KATHMANDU, July 11: Ten municipalities in the Kathmandu Valley have expressed commitment to help in implementation of Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) Project which is in the last leg of project development agreement (PDA) negotiations.
Speaking at a discussion program organized by the Investment Board Nepal (IBN) on issues of Project Development Agreement (PDA) document, the newly elected local representatives said that they would facilitate in implementation of the project as waste management is one of their priority areas.
Stating that waste management was among the first decisions taken by his municipality, Santosh Chalise, the mayor of Gokarneshwar Municipality, said that they would facilitate the project. He, however, added that there are doubts regarding implementation of the project.
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Likewise, Deputy Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), Hari Prabha Khadgi, stressed on implementation of the project, saying that it would save millions of rupees currently being spent on waste management. “We can use that amount in other priority sectors. However, sustainability of this project is important or else it could create huge problems,” she added.
At the program, Ishwor Raj Paudel, chief executive of KMC, stressed on coordinated efforts amongst all the municipalities to implement the project. He also said it might take more time to prepare Banchare Danda - the proposed site for waste management, stating that it was not an easy task.
Work plan prepared by the IBN states that the developer company will begin collecting garbage from April, 2018. The company will operate the project for 20 years under public private partnership model.
According to the IBN, the project envisions replacing present practice of solid waste management -- street sweeping, collection and disposal by a resource-oriented and sustainable practice of reduce, reuse and recycle.
Nepwaste - a joint venture between Nepali and Finnish investors - will implement Package No. 1 of the project that includes solid waste management of KMC and nine municipalities of Kathmandu district. Similarly, Clean Valley - a Nepal-India joint venture -- will undertake waste management in Package No. 2 and 3 which comprises of urban areas of Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts as well as Kirtipur Municipality of Kathmandu district.
The companies will collect all the wastes from households, streets and communities to a different local collection center and transport garbage to Banchare Danda where it will be processed in a plant to generate compressed natural gas and electricity as well as produce chemical fertilizers.
