Indrakumari KC
Horse mare (Kailali). It has been nine years since Janga Bahadur Chaudhary of Godavari Municipality-4 Khairana of Kailali started working in the field of waste management. He has been managing waste through the municipality for eight years and has been working at the Integrated Waste Management Center in Godavari Municipality since last July.
Chowdhury is currently earning about Rs 17,000 per month by doing waste sorting and management. According to him, although this work has given employment opportunities, direct contact with waste, stench and health risks remain a constant challenge.
Priyanka Zoraila of Godavari Municipality-10 has also been working on waste segregation and management at the same center for the past four months. He used to work in a clothing store and now he earns about Rs. 16,000 per month. Like them, around 100 people are employed in the waste management center.
Not only in Godavari, but also in Kanchanpur’s Shuklaphanta Municipality, locals have been getting employment through waste management. In this way, waste management in the local levels of the Far West is now not only cleaning but also connected with employment and livelihood. This employment created at the local level has further clarified the possibility that waste can be used as an opportunity rather than a problem.
In order to make this practice more institutionalized and effective, some local levels of Sudurpaschim Province have made efforts to transform waste from environmental risk into economic opportunity with scientific management, adequate investment and active participation of the private sector.
An example of this is the Integrated Waste Management Center in Godavari Municipality of Kailali. Built at a cost of one billion rupees in Chowkidanda Women’s Community Forest Area, the waste separation, processing and reuse system is in operation. It has created the basis for sustainable waste management along with reducing environmental pollution.
According to city chief Birendra Bhatt, the practice of sorting waste at source has made management easier and the municipality has also started getting revenue from it. The participation of the private sector in the operation of this center is also noteworthy. Clean Environment Pvt Ltd has been handling the responsibility of waste management. According to Govind Rawal, the director of the company, about 70 percent of the collected waste is managed as reusable material. Bio-fertilizer is produced from rotting waste while other materials are sent for reuse. He says that if waste can be managed in a proper manner, it can become an opportunity rather than a problem.
The company has been submitting revenue to the municipality annually. The monthly income of the company reaches about Rs. 26 lakhs. Rawal said that even though the income and expenses are equal, the company is providing employment to 100 people. A similar practice has been carried out in Kanchanpur’s Shuklaphanta Municipality through the Integrated Waste Management Center. Ran Bahadur Mahara, head of Shuklaphanta Municipality, said that before the construction of the center, garbage was being managed in the forest area.
He informed that although the center was built to be able to manage for 20 years based on the estimate of collecting about six tons of garbage daily, currently only about three tons of garbage is being collected daily. Looking at this situation, the life of the center can reach up to 40 years, according to Mayor Mahara.
According to him, after the operation of the center, the local people are involved in the work from driving the tractor to separating the garbage, which has also created employment opportunities. Such structures have been constructed in an area of 22 hectares in Dhangadhi, five bighas in Shuklaphanta and five hectares in Attaria. These projects have been carried out under the regional urban development project with the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
On the other hand, a waste management center has been constructed in Dhangadhi sub-metropolitan city of Kailali, but it is yet to be put into operation. However, the sub-metropolitan city has been making revenue through contracts with private companies for waste management since previous years. The sub-metropolitan municipality had put into operation a fine classification center in July 2080 with an investment of Rs.
Ashok Awasthi, head of environment, drinking water and sanitation management branch of the sub-metropolitan city, said that the center, which has been put into operation by the sub-metropolitan city, has been selling waste through a contract through a private company. Nandadevi Service Center in Dhangadhi has been awarded a five-year contract for Rs 72 lakh in the year 2081-82. Awasthi said that they have signed a contract with the contractor company to increase the amount by 10 percent every year for five years according to the contract amount of the first year.
These practices can link waste management to environmental protection and economic opportunities without limiting it to just sanitation. But the practice of dumping garbage in sensitive forest areas is still challenging. The problem of waste management is not only the lack of resources, but also related to policy implementation and long-term management approach. Rasas