Construction of landfill site expedited as KMC grapples with waste management

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has been collecting the garbage that had accumulated by the roadsides for nearly three weeks. Although KMC has put effort into clearing the wastes, it is grappling with waste management. 

KMC’s Department of Environment Chief Hari Kumar Shrestha told NepalNews that the Waste Management Division has already started collecting and carrying away the waste to the landfill sites. He said that the KMC has been facing problems in managing waste as the Sisdol landfill site which is in use for the past 13 years is now almost fully occupied to its capacity. Apart from that, the vehicles carrying the wastes to the landfill site has to ply the 200-metre road built over the waste that has turned into a quagmire due to torrential rain, he said and added that vehicles struggle to reach the spot for dumping the waste is at the height of 80 metres. In many cases the vehicles get stranded on the way, he explained and said out of 150 vehicles, only 50 vehicles have been engaged in carrying the waste to the Sisdol landfill site.

Department of Environment Chief Shrestha said, "The waste management problem would be solved once the new landfill site being constructed at Bancharedanda under the instruction of the Ministry of Urban Development complete." “The landfill site would have been ready for use by now had there been no lockdown or prohibitory order,“ Shrestha said. He said that the construction of the landfill site was affected due to a shortfall of supply of construction materials and a lack of adequate manpower during the lockdown. “Meanwhile, the construction of pond at the site has been expedited with the work being carried out in two shifts. The KMC has proposed to carry out the construction works in three shifts,” Shrestha said.

Earlier, the KMC had engaged 200 vehicles to collect and carry away the waste to the landfill site. However, due to the risk caused by the incessant rain only 50 vehicles have been engaged.

About 15,000 metric tons of waste had accumulated as the garbage had not been collected for a long time. The garbage collection had halted due to monsoon-induced disasters on road. Around 1,200 metric tons of garbage generated in Kathmandu Valley each day is managed at Sisdol constructed in 2006.