KATHMANDU, Feb 7: Managing the city waste has posed extra challenge to Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC).

The challenge is because the long-term dumping site which is under construction at Bancharedanda has not been constructed yet and the Sisdol landfill site has also become full to its capacity.

KMC has been dumping waste at Sisdol landfill site for long. The waste from 18 local levels in the Kathmandu Valley has been managed at Sisdol landfill site in Nuwakot for the last 13 years.

Around 1,000 metric tonnes waste is generated daily in the Valley and KMC alone generates 500 metric tonnes daily.

About 75 per cent of the waste generated from the Kathmandu Valley is dumped at Sisdol. Although it is said works on construction of the landfill site at Bancharedanda are being carried out with the goal of completing it within April, only 30 per cent works have been completed.

Agreement had been signed on May 5, 2019 with Lumbini Koshi and Neupane JV for the construction of the sanitary landfill site at Bancharedanda within a year from the signing of the contract.

The contract is worth Rs 346 million 874 thousand 895 exclusive of VAT. The government last month had decided to give the responsibility of constructing the Bancharedanda landfill site to the Ministry of Urban Development.

However, it looks like the construction of the landfill site at Bancharedanda is not going to be completed within the one-year deadline due to the negligence of the contractor. Only three months remain for the deadline but the construction has met only 30 per cent progress.

Expressing concern over the delay in the construction of the infrastructure of the landfill site, KMC mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya has said KMC would find out solution in case there were policy-level hurdles in the construction of the landfill site.

The Department of Urban Development and Building Construction admitted that the construction could not be complete within the deadline in view of slow progress in the construction. The concerned authorities suggested promoting the process to segregate wastes at production sources alongside construction of a landfill site.

The KMC is at work to dump wastes produced from the metropolis at Sisdole landfill site for the time being as construction of an alternative dumping ground is yet to be completed. In this regard, covering already dumped garbage with soils is underway at the garbage dump, said Hari Kumar Shrestha, chief of the environment department at the KMC.

"The volume of wastes produced from the metropolis is high. There is not a situation to dump wastes anywhere. We are under compulsion to dump wastes at the site until the construction of the landfill site at Bancharedanda is completed," he said.

Amidst this, a team of the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) submitted a report to the metropolis identifying 10 places at Sisdole as most affected zone in terms of environmental impacts. The study team was led by senior scientist and NAST's officer Dr Bhola Raj Panta.

 
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