Pokhara garbage piles due to a dispute about disposal

Pokhara, a popular tourist destination in Nepal, is seeing an increasing trash problem on its streets. Because residents have blocked the disposal site, the tourist town’s waste collection has been halted for days. Garbage is piled high at the crossroads of Pokhara’s inner and main roadways. As a result, city junctions are starting to smell bad.

The market’s main street is now littered with garbage bags. Following the opening of Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA), Pokhara Metropolitan City began handling waste on the banks of the Seti River at Lame Aahal, Pokhara-32, and closed the previous dump site in Bachhebuduwa-14. The city had been disposing of rubbish there for no more than six months, despite the protests of the residents.

At the time, the city promised the residents that it would stop disposing of rubbish in Lame Aahal after a permanent structure was constructed in six months. However, the city, which failed to fulfill its commitment, signed an agreement with the people to dump rubbish at the location and delayed the date a second time. The villagers, however, have now blocked rubbish removal, claiming that the arrangement has expired.

Locals blocked the site’s waste disposal because the city failed to fulfill its end of the bargain and supply funding, according to Pokhara-32 Ward Chairman Akkal Bahadur Karki. The prior arrangement between the impacted region and the city ended on February 5, he said. Because the work was not completed in accordance with the previous arrangement and the ward office did not give them the budget they were supposed to get, the locals blocked the disposal of the rubbish. For the past two years, the city has been disposing of trash here, he claimed, and it hasn’t even provided the agreed-upon budget. In comparison to other wards, the ward’s budget is smaller.

Karki claims that the city has reduced other regular budgets while allocating Rs 50 million a year for rubbish management in ward number 32. He claimed that although Ward 32 had a considerably larger budget than other ward offices, “they cut the budget on other sectors while giving money for garbage disposal.” He claimed that no consensus has yet been achieved on rubbish management despite numerous conversations.

He added that residents expressed dissatisfaction, saying that it would have been preferable if there had been no trash dumping at Lame Aahal. At Lame Aahal, residents had previously been blocking the waste disposal. Residents in the impacted areas have occasionally blocked garbage disposal, claiming that there hasn’t been any development or pollution control efforts in the afflicted areas.

In a similar vein, Balram Pathak, the head of the sanitation department in Pokhara Metropolitan City, stated that there is cause for optimism because negotiations between the city and its residents are currently in progress. “Since the rubbish dumping was halted, negotiations have continued. We’re optimistic that a deal will be achieved shortly. Garbage has not yet been collected in the city,” he stated.

150 to 200 tons of trash are produced daily in Pokhara. Hospital and industrial trash are not included in this number. In a same vein, 20 vehicles pick up trash in Pokhara each day. Six separate private companies have been tasked by the city with collecting waste. These businesses have been collecting trash by charging each home a charge.

Pathak claims that although the trash from the main road was picked up and loaded onto vehicles last Sunday, it hasn’t been picked up since. The trash that was loaded into the vehicles has stayed there and hasn’t been disposed of anyplace. “Trash management is delicate. As a result, it cannot be gathered and simply disposed of anywhere. “The garbage will be collected immediately following negotiations and agreement,” he stated. “The trash that has accumulated in each home can be picked up in a single day if all the vehicles are mobilized.” But for it, an agreement is necessary.

When the city was getting ready to run the PRIA two years ago, Lame Ahal, which is located on Pokhara-32, was designated as a temporary landfill site, according to Krishna Prasad Tiwari, the city’s information officer. At that time, a deal was made between the city and the residents that prioritized development in the impacted neighborhoods. “The contract with the locals in the impacted region is no longer in effect. Garbage was deposited in Lame Aahal as a temporary disposal site when the airport’s construction was announced, but the villagers are impeding it by putting up “unreasonable demands and conditions” in the interim, according to Tiwari.

According to him, the residents claimed that the work had not been completed in accordance with the terms of the contract.

Tiwari claims that because it is a dump, the ward is given an extra Rs 50 million in funding each year in comparison to other wards. That budget is distinct from the standard budget. The city has allocated funds for the ward’s activities in the impacted area. Locals, however, are upset that not all of the funds have been allocated to the impacted area. Additionally, the ward office has used all of the allocated funds for rubbish rather than the landfill-affected area,” he claimed. There are grievances that the impacted region has embezzled funds intended for its region abroad. It’s possible that the impacted individuals requested that the funds be used exclusively in their region. But the ward also used that money elsewhere. The residents blocked the garbage dumping as a way to vent their displeasure.

In order to permanently manage Pokhara’s rubbish, Tiwari added, the process of obtaining land has begun in order to construct a processing center in Bharat Pokhari, Pokhara-33. In accordance with the public-private collaboration, he added, a letter of intent has been required. “The city wants Pokhara’s trash to be managed permanently. But thus far, it hasn’t been feasible,” he stated.