She wants to come out of the room but does not, and neither the other members of her family dare to face the strong stench given off by the pile of garbage.
"Every morning we wake up to see the mountain of trash that spoils our mood for the whole day," she said, adding, "All the time we close the doors and windows to avoid the foul odor and flies." [break]
Dongol complained that her house remains covered with flies, and crows and eagles hover in the area all the times. She said that all of her family members suffer from multiple health complications like diarrheal disease, fever, typhoid, headache and others. She blamed the hazardous waste that has been accumulating in the area for the last two months for the ailments.
According to Dongol, most people in the settlement suffer from one disease or other due to the exposure to the waste piled in the nearby transfer station. The persistent rain fall adds to the woes of the people residing in the settlement.
"We can neither eat properly, nor can we sleep keeping the windows open," Dongol´s husband Raju Maharjan complained, adding, "It is too hard to live here."
Bhusan Bajracharya, another victim of transfer station, complained that due to unpleasant order, flies and the noise of crows he does not stay at home even on holidays. He said that terrace and roof of his house is usually littered with bones and dead mouse brought by crows and eagles. "It is hard to walk alone in the evening in this area as it is full of ferocious stray dogs," he said.
He said that over 200 dogs loiter in the area and the dogs barks all the night disturbing their sleep.
Bajracharya´s wife and children have been asking him to relocate to other place. "All my ancestral property is here. How can I go to another place leaving all this?" he complained. He said that the land near to their settlement is so costly but no one comes to buy the property in their settlement.
The people living in the settlement have also urged KMC to acquire their land and provide them land in another area instead, but the metropolis has not responded to their requests yet.
Santa Maharjan, another resident of the settlement, complained that the metropolis brings over 40 trucks of waste every day but transfer only 15 to 20 trucks of garbage to dumping sites.
The people of the settlement have been urging the KMC not to keep removing the garbage from the area on a regular basis but to no avail. They also alleged that the metropolis employees do not properly spray pesticide on the garbage pile and therefore the flies trouble them.
The locals in the past had organized protests several times, forcing the metropolis authority to commit to transfer waste to landfill sites within 24 hours.
But the KMC has failed to act as per the commitment. "We tried to protest again but the metropolis used security force to suppress us," complained Maharjan. He said that he and 30 other people from the settlement had to spend a night in police custody, when they tried to shut down the entrance to the transfer station.
Several pig farms operating in the area have also been compounding their problem. "When we asked to remove the pig farms, they asked us to remove the transfer station first," said Bajracharya.
He said that only pig farmers come to take the land in the area on lease. "No one comes to rent a room in this area," he added. He complains that the concerned authorities have not being showing seriousness to address their woes.
Sadhuram Bhattarai, chief of the Environment Department of the metropolis, concedes that the garbage has been piling up since two months at the transfer station. "Due to lack of sufficient vehicles, we are compelled to keep garbage there," he said, adding, "The decaying waste has not only been causing nuisance to locals but our employees have been equally affected by it."
According to him garbage trucks have not been able to transfer the waste because the road to Okharpauwa, where the dumping site is located, has been damaged by continuous rain fall in the recent days.
The KMC is itself responsible for constructing the roads to the dumping site. Bhattarai said that poor roads also cause damages to the vehicles used in transporting garbage.
The department said that out of 20-22 garbage transporting trucks, only 7-8 are in operation. "Three trucks were damaged yesterday, four today," said Bhattarai. He said that he is well aware of the problems faced by the locals near the transfer station and that the KMC is mulling to hire private trucks to clear the station.
Corruption in waste management
Locals allege that metropolis waste management has become a way of illicit earning for some corrupt officials. They accused that some officials have been taking bribes from private companies for transporting their garbage to the dumping site but then unload the waste in the transfer station.
Private contractors, who collect garbage from households, have to transport the waste to dumping sites themselves, but we know that a lot of such companies hand it over to KMC´s vehicles.
"Why do they accept garbage from private contractors if they have nothing to gain?" Santa Maharjan, a local, said.
Maharjan also accused rampant corruption in road construction. "The road to the landfill site was damaged lone time back, but the KMC announces tender only at end of fiscal year every time," he said.
"It is not very difficult to understand the reason behind starting works in the end of a fiscal year," he added.
Rabinman Shrestha, a KMC official, concedes that the metropolis has been transporting garbage collected by private contractors to the landfill site, but he denied any corruption. "It is our duty to provide service to the private companies as well. They have been assisting us in garbage collection," he added.
He said the office will take action against the employees who are found taking financial benefits from private contractors.
Chief of Department Bhattarai said that the metropolis is responsible to construct the road to the landfill site but a portion of Pashang Lamhu highway is also ruined because of the overloaded metropolis garbage trucks. He said that the metropolis has urged the Department of Roads to maintain the road.
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