Solid Waste
Solid waste management, consisting of collection, transportation and safe disposal, is an important aspect of day-to-day city management that has direct bearing with the health of its citizens and the image of the city as well. As a result of rapid urbanization in LSMC and the development of new urban culture accompanying it, the volume and nature of the waste generated too has changed significantly over the years. In early days, the city area of Patan, like other traditional cities of Kathmandu valley, has its own traditional way of solid waste management.
The solid waste generated, which are primarily organic in nature are collected in a place called saga, a small interior courtyards formed by group of houses. This is then collected by farmers who collect and transfer it to the surrounding fields for use as fertilizers. More mundane systems to collect and age night soil from the city and dispose to surrounding farms as manure were also in practice. In this way, the waste generated, though small in quantity as compared to present day volume, used to be managed efficiently by converting it into a resource with little sophistication. However, such practice has gradually declined with the loss of agricultural land and people practicing agriculture.
Today, the solid waste management is under the responsibility of LSMC. It has been carrying out the collection, transportation and disposal of the waste in the city. According to Cleaning and Environment Improvement Section of LSMC, it spends nearly NRs. 25,000,000 in solid waste management of the city, which accounts for 25 percent of the total expenditure of LSMC. With a population of 162991, the cost per person is about NRs.154, which is least of all other Municipalities/ Metropolitan cities of the Valley.
Waste Generation
It is estimated that, nearly 75 tons of solid waste is generated daily in LSMC only. With its limited resources and capabilities, LSMC at present has been able to collect nearly 60 tons/day, while the remaining 15 tons are somehow managed at individual levels (Source: Environment and Sanitation Section, LSMC).
Of the total solid waste generated from the households in LSMC, about 70% is kitchen waste that is organic in nature, and the combustible and reusable materials like paper, wood, leaves, and textiles constitute nearly 13 %. The increasing trend of use of plastics in the city is evident by its portion (11.4%) in the total household waste.
Similarly, the composition of waste generated from various sources in the city is shown in Table 4.8. Hotels and restaurant waste generates mainly organic waste from kitchen (77%), paper (21%) and plastics (13%). Offices produce, not surprising more papers (73%) than organic (0%) and plastic (18%) waste. Therefore, the figure shows that bulk of the quantity of waste generated in LSMC is organic in nature. With proper management and method, it could become a resource to capitalize upon rather than a waste to discard. This would not only reduce the quantity of waste at disposal site but also earn valuable money.
The waste generation by income level shows increases in generation quantity with income level of the people. This is probably due to the high consumption quantity and the use of industrial products by these groups. Similarly, the quantity of waste generated is high on weekends than in other days of the week. On average the waste generation per person in weekdays is 222 grams with 202 g/L of bulk density while it reaches 243 grams with a bulk density of 187 g/L on weekends. In the same study, it was observed that 3.5 to 10 kg/ with 210 to 580 g/L of bulk density day was generated from commercial area. In the street, about 21.0 kg of waste are collected per day.
Collection and Transportation
Collection and transportation is the most crucial part of the effective and efficient solid waste management in a city. Of the estimated 75 tons of solid waste generated in the city, currently only 60 ton/day, i.e. 805 is collected and transported to the dumping sites. The rest 15 ton is either left uncollected or managed at local or individual level.
In LSMC, waste in collected in two shifts, morning shift (5:00-7:00 a.m.) and evening shift (7:00pm – 2:00 am). There are altogether 165 sweepers deployed within LSMC to carry out the daily cleaning, collection and transportation of the solid waste. This includes 66 sweepers working for different wards (3 in each of the 22 wards), 26 helpers for loading waste on transport vehicles and remaining for street cleaning. About 70% of the sweepers are female (CKV, Interim report-2004).
There are total 12 containers placed at different strategic points in the city for efficient collection of solid waste. This includes 8 red containers of 6 cu.m capacity each and 4 blue containers of 4.5 cu.m capacity each. The whole city area has been divided into three regions and the frequency of cleaning and collection is planned and managed accordingly. There are 11 routes for 11 vehicles for the daily operation.
• Tourism area (Durbar Square & Connecting Routes)
• City core area (11 Wards)
• Outside city core area (11 Wards)
In recent times private sector has also joined hand with LSMC in waste collection and transportation in the city. There are about 10 small private organizations providing services in carrying out door-to-door waste collection and transportation to collection points in different wards of the city with a nominal service charge. Some are even working towards recycling of the waste, Mahila Batabaran Sangrachana Samitte, at ward no. 1 being one of them
Given the limited resources with LSMC, the growing participation of private sector in this regard is encouraging towards keeping the city clean. This is ensured by the policy adopted by LSMC in promoting private participation in the solid waste management of the city.
According to data provided by Environment and Sanitation Section of LSMC (table) on waste collected and transported by its vehicular resource in the year 2004, waste generation is highest during October, probably this being the month of various festivals including Dashain and Tihar, and lowest in April.
Final disposal
At present much of the solid waste collected is transported to Okharpauwa Landfill site at Sisdole, which was developed as a short term sanitary landfill site for the cities of Kathmandu and Lalitpur. This landfill site came into operation since 5th June 2005. After the closure of Gokarna Landfill site where the waste collected from Kathmandu and Lalitpur used to be dumped, the river banks were chosen as waste disposal site as a temporary measure in both these cities. The solid waste collected from the city of Lalitpur was dumped along the Bagmati river bank at Balkhu. Suitable measures were adopted during the disposal of waste along the river bank to prevent excessive pollution of the river. However, even today some amount is still continued to be dumped along the river bank. But it is expected to be stop after the operation of long term sanitary landfill site at Okharpauwa, Banchare danda. According to CKV Report, LSMC reports that about 200 cu m / day is dispose at Bagmati River dumping site.
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