KATHMANDU

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is to collect garbage of Kathmandu Valley from Wednesday. Garbage collection task was halted for the past two weeks. A meeting held under coordination of KMC Mayor Bidhya Sundar Shakya in presence of Chief District Officer of Kathmandu, Kali Prasad Rijal, Director General of Department of Roads, senior superintendent of Police, among others took the decision in this regard. Solid waste has been thrown and piled up in different parts of the city which has turned Kathmandu Valley into a dirty and stinky capital. Garbage has been found thrown haphazardly everywhere including on road, river bank and squares. Saying it was not only the responsibility of KMC to manage the garbage, Mayor Shakya stressed it is the responsibility of all. He said support of all bodies was expected for positive resolution of this problem.

Chief of Environment Department of KMC, Hari Kumar Shrestha, said that a decision was taken to carry out repair and maintenance of the road to Sisdole landfill site immediately by the Department of Roads. He further said that problems of locals of Sisdole would also be resolved. “The home administration will make arrangement of peace and security if challenge is surfaced in course of collecting garbage and its management.” There would be coordination between the District Administration Office, Nuwakot, and Kathmandu, for the same, mentioned Shrestha. Meanwhile, the Urban Development Ministry said the disposal of waste in the under-construction Bancharedanda seemed possible within a week. Ministry’s information officer Suresh Kumar Wagle said the construction of first cell has reached the final phase.

The Kathamandu Metropolis had issued a public notice appealing to the Metropolis people for the indoor management of waste for the time being from August 16. The waste collection will be resuming after two weeks of the service disruption. The Sisdole-based landfill site was built 16 years ago for the disposal of waste for the two years, but it is being used to date. Sisdole sees the management of 1,200 metric tonnes of waste transported from the Valley on a daily basis and the Kathmandu Metropolis has the highest contribution of 500 metric tonnes alone to it. Before the disruption of the waste collection, 200 vehicles from the private service providers and the Kathmandu Metropolis would reach Sisdole each day, now the number is hardly counted at 50. The Bancharedanda landfill site that lies two kilometers far from Sisdole is based on the border of Nuwakot and Dhading districts. Of total waste generated in the Kathmandu Valley, around 75 percent is managed at Sisdole.