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Govt dream project turns to dust
- banchare danda landfill site
KATHMANDU, APR 06 -
Fourteen years have elpased since the government identified Banchare Danda in Dhading district as a potential landfill site to dump the Kathmandu Valley’s waste for 25 years, but the dream project has failed to materialise thanks to several factors.
If materialised, the project would solve the Valley’s garbage disposal problem for 25 years, according to officials. The Valley produces around 500 tonnes of solid waste every day. However, the government initiatives have been snagged on several fronts, such as building consensus with locals and finding donors.
“The project’s work started seven years after its identification,” said Dipendra Oli, legal advisor for Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilisation Centre (SWMRMC), a government body for waste management.
“It took three years for Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), which had to be completed in six months, due to locals’ objection,” said Sumitra Amatya, director general of SWMRMC.
The proposed site is spread in 85 hectares of land, of which 30 hectares belong to locals. The government will acquire land for the site within this fiscal year, said Oli.
Even as land acquisition process nears completion, the proposed landfill site’s fate seems uncertain due to lack of funds. The construction work will take at least three years, according to Oli.
A study conducted by the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) in 2004 put the project’s total estimated cost at Rs. 1.75 billion. “Although JICA had shown some interest to fund the project earlier, we have heard nothing of it now,” said Oli. “We are trying to negotiate with them.”
However, Amatya says the government should commission the project on its own. “Even if donors are unwilling to invest in the project, the government should go for it.” The government has already spent Rs. 30 million for EIA and for constructing a 3-Km link road from Banchare Danda to Sisdol.
Meanwhile, the government is studying Shyame Kholsi in Nuwakot as a potential dumping site, as the current Aletar dumping site is running run out of capacity.
Posted on: 2010-04-07 07:21
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