Authorities blame earthquake
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KATHMANDU, July 9: After weighing a kilo of vegetables at Lagankhel market place, a vendor packed the items into a thin plastic bag and handed it over to Sarita Subba of Mahalaxmisthan on Wednesday morning. Neither the vendor nor Subba showed signs of any hesitation in using plastic bag despite the fact that a government ban on the bags is still in place. When reminded of the ban, Subba expressed surprise that the ban still existed.
"Only a few weeks ago after the earthquake, I heard that the government had lifted the restriction on plastic bags for some time. And I saw that the bags were being sold in the market openly," said Subba.
Over two months after the massive earthquake of April 25 and recurrent aftershocks, people in the capital seem to have forgotten about the ban. More importantly the authorities concerned appear reluctant to implement the ban although the ban was introduced on April 15 after a huge public campaign. In the initial days, public awareness programs were launched and checkpoints were set up at various places in the capital to discourage the use of plastic bags.
"Yes, after the earthquake, the use of plastic bags has definitely increased in the Kathmandu Valley. And it was not possible to monitor and implement the ban during the time of the earthquake. So as things are slowly returning to normal, we will step up monitoring," said Teeka Pokharel, senior divisional chemist at Department of Environment (DoE).
According to Mahendra Man Gurung, joint secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MoSTE), the ban is still in place and has not been eased. "Just today [Wednesday], we held a meeting and discussed the ban," said Gurung.
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