Garbage Management and Natural Resource Mobilization Centre (GMNRMC) recently issued a public notice calling for proposals for a suitable site for the dumping. Accordingly, a couple of proposals have come to the centre. An inspection team of specialists is to visit the Champadevi, Kirtipur area Saturday upon the request of locals purposely readying themselves to put up with the garbage of the capital -- some 400 tons a day -- officials say.uent obstructions while awaiting a long-term solution. [break]
Officials say that without an alternative site there is no way to cope with freqent obstructions. ´´Champadevi has maximum possibility as an alternative dumping site with a capacity to retain garbage for around five years," says Niranjan Paudel, co-coordinator of the all-party monitoring taskforce formed under Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
The capital is seeing a garbage problem more acute than ever at a time when part of the country is undergoing a cholera epidemic. A statement issued by GMNRMC warns that the garbage problem could be disastrous in the highly populated capital amidst rising temperatures and in view of infection spreading in the mid-western districts.
Okharpauwa Sisdol landfill site located on the border between Nuwakot and Dhading districts has been used for four years though its actual capacity was only for two years. Next to it is the Aletar landfill site which is in the last phase of construction-- officials say it will be operated after a couple of weeks. But it could run no longer than six months.
The government has endorsed a plan for constructing a substantially long-term site at Bancharedanda some eight kilometers from Okharpauwa. To be built with the assistance of the Japan government, the Bancharedanda site, covering more than 1,700 ropani of land, is supposed to run for 25 years. The government has already allocated Rs 250 million to start the mega project.
The government has acquired some 800 ropani of private and public land. GMNRMC is about to distribute compensation to the owners of private land coming under acquisition. ´´However, if the situation continues adversely, I fear the project will derail," says Dipendra Oli, legal officer of GMNRMC.
"An alternative site is now a must to basically avert the problem arising from sole dependence on Okharpauwa. More significantly, it will have a psychological effect on the locals," says a high ranking official of GMNRMC.
The government has invested more than Rs 90 million for the benefit of the locals over the last eight years. A lump sum of Rs 20 million is sent annually to the affected areas of Nuwakot and Dhading for development activities through local consumers´ committees. Most of the committees could hardly spend the budget last year, a GMNRNC financial report states.
A comprehensive agreement between GMNRMC, Kathmandu Metropolitan City and the Local Coordination Committee for the overall development of the affected areas ended within a year after locals blocked garbage dumping for 72 days in 2006. There are now several committees and groups taking to agitations one after another. "Since then, there is no authentic agreement in force. To end a problem once, we just script a never-to-implement solution in the minute book and leave it at that until another problem arises," an official says on condition of anonymity.
This time one struggle committee led by Maoist leaders Ramesh Prasad Paudel and Ram Bahadur Tamang has demanded a high-profile package deal in the presence of the prime minister. GMNRNC has summoned an extensive meeting in this connection next week and officials say it will involve at least six ministers concerned, the CA members from Kathmandu, Nuwakot and Dhading and other stakeholders.
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