Sick city
Garbage and solid waste management has
become an incurable disease in all our cities
become an incurable disease in all our cities
Clean and green Kathmandu sounds like science fiction. Nepal Government and Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Office have announced to make the valley clean and green for the upcoming 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in November 2014. Inhabitants of the valley are skeptical about such announcements. Do we need a clean city only for SAARC summit and not for our own sake?
When we visit a city in developed countries, the first impression we get is its cleanness, greenery and the open space. There they levy tax, often in good amount, from all who utilize the metropolitan facilities. In response, all essential facilities for the inhabitants are provided. In European cities, for example, we can find tea parlors and vendors all over the street but they have to pay a handsome tax to the municipality for doing business there. In Vienna, for example, vehicle parking charge inside the city is so high that most people including white-collar officers and executives would rather use public transportation than their personal cars.
When we visit a city in developed countries, the first impression we get is its cleanness, greenery and the open space. There they levy tax, often in good amount, from all who utilize the metropolitan facilities. In response, all essential facilities for the inhabitants are provided. In European cities, for example, we can find tea parlors and vendors all over the street but they have to pay a handsome tax to the municipality for doing business there. In Vienna, for example, vehicle parking charge inside the city is so high that most people including white-collar officers and executives would rather use public transportation than their personal cars.
However, here we often see municipality trucks chasing the street vendors. Kathmandu footpaths are always covered with cheap wares and their vendors who have not to pay any tax. Parking spaces too are free of cost. In an already congested city, free parking has made it unmanageably crowded. KMC should have arranged paid parking space at different corners of the city. People should realize that the city cannot allow parking anywhere and everywhere.
Garbage and solid waste management has become an incurable problem in all our cities. Non-governmental Organizations like Safai Nepal have made significant contributions to the collection and transportation of garbage of Kathmandu. The city would have been horrible place to live in without them. However, frequent protests by the locals from the nearby ‘land fill sites’ creates problem in garbage disposal.
While private agencies are doing their best for garbage management, the government takes no initiative for sustainable solid waste management. Solid waste of our cities contains 80-85 percent biodegradable waste that can be converted into manure. Rest of the garbage contains non-biodegradable materials which can be recycled. GTZ, DANIDA and few other INGOs have already proposed for technical and financial support for such recycling project but the government has not accepted this due to unknown reasons. Such recycle plants seem essential here.
In the meantime, municipalities should monitor private collectors so that they will be reliable and efficient. Despite all the effort of municipalities and NGOs we find pile of garbage in the open roads, street corners and rivers. Principally, public should not only be educated but also punished for littering their household and commercial garbage at public places.
In the last few months a momentum has been created to clean rivers of Kathmandu. Nepal Telecom sends SMS inviting all to participate in the cleaning of Bagmati River every Saturday. Many dignitaries and common people have participated in the cleaning program. While such drive shows awareness of people and builds social harmony which is much needed for urban societies, it has contributed very little to the cleanliness of the river.
Firstly, not only Bagmati is polluted but all rivers in the valley are highly polluted. Secondly, people have not stopped polluting the river even after the cleaning campaign. Recently, in some newspapers snaps of toilets having direct outpouring in Bagmati was published. At so many places wastes are still disposed directly in the river. If municipalities cannot provide alternatives for the management of public drainage and enforce strong laws to stop river polluters, the Saturday medicine cannot cure this epidemic.
Besides garbage, desertification and concrete jungle is a big problem in Kathmandu. A city is lively and beautiful only if it has sufficient vegetation and green parks. Development planners have never given priority to green-issues. Urban development should always go hand-in-hand with nature conservation. Municipalities have paper plans for ‘greenery on the roof’ but they have no plans for greenery on the ground: by roadsides, river banks, or public places.
These days, roads are being widened and reconstructed in Kathmandu. There seems to be no plan for plantation of saplings. Small shrubs are needed at the pathway so that it will help the pedestrians get shade in hot summer. It is said that ‘tree is life’ and we need trees, shrubs, bushes in the city to make city-dwellers’ life healthy.
Green parks are essential part of a city. However, we have no parks to speak of in Kathmandu. A few parks like Ratnapark and Balajupark are in no good condition. Central part of the city has dense population and high air pollution but has no green parks for balance. KMC should find open public lands and conserve nature. Some local clubs are trying to preserve public places for making parks and KMC can encourage and assist them on it.
The author is a professor at the Department of Statistics, Amrit Science Campus
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