Garbage to be collected from today

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) will start collecting the garbage from the city from today after residents of Sisdole agreed to let them dump it at the Okharpauwa landfill site.

The KMC as well as Lalitpur Submetropolitan City had not gathered garbage for the last one week after residents of Teku and Balkhu did not allow them to dump it in their area. The residents of Sisdole had not allowed them to dump garbage in Okharpauwa landfill site since July 30.

According to Dinesh Thapaliya, chief executive of KMC, the garbage will now be dumped at Okharpauwa as local residents have reached an understanding with the municipalities and Ministry of Local Development.

Since the past one week, heaps of uncollected garbage were effecting the daily lives of city residents. The problem of garbage management became acute after Balkhu disposal area began to run out of space and residents of Teku refused to let the municipalities dump garbage in Teku Transfer station area saying it was affecting their health.

The Okharpauwa-Sisdole landfill site – which is located in neighboring Nuwakot district on the northwest of the capital - is the primary dumping site of the metropolitan cities. But the locals had refused to let the KMC dump garbage there since July 30.

The local residents of the Sisdole had put forth several demands including more development works in their area, replacement of the existing Sisdole Landfill Site Local Coordination Committee, providing jobs to local youths; opening school and hospital in the area; classification of the area on the basis of impact of garbage; clarification of roles and duties of the committee; and transparency in the budget flow in the area among others.

After Sunday's understanding to speed up development efforts, the local residents of Sisdole have agreed to let the cities drop their garbage in Okharpauwa.

The KMC currently manages 240 tons of waste produced by city residents and 260 tons of waste produced by residents of adjoining VDCs. The KMC's annual resource is around Rs 600 to 650 million – of which around Rs 230 million is spent on waste management alone. nepalnews.com sd Oct 16 06