Officials at the metropolis said that the office hired private trucks as most garbage transporting vehicles owned by the KMC are nonfunctional. Due to continuous rainfall the road to landfill site, including a section of the Pasang Lhamu Highway, has been damaged. [break]
"We have hired some private vehicles to transport garbage piled at the transfer station," Rabinman Shrestha, an official at the environment department of KMC, said. He said that the office has hired half a dozen trucks to transport garbage.
Locals at Teku have been complaining about the recurrent delay in removing the waste from the transfer station. They complain that their houses remain covered with flies, and crows and eagles hover in the area all the times because of accumulating garbage. Due to exposure of hazardous waste, people in the settlement suffer from health complications. They have been urging the metropolis to transport collected waste to the dumping site from the area on a regular basis. The KMC has been storing the litter at the transfer station for more than two months.
Shrestha said that it would take several days to clear all the waste stored at the station. "We have hired only half a dozen trucks and they would need more time to clear all waste," he added. The department has also started construction works of the battered road. When asked why the office always starts road construction in monsoon, Shrestha said, "The government does not allocate the budget in time. Also, it takes a lot of time to complete all the government procedures regarding the selection of contractors." The government has provided Rs 10.8 million to the KMC to repair the road to dumping site.
The KMC collects 400 tons of waste everyday from the metropolis, only about half of which is taken to the dumping site.
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