The denizens in Kathmandu will be living amid heaps of garbage accumulated at every nook and corner of the capital city for a few more days as the garbage dumping in Bancharedanda landfill became uncertain after a group vandalised the trucks heading for the site on Monday.
The rowdy locals caused damages to the vehicles at Aletar last night and the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) have to not only repair the trucks but also convince the locals to allow to take the garbage to the landfill.
According to the KMC, two bulldozers, one excavator and 14 vehicles loaded with garbage parked at the site nearby Armed Police Base camp were vandalised by an unknown group at 9 pm on Monday.
According to Sarita Rai, chief of the KMC’s environment department, the dozers and excavators used for the capping and grinding garbage collected were severely damaged. The vandalised vehicles belong to the private waste management companies. She added that the issue would be solved as soon as possible.
According to chief Rai, the staffs dumping the garbage were not safe and it would take time for the maintenance of the vehicles.
“We are not sure about the resumption of garbage collection by the metropolis as the vehicles are vandalised to the point that it could not be operated at the moment,” she added.
She also requested the KMC residents to manage the organic waste in their houses if possible instead of throwing garbage on the streets.
Sunil Lamsal, a member at the secretariat of KMC mayor, said that various obstacles had been created on the way of the new mayor.
Earlier, the municipality had worked to solve the problems regarding road infrastructure. It had allocated the budget for road after pressuring the Road Department.
He said that the local businessmen related to waste and infrastructure construction were creators of the obstacles.
“Now, it has prioritised leachate and foul odour management as well as containing spread of the flies and insects,” he added.
The garbage collection was halted in the last week of July due to the repair works being done on the road section leading to the landfill site.
After that the metropolis was dumping 150-200 tippers of garbage per day at the landfill site. But it stopped collecting garbage from Sunday. The metropolis said garbage collection would resume only after repairing the damaged vehicles.
Meanwhile, Mayor Balendra Shah on his Facebook page said, “We will take action against these people as it is against the law to vandalise garbage vehicles.” Shah added that the people who had vandalised the vehicles would be made to pay the cost of repairing the vehicles.
Mayor Shah has been trying to solve the garbage problems since he was elected from May 13 local level election. But, still many factors are creating obstructions to the management of the city garbage.
Source : TRN,
