SOLID WASTE PROBLEM & MANAGEMENT IN KATHMANDU
Introduction
Solid waste management is a common problem is most of the developing country. It is common scene seeing a person throwing garbage just near the bank of the river, or municipalities just dumping around the open ground without thinking about the harm it could cause to the environment. It is necessary to develop a self sustaining eco-system, where the solid waste does not present itself as a problem but a solution and source of income to many of the people. In this context some of the methodology developed in developing country like India, Bangladesh is discussed and an idea of using this method in our country is presented
Solid waste composition and generation in Nepal
The per capita waste generation of Nepal is 300g/person/day (Ministry of urban development, solid waste management technical support centre(SWMTSC), 2015). The major portion is organic i.e 63.22% . The composition is shown below in Figure 1
The population of Kathmandu is about 1376108 people in 2019 as shown in figure 2. (http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/kathmandu-population/, n.d.). The total waste generated is about 412 ton/day. The total waste generated per year is 150683.8 ton. If a land fill of 100m x 100m x 1m is constructed (ie land fill of 1 hectare area and 1m height) total land fill required for 1 year waste deposit is 50 Hec. This goes on increasing every year adding massive load to land requirement, more over there will be additional problem of leaching. In the Kathmandu Valley,. Sewage flow untreated into rivers. There are no proper slaughter houses in any municipalities and no ruled for disposing of the city’s dead cows and dogs. They end up in shallow graves near river banks, leaching into the water supply. Hospitals are responsible for disposing their own hazardous waste such as needles, tissues, organs and other body parts, but the government has not provided dumping site. Some hospital burn their waste products in open, and other use incinerators that release dioxin and furan, two highly carcinogenic pollutants, except for BirHospital which hasits own bio gas plant in its premises.
Serving Kathmandu and Lalitpur, the valley only working landfill, Sisdole, 24km from capital is almost full and during the monsoon is frequently cut off from the city by floods and landslides. Politicians are quick to point to a new landfill as the solution but only 40-50% of valley’s garbage goes to Sisdole and most of it enters the dump sites unsegregated (source: http://tangledjourneys.com/2014/04/11/will-kathmandu-be-buried-in-garbage/, n.d.).
Solutions
The Municipal waste can be separated in two bins ( red and green). Green for bio-degradable and organic and red for non-biodegradable waste. This thing is implemented by general awareness and bin collector who by instruction will refuse to take unmanaged waste. This can be done in local level too reducing pressure to government. A company in Tamilnadu, Solid & Liquid Resource Management (SLRM) hasmade this residential waste management sustainable and profitable. They segregate the organic and inorganic items, collecting waste daily twice. They feed fresh organic item to cattle and use cow dung for making fertilizer and many other useful products. The rotten organic waste is composted using aerobic reaction, using vermiculture, ducks/fish for eating worms of waste and finally left in sun creating fertilizer and sold to the market. There model is cheap, affordable and can be done in rural level too.
