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Down in dumps
AUG 12 -
Kathmandu, once known as the queen of hill stations, used to be a lush green valley, full of trees and meadows, and terraced rice fields until a few years ago. Its natural beauty with visible snow-clad peaks and its valuable cultural heritage attracted tourists and travellers. However, a glance of the city now is enough to reveal an alarming degradation of it environment. The tourism industry is already experience its adverse impact as visitors tend to escape Kathmandu by reducing the length of their stay.
The city’s growing population, added to the heavy migration especially after 1990, is already more than its infrastructure can handle. Civic amenities are absolutely stretched. Houses on the outskirts, springing up at the rate of 10,000 a year, do not boast even basic amenities. The poor proliferate in slums and squatters settlements. The transport system could not be any worse. About 70 percent of all vehicles in the country ply on the valley roads. While the number of vehicles keeps going up, most of the roads have neither undergone expansion nor are they managed well. Besides, the heavy traffic is taking a big toll on the environment.
The average amount of total suspended particulates (TSP) in the air at main commercial areas of Kathmandu is greater than 1,000 parts per million (ppm) while the WHO standard for TSP is 150 to 230. Concentrations of benzene, an aromatic hydrocarbon known to be a carcinogen, have been recorded at 23 to 67 ppm while WHO recommendation is five to 20 ppm. The city is thus becoming an ugly cosmopolitan giant, a malignant tumour.
Most worrying is the immense pollution of drinking water which is the basic ingredient for a healthy and productive life. For 70 to 80 percent of the city’s population clean drinking water is a pipe dream. Sometimes, many areas of the city do not receive water for a whole week. The low water supply can be blamed on the poor distribution system and machinery breakdown. Sewage and water pipes lie adjacent and their contents often mix. Rust and dirt mingle with disease causing agents in the water pipes and this unwholesome brew gushes out of the households taps. During the monsoon, the problem of unhygienic water supply becomes even more acute. Rusted pipe burst, neglected reservoirs develop cracks and sewage seep through the soil to the surface of water supplies. Also, during the rain, people are under more stress having to cope with the inclement weather. Consequently, their resistance to disease is weak and there are often epidemics during the wet season.
As per WHO standards, drinking water should have zero fecal coliform count per 100 milliliters. However, a study of eight valley schools revealed that five school have water with coliform count as high as 2,800 per 100 ml. Some of the restaurants had a coliform count as high as 9,000 per 100 ml. Even in some hospitals coliform count in drinking water was over 1,000 per 100 ml.
The city sewerage system too is on the verge of collapse. As the city continues to expand, there is no concomitant upgrading of the city sewerage system. And during the rains, the sewage flows and spreads all over leading to foul smell and water contamination. The storm-water drains are also connected to the main sewerage system in certain places which means the drainage system gets clogged with silt. Because of the chocked sewers the flow of waste water remains sluggish and the city area is frequently flooded with sewage leading to outbreak of diseases like cholera and hepatitis.
Other indicators of sanitation are even worse. Around 20 percent of the population is without any access to toilet facilities. As a result, a substantial chunk of the population practices open defecation. The city is also pocked with heaps of garbage along the important road and lanes. At times, vacant plots serve as garbage dumping site bang in the middle of residential localities. Around 600 tonnes of solid waste is generated in Kathmandu city, only half of which is collected and disposed off in landfill. However, figures on the daily collection of garbage in the city remain nebulous as no proper account is maintained. While garbage is collected once a week in certain areas of the city, less fortunate areas have to make do without any collection.
Kathmandu in the 80’s used to be known to the outside world as having one of the best solid waste management systems. During first eight months of the 1988/89 fiscal year, collection of waste was recorded at 62,460 cubic metres against the target of 50,000 cubic metres. The quantity of the solid waste transported to landfill site was recorded at 51,548 cubic meters, against the target of 41,580 cubic metres. In this connection, the ministry of health noted that the cases of leading infectious diseases in Kathmandu during 2044 BS (1987-88) was 6,644. The following year, the figure had come down to 4,594. Currently, the municipality is spending five times the amount it spent then, but the valley’s health indicators are still going downhill.
Kathmandu city is slowly turning into a garbage dump. The final responsibility for providing adequate facilities rests with the government, but the lack of policy in sanitation and it failure to recognise waste disposal as an essential service have aggravated the painful sanitary and environmental problems of Kathmandu. The only remedy seems to be a mass movement by residents, as nothing else is likely to be effective in waking up the authorities to take some action. Unless the importance of the environment is recognized the slogan of a “Clean Green and healthy Kathmandu” will remain just that—a slogan.
(Upadhyay is a professor at the Central Department of Environmental Science, Tribhuvan University)
Posted on: 2010-08-13 08:03
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