ADB_book_18 April.qxp - Himalayan Document Centre - icimod

In most municipalities, hazardous wastes arecommonly mixed and dumped along with municipalwaste. Most commonly, industrial waste is eitherburned, dumped, drained in a river, or mixed withmunicipal waste. Similarly, hospital waste is eitherburned in a chamber within the hospital compoundor mixed with municipal waste (SWMRMC 2004).Mixing such wastes with municipal waste rendersthe latter hazardous and potentially infectious.Solid waste in Nepalese urban areas could bebetter managed by adopting a more holistic andintegrated approach that internalizes the concept ofthe 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle). Some elementsof this have been tried on a limited scale in Nepal,although these remain unguided, uncoordinated, orisolated and out of the mainstream solid wastemanagement practice. For example, there areseveral small-scale recycling industries using wasteplastics as raw materials, and paper is recycled in apaper mill and also by some NGOs (NPC and UNDPundated). Scavengers collect beverage bottles,which are mostly reused, and metal scraps, whichare recycled in factories in India and Nepal.Bhaktapur municipality has been composting itssolid waste for some time now; a compost plant ofabout 13 tons/day was operational until a few yearsback in Kathmandu, and several NGOs andcommunity groups in different urban areas haveinitiated door-to-door waste collection and smallscalecomposting, including vermi-composting aswell as briquette production (NEFEJ 2004). All theseindicate that waste can be converted into a resource,provided the right policy and approach are followed.Water PollutionWater pollution is a serious environmental issue inNepalese urban areas. Pollution of water bodies suchas rivers, lakes, ponds, groundwater, and drinkingwater supplies are common.Deficiency in wastewater and solid wastefacilities and their mismanagement have oftenresulted in pollution of surface and groundwater.Using storm water drains as sanitary sewers is awidespread practice in Nepal. Sewerage systems,often combined with storm water drainage systems,exist in a number of urban areas such as in greaterKathmandu and Bhaktapur, although their coverageis inadequate and they are in a poor state ofmaintenance. Greater Kathmandu and Bhaktapurare the only urban areas with sewage treatmentplants; however, these plants are not functioning andthe untreated sewage is discharged directly intorivers. Major polluting industries, such as tanneries,sugar, paper, canning, cement, breweries, andpharmaceutical industries, are invariably located inor near urban areas and often dispose their waste,Solid Waste Management by an NGOThe Women Environment Preservation Committee(WEPCO) is a nonprofit NGO formed in 1992 by a groupof enthusiastic women from Kupondole, Lalitpur. From itsbeginning, WEPCO has been actively and continuouslyinvolved in solid waste management in the Kupondole areaof Lalitpur Municipality. The solid waste management itpractices and promotes is more than just collection anddisposal of waste; it incorporates the concept of recyclingand converting waste into resources. WEPCO provides doorto-doorwaste collection service to about 80% of the areahouseholds, for which each household pays a monthlycharge. The biodegradable fraction of the waste isconverted into organic compost. WEPCO also recyclespaper collected from different sources. WEPCO has shownan example on a small scale of how “waste” may be bettermanaged by also considering it as a “resource”. WEPCO isalso active in training and disseminating the experiencesand lessons learned to other NGOs and community groups,raising community awareness on the 3Rs, and promotingcomposting at household level. WEPCO is working inpartnership with Lalitpur Municipality and the private sector.In recognition of the work done, WEPCO was awarded theMOPE Environment Award 1996, UNEP Global 500Environment Award 2003, and World Wild Fund for Nature(WWF) Nepal Program Abraham Conservation Award 2003.(Source: personal communication with WEPCO).Stream Changed into a Sewer in KathmanduNEFEJ110 Environment Assessment of Nepal : Emerging Issues and Challenges