A mountain of waste

Nuwakot,Nepal

If the stench of the occasional pile of trash on the roads of Kathmandu is too much for you, try standing on an entire hill made of garbage! Thirty km away from Kathmandu, in the lap of Nuwakot’s lush green hills, sits the aforementioned hillock—a landfill site called Aletar. Run by the Ministry of Local Development and managed by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City office, this is the site where all the trash collected from the districts of Lalitpur and Kathmandu is dumped. Massive trucks rumble to and fro, each incoming one carrying anywhere from four to eight tonnes of garbage. Vultures encircle the skies, below which people pick at the mound of garbage, scavenging for reusable and recyclable materials. The garbage pile itself is quite a sight to see: never before has ‘eclectic’ had such a terrible visual effect. But at the same time, it is wondrous to see how many different sources of garbage wind up at this common destination. A film reel runs from the top to the bottom, which on close inspection, is revealed to be of the Bollywood film Om Shanti Om. A little distance away is a patch of empty medicine packets. The most common sight, though, is the unmistakable black polythene bags.

“Polythene is the worst. It makes up most of the volume of trash,” says Hari Sharan Phuyal, who has been overseeing landfill sites for 30 years. “Polythene bags cost Rs. 1. Shopkeepers and consumers throw them away like they cost nothing—but they have no idea how much 50 plastic bags cost the environment.” Indeed, the inability of such plastic to be recycled or degraded makes them a primal component of this mountain of trash. There remains no other solution than to push it under the carpet.

Other items, though, such as jute and certain types of plastic can be recycled. “Some of the low quality clothes you and I buy in Kathmandu are made from this very cloth,” he says, pointing to a pile of jute bags. This cloth, along with some kinds of plastic (such as the kind used to package milk) and glass, is picked out from the mounds of trash by workers seeking a source of income. These ‘trash-pickers’ are not employed by the government—they come to the site of their own accord, picking out from the garbage the few items that have an economic value. Later, it is sold for Rs. 8 per kilo, and the material is recycled. Though the idea of wearing and using stuff that has been picked out from a landfill site may seem repulsive, in terms of sustainability, it is a blessing. Had this provision not been in order, the landfill’s 18-month-long life-line would have been cut shorter.

The workers at the site do a pretty good job of hiding this eyesore. After the 80-90 incoming trucks dump the day’s worth of garbage, the refuse is sprayed with disinfectants to kill the germs. Afterward, it is capped with soil extracted from an adjoining hill. “My only issue is that most of the refuse doesn’t have to be here. If compost is made on a community-level, the amount of trash could be drastically reduced,” Phuyal says.

However, this issue doesn’t seem to be the only one for the locals. There are innumerable management issues surrounding the landfill. “Needless to say, the stench is unbearable. Often the capping isn’t done properly and bits of trash fly everywhere,” complains Ram Kumar Bhujel Chhetri, a local. Indeed, the road leading to and winding away from Aletar is dotted with the occasional noodle wrapper and stray shoe. The surrounding agricultural land, in particular, suffers a lot since the presence of trash interferes with work in the fields.

However, more problematic than the plastic, (which can, if worse comes to worse, be manually removed) is the runoff from the refuse. This sledge is pumped directly into the adjoining river Kalphu. “Earlier, people would catch fish in this river. Now you can’t even find a frog!” says a local. This river is the source of irrigation for local farmers. “As a result, the productivity of the land has gone down,” says Chhetri. Ram Kumar Ghimire, a local employed by the KMC office to look over the dumping, says, “A lot of money was spent making a filtration plant for the runoff. But it has not been in operation since the day it was constructed.” Additionally, it seems that the authorities do not seem interested in running the plant any day soon. “When the Japanese aid agency JICA was in charge, it was slightly better. The filtration plant at the previous site used to work,” says Ghimire. Since 2009, the Nepali government has been single-handedly managing the plant, and the results are there for all to see.

Locals have been rendered apathetic by this apparent indifference. “We hold strikes; we lodge complaints. Some representative is sent; promises are made, but nothing happens. The site manager has been absent from duty for a month and a half. He went for Dashain and never came back,” laughs a local. Some of the stories surrounding the site are shocking. Locals claim to have found the bodies of new born infants in the trash. Livestock have died by eating the poisoned garbage. The population of flies, in contrast, is on the rise, spelling out only trouble for the locals. “At least when the trash comes, the flies are busy and don’t bother us,” a local tea-shop owner jokes.

The problems in the management of Aletar and the many landfills before it are too many to even count. The lack of a composting system (despite the fact that the last was originally bought with the intention of turning it into a compost pit), the ever-rising use of polythene, and the apathy of the government are only a few. What is unbelievable is that though this landfill is most unsustainable and unfriendly to the cycle of nature, it manages to propel another cycle. Not far away from Aletar lies a C-shaped valley by the name of Banchare Dada. After Aletar’s 18-month-long life is up, the trash will begin to be dumped here. The Kalphu Khola cuts across this wide basin, exemplifying the natural beauty of Nepal. Seeing this magnificent panorama, the heart aches to imagine that this landscape too, will be scarred; that this image too, will soon be eclipsed by a rotting, towering mountain of garbage.

Source:BYANJANA THAPA ,www.ekantipur.com