMC failed to collect, manage and dispose the waste piled up in the streets. The metropolis had not been able to rid the streets of trash effectively due to alleged difficulty in transporting waste to the Sisdole-based landfill site in Nuwakot district due to heavy monsoon rains.
Locals living around the landfill site had also obstructed the waste transportation citing that it had caused deadly cholera virus, claiming the life of a septuagenarian woman. The rumours, however, were proven false after KMC tasted the stool and water sources of the families living in the locality as claimed by the public.
Multiple obstructions at the landfill site had left Kathmanduties in panic as the local governments had been urging the public to manage waste at their own homes as there were no other longterm solutions to manage Kathmandu waste.
The KMC, which was under great pressure to manage waste, had held a meeting today under the coordination of KMC's Mayor Bidhya Sundar Shakya with the participation of Kali Prasad Parajuli, chief district officer of Kathmandu, Arjun Jung Thapa, director general of Departments of Roads, and Superintendent of Police Ashok Singh of Metropolitan Police Division, Kathmandu.
The meeting concluded with a four-point decision, including collection of garbage from the valley from tomorrow onwards. It also decided to use force against those who tried to obstruct the transportation of garbage to the landfill site.
"We will not allow more waste to be accumulated in the city, we will try our best to solve this problem.
But, if certain works are beyond our jurisdiction, we will coordinate with the federal government for the task," Mayor Shakya said to the media after the meeting. Shakya was of the opinion that since only KMC was transporting the waste collected from all localities inside the valley, it needed support from the federal government for the collective effort.
Similarly, Kathmandu CDO Parajuli said the meeting agreed to use force against protesters if the locals hindered transportation to the Sisdole site. Normally, around 150 trucks carrying waste from Kathmandu used to be taken to the Sisdole landfill site, but after the obstruction hardly 50 trucks were plying there.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 1 2021, of The Himalayan Times.