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Kathmandu’s streets are frequently lined with garbage—bulging blue and pink bags of household waste. When trash isn’t collected for some reason, it ends up on the road. People hurl it out of car windows on their way to work or while out on evening walks. A small pile will steadily grow till the entire place looks like a dumping site. The city doesn’t have a proper waste management system. But what it also lacks is collective conscience. We don’t want our homes to stink so we make the city dirty. We disregard the fact that someone will eventually have to clean it all up. 

Naresh Majhi, a trash collector, says picking heaps of garbage from the streets is both risky and degrading. There’s a lot of rotten stuff there, which is made only heavier and filthier by the incessant rains. “People pass by with their hands over their noses but we are compelled to stay there for hours at a stretch. Most of us fall sick or have severe nausea and vomiting,” he says. 

Sabin Khatri, another trash collector, says there are animal carcasses and medical waste too in the garbage heaps. He says it’s upsetting and, at the end of the day when they finally get to go home, always after 10 pm and sometimes at midnight, they feel bad for themselves. “People’s thoughtlessness only adds to the indignity of our work,” says Khatri.  

Majhi requests people not to toss garbage on the road when he catches them in the act. But most of them get annoyed and say they don’t want trash lying around in their homes. Majhi says he realizes why people are angry. After all, they pay private companies like the one he works for a monthly fee to collect their trash. But he wishes they would understand that sometimes things are beyond the control of these companies. 

In times like these, the public too needs to play a role in managing their trash and not expect the government and those in waste management to shoulder all the burden. The problem, he believes, is that people don’t segregate their trash. If they could separate the dry from the wet then trash would be manageable as it wouldn’t decay and stink. That way, he says, people would be more likely to keep it hidden away in some corner of their homes for longer.

Kiran Shrestha of Action Waste Pvt. Ltd. says throwing trash on the road where it will collect and decompose, giving off a bad stench and becoming a breeding ground for flies, will lead to health problems in the workers as well as the nearby residents. Trash will leach into soil and water and contaminate food. Worse, the smell lingers long after the area has been cleaned up. Every day when garbage collectors go to clean up the streets they come back with injuries—cuts from broken glasses and scrapes and pricks from other carelessly disposed sharp objects like needles. Almost all of them have headaches or digestive issues. 

Dhurba Acharya of Solid Waste Management Association of Nepal says it’s not that people aren’t aware of the repercussions of their actions. But they don’t care. He says like other times this time around too when protests at Nuwakot cut off the city’s access to Sisdol, people were made aware of the problem through newspapers and online portals and even miking. They were asked to keep their trash at home and not throw them on the road -- or riverside. But only a handful listened. “Most people think the trash they generate is not their problem. This attitude makes Kathmandu’s waste management immensely challenging,” he says.

When collection resumed recently, following the newly-elected mayor Balendra Shah’s negotiations at Sisdol and Banchare Danda, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City started cleaning up the streets. But small piles were gathering the very next day in the swept-up places. Acharya says people throw more trash in places where garbage had previously been collected. They feel it will be a few weeks more before collection vehicles will come to their homes. “But they think it’s okay to pollute the streets because it’s being cleaned up anyway, which is why we are urging the government to start collection from homes. That way clearing roads won’t be an endless cycle,” he says.

We complain about private companies not collecting trash regularly. We blame the government for not effectively managing waste. But we don’t think of our own actions. Acharya says composting kitchen waste can reduce trash volume by 60 to 70 percent. And we don’t even need a large space for it; a bucket or simple ceramic planter will do. 

“Many people argue that they live in single rooms and don’t have the space for two large bins. We did a survey and found one house in the city has up to 32 families,” he says. In places like these, the local authorities can step in and arrange for a communal composting pit or spot, he adds.

Laxmi Ghimire of Nepsemyak Sewa Pvt. Ltd. says all it takes is two separate vessels for trash in the kitchen: One for dry waste like paper and plastic, and another for kitchen scraps like vegetable peels and such. Ghimire says that Nepsemyak collects garbage from around 175,000 kitchens. Out of this, 25,000 segregate their waste. They have plans to take that number to 40,000 by the end of this year. “We have to focus on segregation at the source. That is the only way to effectively manage waste in Kathmandu,” says Ghimire. 

Shrestha of Action Waste adds that many people don’t like to pay garbage collection companies and choose to dispose of their waste themselves. That usually means throwing it in some corner of the road, a little distance from where they live. “It’s more a problem of the mindset than resources,” he says. Shrestha feels the government must impose strict measures like heavy fines and community service on those who litter public places. Coercion is the only way, he says, “reasoning and requests have never worked.”

Agreeing with him, Sita Bhujel, a resident of Ratopul, Kathmandu, thinks people must be forced to be responsible for the trash they generate. It can be done with proper planning, incentives, and provision of punishments. Bhujel lives in a one-bedroom apartment. She makes sure waste is packaged in large bags and kept in a nearby open field, whenever there is a strike of some sort and garbage isn’t collected. But she says many people in her neighborhood toss leaky bags of trash under the bridge at nighttime. 

Bhujel says it is the thoughts of people like her who will have to do the dirty work that makes her mindful of her waste habits. “I don’t want my actions to hurt or demean someone else,” she says.

She works from five in the morning to seven in the evening, cleaning for a living. She doesn’t remember the last time she took a break. Her hands are perpetually cracked. She’s stopped putting on lotion—it doesn’t seem to help. She makes enough to pay the rent for a two-room flat in Kathmandu and feed her family of four. Her sons attend public school so there are, thankfully, no fees to pay but sometimes she doesn’t have any spare change to give them for snacks. Her eyebrows furrow in worry as she fashions her hair in a top knot and says, “Soon my earnings won’t be enough to keep my family afloat.”

Thirty-four-year-old Kumari Budathoki works at a restaurant but has to supplement that income by cleaning homes in her free time. She often dozes off while having dinner, exhausted after a hard day’s work. She is doing all she can but finds it isn’t enough to provide her family even a half-decent life. Her struggles, she says, would be worth it if there was even a glimmer of hope of a better life. But prices are skyrocketing. Vegetables, oil, and cooking gas are so much more expensive than they were just a few months ago. At this rate, her family might soon need to make do with a meal a day.

Uma Shankar Prasad, economist and member of the National Planning Commission, says inflation always hits daily wage-earners the hardest. The impact has been starkly evident this time as prices have been constantly going up. The reasons for this are many, he says. Production has been steadily declining in Nepal, which has led us to rely heavily on imports. The demand for goods has increased as people have gone abroad and sent money back home. Also, food and petroleum prices have shot up worldwide as the Russia-Ukraine war has disrupted transport channels. 

Unfortunately, Prasad sees no immediate salvation for common folks besides spending money only on what’s absolutely necessary. The government, he says, is trying to do exactly that by increasing taxes on luxury products like electronic gadgets and cosmetics and banning the import of many other such items. 

Rameshwor Khanal, another economist, says people will feel relief only when the pandemic is completely over, in all parts of the world, and the Russia-Ukraine war comes to an end. Both these things are beyond our control. But he adds, in the meanwhile, ‘money contraction’ might provide some respite. “If the Nepal Rastra Bank can maintain its interest rate at 11 percent for at least another six months or more, that will cool demand as people will want to save,” he explains. 

Goma Raut, who runs a small retail store in Kathmandu, says she understands why prices are rising. The world might be reeling from the effects of a pandemic and a war but the effects are even worse in a country like Nepal with little control over its markets. There is a lot of arbitrary pricing. The cost of the same thing often varies from vendor to vendor. Weak monitoring of rules and regulations also means landlords are free to charge as much rent as they want. House rents have been increased randomly citing inflation. “It’s becoming very difficult to work and live in Kathmandu because our expenses have gone up while our incomes have stagnated,” she says. 

Raut’s husband earns Rs 15,000 a month. The rent of Raut’s one-bedroom flat in Battisputali—where she lives with her husband and two children—is Rs 10,000. After paying another Rs 8,000 for the shop, the family is already in deficit. The paltry sum that Raut makes from the shop barely covers food and the children’s tuition. “We live a hand-to-mouth existence. I worry what will happen if one of us falls sick and can’t work,” she says. Proper rental and market rules and some government support–free quality education and health insurance, for instance–would considerably ease the sufferings of people like Raut whose incomes fall short of their expenses. 

Roshan Koirala works full-time at a flower shop in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur. He is contemplating getting another job as his daily expenses have doubled. He knows he could work himself to the bone but he will still not earn enough to put something aside for emergencies. “I can probably make enough to feed myself and pay rent but what happens if I can’t work?” 

Tina Limbu, salesperson, says the same thought keeps her up at night. Her family has had to revise their monthly budget quite a few times in the past few months to figure out where and what to cut back on.  

Many daily wage-earners ApEx spoke to confessed to feeling helpless, as there is ‘no system’. People can simply do whatever they want to and get away with it, putting the poor and the powerless at a disadvantage. If the implementation of laws were the same for people of all societal status, they said, things wouldn’t seem as bleak. One of the most common complaints also revolved around all the extra facilities given to government employees. If these were to be minimized, the country could then divert the resources to where they were needed. 

Dal Bahadur Khadka and his wife Chari Maya Khadka, who run a small tea-shop in Kathmandu, have decided not to vote in the upcoming elections. Their friends and relatives too have pledged the same. The couple says it doesn’t matter who is in power when nobody will help them. A country’s politics determines its future and ours has, time and again, proved to be unworthy of our trust, says Dal Bahadur. No political party has ever delivered on its promises, adds Chari Maya. The couple feels that inflation has deepened the divide between the haves and have-nots and covertly promoted classism. 

“Poverty is an issue that comes up only during elections. Every party has elaborate plans to improve the economy and create more jobs for the needy. But nothing ever comes out of it,” says Chari Maya. She has a heart condition that requires regular medication. And they don’t come cheap. She fears not being able to afford them with how things are going. The government, she says, knows there are many, many people like her and yet “doesn’t do anything”, choosing to let them suffer. “We are the nation’s forgotten people,” she says.

Every closet has far too many clothes. Yet we are all guilty of buying more—for a special occasion or on a whim as it looked nice on the mannequin. My father himself has way too many shirts. We know because we counted and joked about how he might soon have enough to wear a new one every day of the year. But he hasn’t worn more than half of them in a long time. He has a handful of favorites that he sticks to. 

That possibly is true for all of us. We often buy more than we need or use—it’s the bane of our existence. There’s always something better out there, something we must absolutely have to elevate our dress game. 

But our obsession with fast fashion can be costly, for our wallets and the environment too. It’s not unusual for Nepali households to throw old clothes in the trash, which ultimately end up in the landfill. There’s a lot we can do to prevent this—from investing in quality clothes that last long to donating what we don’t need so that someone else can use them. There are also companies that upcycle old fabrics to give them a new lease of life. While investing in ethical, sustainable brands might be the only long-term solution, becoming a little more conscious of what we buy, wear, and throw can also go a long way in negating the effects of fast-fashion. 

Meena Gurung, founder of Bora Studio, a slow fashion, environmentally responsible clothing brand that uses natural dyes and materials, says fast fashion brands come out with 20 to 30 new designs a month. The clothes are mass produced and the  labor- and resource-intensive process does a lot of harm to the environment. Most people, she says, either don’t know this or choose to ignore it. But understanding fashion and changing our relationship to clothes are essential to leaving behind a lighter carbon footprint. “We tend to be driven by our wants and needs. Not by the results of our actions,” she says.

Rajan Chakradhar of Upcycle Nepal, a company that reuses and recycles old fabrics to make new products, adds that most clothes are purchased for single-use. Many clothes donated at Upcycle Nepal are in perfectly good condition, but they still get tossed out as new designs replace them. “You could simply style an outfit differently or mix and match items to create a new look instead of wearing an ensemble just once,” he says. And even when a clothing item is at the end of its life, it needn’t be thrown away. There are plenty of ways to reuse and recycle fabrics. 

“We have, so far, saved 200,000 kgs of clothes from going to the landfill by repurposing them as laptop sleeves, side bags, and other small accessories like card holders and scrunchies,” says Chakradhar. Upcycle Nepal is trying to raise awareness to cut down on fabric trash but admits it’s a rather steep climb. 

Kishan Shrestha of Kashyapi Nepal, a slow fashion brand, says you can’t preach about the importance of sustainability, especially not in the fashion industry where trends rule the runway. But brands like theirs can push the concept through natural materials and timeless designs. The onus, he says, lies on those working in the fashion industry to make clothes in an environment-friendly way. 

One reason clothes are thrown away, Shrestha says, is that people don’t know how to take care of them, and they look old after a couple of wears. Even quality clothes won’t last if you don’t handle them properly, he says. The biggest blunder people apparently make is not reading the wash label. Every piece of clothing comes with specific care instructions but we rarely follow them. “We are washing and drying our clothes all wrong. Some people wring and hang clothes that should be allowed to dry naturally by laying them flat. Others machine-wash items that should be hand-washed,” says Shrestha.

Gurung of Bora Studio agrees that people don’t read tags or bother to learn about the clothes they are buying. Nepalis, she says, also tend to soak clothes overnight before washing them, resulting in shrinkage and fading. Most of us also dry our clothes in the sun but clothes made of natural fabrics need to be kept in the shade. 

Apart from caring for the clothes we have, Gurung says we must choose our clothes with the same caution—be wary of what we bring into our homes and put on our bodies. “A great way to start doing that is by inquiring while shopping about the materials and where and how the clothes were made,” she says. Over time, this habit will make you conscious of your actions, and the seller or designer mindful of theirs.

But apart from small, everyday actions, Anuja Rajbhandari Shrestha, cofounder of Ekadeshma, a sustainable lifestyle brand, says better government policies on textiles and manufacturing are needed to curb people’s dependence on fast fashion. It would also help our economy if more clothes were made in Nepal rather than importing them from India or China. Sarita Tamang, production manager at Dinadi Nepal, an ethical knitwear brand, says our market doesn’t value sustainable products as they are often on the pricier side. But you are getting your money’s worth as the items are of good quality and will last several years. 

Chitra Dahal of Sukhawati Store, a thrift store, says there’s no concept of repairing and reusing clothes as everything is easily replaceable. From 2016 to 2021, Sukhawati Store collected almost 38,000 kg of unwanted clothes, those that would otherwise have ended up at Sisdol. Many of them were reconditioned and sold second hand at their store in Samakushi, Kathmandu, some for as low as Rs 10. Dahal says of the Rs 6.4m generated in the past five years, 30 to 40 percent has been operation cost while  the rest has been used on social work. 

“There needs to be more awareness about recycling or donating clothes you don’t want. But the primary focus should definitely be on reducing consumption—only buy what you need and use with care to ensure it lasts,” he says. 

Rape cases, when they come out, become breaking news, making for dramatic headlines. People take to the streets, chanting anti-government slogans, clamoring for capital punishment, and demanding justice for the victims. 

As necessary as reporting and public pressure are, rapes need to be dealt with sensitivity for a horde of vital reasons. But that’s not how we are responding to it these days. Our impulsive, sensationalism- or emotion-driven approach to a crime even as heinous as a rape is, more often than not, counterproductive.

Lily Thapa of the National Human Rights Commission, the constitutional human rights watchdog, says taking to the streets should be the last recourse. Public pressure is needed only when justice has been denied. Protests early on, before the victim has sought legal help, will lead to victim manipulation, give the perpetrator a chance to flee, and create a hostile environment for victim-blaming and shaming. “Rape cases need to be confidential and dealt with care for the safety and mental wellbeing of the victims, as well as to ensure they get justice,” she says.

Social media has given us all an open platform to expose sexual offenders. There is no denying that public support can help victims deal with the trauma. But, after the initial furor, there are plenty of downsides. There will be a flood of unwarranted advice and opinions. When a woman complains, many try to figure out just what she must have done to incite the man. Victims are judged and harassed. When someone is already emotionally wrecked, the negativity can be even more unsettling. Moreover, sometimes, the accused might not be guilty. But the tag of a sexual offender is hard to shake off.

“Nepal needs a proper mechanism to deal with rape cases. We are coordinating with different organizations and government authorities to discuss how that can be done,” says Thapa. “We must begin by creating a safe environment where the victim feels protected and confident enough to share what has happened.” For that, we need at least one forensic lab in each of the seven provinces for proper evidence collection. A fast-track system has to be established along with provisions for private hearing. It’s also equally important to establish more safe spaces as most perpetrators are men within women’s close circles—fathers, relatives, teachers, and friends. When women complain against these men, they often have nowhere to go.  

The problem is also that we have always dealt with isolated cases. While doing that, we focus all our energies in lobbying for harsher punishment. But rape victims need additional support like counselling and legal aid. Pratikshya Dahal, advocate, says our society has to be proactive rather than reactive. It’s important to reform our laws but it’s equally important to take steps to educate people about consent and their rights. The crucial conversations we are having on social media don’t reach a large part of our population. Add to that our tendency to forgive men for all infractions because they are men, and the situation couldn’t be bleaker.

“There is no culture of social ostracization. Sexual abusers and perpetrators are often easily welcomed back into the society,” says Dahal. Sexual offenses keep happening because people believe they will get away with it, with a slap on their wrists at the most. Harsher punishments won’t deter crime when connections or money can easily get you a free pass. In most cases of sexual abuse and rape, there is an exploitation of power. Doctors harassing their patients, headmasters raping their wards, fathers and uncles groping small children—control and manipulation lie at the core of these acts.  

Sabitra Dhakal, human rights activist, says many things prevent victims from speaking up. Our social mechanisms aren’t in their favor. It will be hard to prevent rapes and sexual crimes until and unless the nation can create an environment where voices aren’t silenced and fair proceedings are guaranteed. Dhakal laments that our nation only responds after reports of rape are made public and there are protests. Working on long-term solutions hasn’t, so far, been on the government’s agenda. What we need are a hotline to report rapes and a dedicated bureau to look into sexual offenses, so that victims aren’t caught up in the rigmarole of bureaucracy, says Dhakal.

“Public pressure can shine light on the matter. It can’t bring the needed policy level changes. You need continuous advocacy on multiple levels for that,” adds Nischala Arjal, human rights lawyer and assistant professor at Kathmandu School of Law. It’s also important to simplify the mechanisms already in place, she says while agreeing with Dhakal that often victims don’t report crimes because of red tape hassles. Establishing trust and a sense of security can go a long way in making victims feel like they will get justice, should they choose to tell their stories. For that, sensitivity and efficient handling of cases are of paramount importance.

While social media advocacy and street protests are imperative, activists and advocates say those avenues often lead to re-victimization or fuel violence. The accused or their families might be provoked to retaliate and that can cause additional problems for the victims as well as their loved ones, says Arjal. As a lawyer, she feels victims must first seek legal help, to minimize chances of evidence tampering, public sentencing, and smear campaigns. However, the fact that victims choose to share their stories through online platforms instead of going to the police to file a report speaks volumes of the general mistrust and fear of the system.

We have failed victims of violence, abuse, and rape as we haven’t been able to create and implement survivor-centric laws, despite frequent incidents. Public protests draw attention to the issue but the momentum isn’t maintained through continuous advocacy and policy-level reforms. So every time a victim shares a story, we begin from square one, which in our case is flocking to the streets.

Geeta Neupane of The Women’s Foundation Nepal says rape laws and how we deal with rape cases should be at the forefront at every national level discussion. All human rights organizations should lobby for them together and do so round the year. “The occasional outcry won’t accomplish much if that’s all that we do. It will fizzle out as fast as it started,” she says.

This week on May 17 the LGBTIQA+ community marked the ‘International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia’ (IDAHOTB) with the theme ‘Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Rights’. On this day in 1990, the World Health Organization had declassified homosexuality as a disease. The day was proposed in 2004 and launched the following year. It’s celebrated in 130 countries despite same sex activities being a criminal offence in over a quarter of these places. The LGBTIQA+ community feels celebrations like these are essential to create awareness about queerness so that there’s greater acceptance of all kinds of identities and choices. It’s also an opportunity to start a conversation with policymakers, media, and the public. 

Laxmi Ghalan, founder and president of Mitini Nepal, an NGO working for the rights and dignity of Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people since 2006, says IDAHOTB is a much-needed movement for a liberal society. “It’s natural to fear what you don’t understand. Events such as the international day is a chance for us to engage with and educate the public about different kinds of sexual identities,” she says. Ghalan, who faced a lot of difficulties when she came out more than two decades ago, says things are much better now but there are still limits to society’s acceptance. Forcing people to change their mindsets will only lead to resistance and retaliation. The solution can only be gradual information dissemination aimed at educating people about the LGBTIQA+ community. 

Our society is still largely homophobic, albeit less obviously so. Parents who accept their queer children often tell them to keep it a secret from their extended families and friends. The disdain for homosexuality is evident by the way police treat the transgenders: They are beaten and declared the culprit in any squabble where the other parties are straight individuals. Not just in Nepal, the hate is palpable all over the world. Gender non-confirming people have been fatally shot or killed by various means. 

In the US, a young Nepali gay aerospace engineer was killed in a hate crime, just months before flying to Nepal to meet his parents. In London, a 50-year-old was attacked during the Pride Parade. The incident left him on a wheelchair. Two men and a 17-year-old girl murdered a 54-year-old doctor working with the NHS in a homophobic attack at a park in Cardiff, Wales. The victims were like the rest of us—loving partners, children, parents, and friends. They had people who loved them, those they went back home to. They were robbed of their lives because someone thought they were an aberration, decided they didn’t ‘deserve’ to live. 

Sarita KC, program officer at Mitini Nepal, says legal provisions to ensure their rights can, to a large extent, improve their situation. Nepal addressed the rights of the LGBTIQA+ community in its constitution, in Articles 12, 18, 42. That was a hopeful start. Disappointingly, there has been no reflection of that in our nation’s plans and policies—a clear proof of the government’s apathy to the community. However, speaking at an IDAHOTB event organized by Mitini Nepal in Kathmandu, Nanda Bahadur Pun, vice president of Nepal, said the LGBTIQA+ community should be able to live without discrimination and fear (of violence included) and that the country will support them in their efforts to create a more equal society. “We must all try to understand the feelings and sexualities of the LGBTIQA+ people. We must treat them with love and respect,” he said. 

But rigid social, cultural and religious practices pose various constraints. LGBTIQA+ people aren’t considered ‘normal’ because their nature goes against ‘how things should be’ as mandated by our beliefs. If it translates into actual action and law—a big if—the vice president’s commitments could pave the path for an inclusive society where the LGBTIQA+ community is able to live with dignity. The LGBTIQA+ people, across ages and from all walks of life that ApEx spoke to at the event, were filled with hope. Pun’s presence at the function signifies a new beginning, they said. They agreed it feels like Nepal is finally recognizing them as its citizens. 

Sunita Lama, transgender activist, says most of the problems of the community stems from the fact that people look at them with disgust. Homophobia has its roots in society's treatment of them as outliers or, worse, unwanted beings. This could change if the government makes provisions for their safety and rights. Lama agrees with Ghalan that you can’t force acceptance but rules to dictate how people should behave could reconfigure their thinking in the long run, effectively doing away with the disdain for the community. 

Neelam Poudel, make-up artist and transgender activist, says the community also needs to try harder to make people understand and accept them. It’s easier said than done but events like the international day that increases their visibility and shows a collected front could jog the society’s conscience. “Many times, we hide and shy away from expressing ourselves, fearing what people will say. That prevents us from leading good lives. Our celebrations and ceremonies are times when we can be uninhibited and show people that we are just like everybody else,” she says. 

For far too long, the LGBTIQA+ people have been deprived of what is essentially a basic human right—the freedom to live as you choose. As Ghalan says, everyone should get to live their lives according to their wishes. What’s the point of it otherwise? As it is, each individual of the community is already battling a horde of problems, from stress and mental health issues to lack of jobs forcing many of them into sex-work. A hostile environment makes an already difficult situation worse. “Homophobia tears our society apart by pitting us against each other. The community and the government must work hand in hand to foster a better environment, one that allows us to coexist in peace,” says Ghalan.  

Members of the queer community are increasingly vocal about their rights and the state’s responsibility to allow them to live with dignity.

In this connection, the LGBTIQA+ community celebrated the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia (IDAHOTB) on May 17 this week. Mitini Nepal, an NGO working for the rights and dignity of Lesbian, Bisexuals and Transgender people, organized an event in Gairidhara, Kathmandu. Nanda Bahadur Pun, vice president of Nepal, inaugurated the event. People danced, sang, and recited poetry. All in all, it was an essential coming together of people of different identities.

Laxmi Ghalan, founder and president of Mitini Nepal, said events like these are crucial for the society to understand and accept the LGBTIQA+ community. She said the LGBTIQA+ people face domestic violence and are isolated and thus anxious. They also don’t have access to proper medical facilities. “Homophobia, stemming from a lack of understanding of sexual identities and orientation, is the main reason behind all the problems we face on a daily basis,” she said. Ruby Rana, former Miss Nepal, added treating homosexuality as a disease is indicative of our narrow mindset.

We knew an earthquake was due when a whopper of 7.6 magnitude struck in April 2015, followed by more than 300 aftershocks. The new constitution that was promulgated soon after had provisions for building an earthquake-resilient society. Various parties in the 2017 local elections made grandiose promises to do the same. With the wounds still fresh, national level policies were drafted. But as our memories faded and new priorities surfaced, most of these plans never materialized, and those that did were half-heartedly implemented. 

In the 2022 local elections, though disasters and climate change have made it into party manifestos, the potentially more devastating earthquakes seem to be missing. As we live in a seismically vulnerable zone, not prioritizing earthquake risk reduction could have devastating consequences, says experts ApEx spoke to. “We have seen the damage an earthquake can inflict, how it causes so much trauma and pushes back years of progress,” says Khadga Sen Oli, advocacy and outreach manager at National Society for Earthquake Technology, Nepal (NSET). 

Before the 2015 earthquakes, natural disasters were dealt with after the event, our efforts limited to management of its effects. But now the emphasis is on disaster risk reduction with action being taken before a calamity to mitigate loss of lives and infrastructure. Our approach to disaster has changed because the Gorkha earthquake that killed 9,000 people and injured over 100,000 more made us realize the importance of being prepared for tragedies. However, in a disaster-prone nation where floods, landslides, and forest fires have routinely claimed hundreds, if not thousands, of lives every year, earthquakes have slipped under the radar. 

Monika Jha, joint secretary at the National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center under the Department of Mines and Geology, says nature was kind to us in 2015. There could have been a lot more damage, given how underprepared and ill-equipped we were to handle a disaster of that scale. Though people are more aware and knowledgeable about earthquakes now, it still isn’t enough to ensure we will be able to deal with another disaster. 

Jha blames lack of studies and research. Nepal just hasn’t invested enough in collecting data for earthquake hazard risk assessment. “There also aren’t many experts in the field. Moreover, our education system doesn’t have seismology in its curriculum,” she says.

“We need better strategies at the national level and, more importantly, for the local authorities to implement them,” says Jha. The work currently being done feels like an afterthought, carried out just for the heck of it. Raju Thapa, acting chairperson at Disaster Preparedness Network-Nepal, says government guidelines stipulate that earthquakes have to be the number one priority for those working in disaster-related sectors. But we are short sighted and only focus on immediate threats. “In western Nepal, it’s been 500 years since the last earthquake. That’s unnatural. We are, as scary as that sounds, sitting on a ticking time-bomb,” he says.

That doesn’t mean we should panic, even though Thapa wishes people would act like an earthquake could happen anytime, rather than [wrongly] believe we are safe as we recently had one. He says we shouldn’t forget that we live in an earthquake prone zone and that there is still no preparation whatsoever. “We didn’t learn from the past. We made commitments but once the initial shock wore off, we were back to our old ways,” he adds. Experts say that as a nation we have relegated the horrors of the 2015 earthquakes to the back of our minds. Not that we should be reliving it every minute but it’s unwise (even outright stupid) to forget its harsh lessons.   

Many homes that were battered in 2015 are still supported by beams. There are structures in narrow alleys of Ason, Kathmandu and Patan, Lalitpur that are on the verge of collapse. Old buildings have had facelifts in the form of additional floors. Building codes are still not followed owing to weak monitoring. People compromise on labor and construction material for short-term benefits. There is a general sense of indifference over earthquakes because ‘the worst is behind us.’ Some random middle-aged people ApEx questioned on the streets of Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, said they are sure there won’t be another earthquake for next 50 years or so and the country shouldn’t waste valuable resources preparing for one. 

But predicting an earthquake a few minutes or even seconds before can save lives. And that’s not something to be taken lightly, says Thapa. The primary wave in an earthquake comes a few seconds before the secondary wave and early warning gives you a better chance of survival. In Banke, the local communities have invested in an early warning system. It will arm them to take shelter during earthquakes, crucial seconds before the event. We need more such initiatives, including but not limited to better infrastructure to build a more resilient society that can withstand future shocks.

The constitution makes local bodies accountable for disaster prevention and management. The local government operation act has directives to prepare for future earthquakes. NSET’s Oli believes the onus lies on local governments to take concrete actions. Apart from launching awareness programs, they must also implement national level policies to build capacity in their communities. Training a few teams of volunteers to create emergency responders should, according to Oli, be another priority. “In an emergency, unskilled help can make the problem worse. So local government bodies must teach and train people to respond.” 

Ramesh Guragain, deputy executive director at NSET, says the biggest post-2015 earthquake achievement was the formation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. The focus shifted to studying risks in advance and working to reduce them. In many villages, as laborers worked on rebuilding damaged homes, they acquired the skill and understanding of how to build better, earthquake-resistant structures. “That awareness and knowledge need to be taken to other parts of the country, but that’s not happening. The soon-to-be elected local authorities must facilitate that kind of networking,” he says.

Soon after the local elections, NSET is launching a training program it plans on taking to all 753 rural municipalities and municipalities across Nepal. Guragain explains the point of doing this after the elections is so that the newly elected officials know what needs to be done and how, and so that they factor in earthquakes in their planning. It’s the local authorities’ responsibility to keep reminding people about the devastation earthquakes can cause. 

As they will be in office for the next five years, they can do a lot even if they take small steps—but they need to act fast. “In the past we weren’t able to effectively lobby at the political level. The participation of local authorities has also been unsatisfactory. But going forward, we are hoping for better understanding and cooperation from them,” he says. 

Kamal Pokhari in Kathmandu, named after the lotus flower that bloomed there, was once an unkempt pond with thick mossy green waters. After the Kathmandu Metropolitan City came up with a plan to restore it and turn it into a park of sorts in late 2020, today, it’s a breathtakingly beautiful open space in one of the most congested areas of the city. But just a few weeks after it was opened, the area has been peppered with empty water bottles, noodle and chocolate wrappers, and scrunched up balls of post-chatpate newspaper bits.

Kathmandu’s streets are the same. A common sight around town is people throwing things on the road, while walking, and from windows of buses, tempos, and fancy imported cars. Any given stretch of road is littered with paper, plastic, orange peels, peanuts shells and randomly tossed polythene bags of household waste. Things will only get worse with local elections around the corner. Placards, posters and ballot papers will only add more litter. 

Mithu Nepali, who has been sweeping Kathmandu’s streets early in the morning for over a decade, says people throw trash on the road even when they see cleaners at work. It’s a horrid and unconscious behavior, she says. They would rather toss a plastic bottle or a tissue the second they are done with it instead of holding on to it till they see a trash can. 

Our littering habit has been ruining the city aesthetics as well as costing us money as both private companies and the municipality have had to regularly employ sweepers to clean up the mess. Kiran Shrestha, of Action Waste Pvt. Ltd., says people know they shouldn’t litter but do it anyway. That’s what makes things worse. 

“If lack of awareness was the culprit, we could work on changing that. But what can we do when people are stubborn?” he says. Shrestha explains that when he and his staff tell people not to litter, they usually start arguing and say everybody is dumping waste on the road anyway. Only one or two in 10 will look embarrassed and scuttle away but even they won’t pick up their trash. 

Littering is generally considered inconsequential because “it’s just a small piece of waste”. But it has a ripple effect and adds up. When you throw something on the roadside, it won’t be long before a small mound of garbage will collect there. Think back to a time you may have tossed a tissue or a receipt on a trash pile that was already there. 

Dr Binjwala Shrestha, assistant professor at the department of community medicine at the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University, says the cost of littering and improper waste management on public health is immense, especially during the rainy season when pollutants can leach into the soil and water, thus contaminating our food sources.

“People want their pockets, purses, cars and homes to be clean but have no qualms about littering their surroundings,” says Dr Shrestha. But we will have to pay the price for a dirty city as ours is a place where food is mostly sold out in the open, she adds. An unhygienic environment will breed disease-causing flies and insects. Diarrheal infections are common and when your immune system is already weak it can have a disastrous effect. However, Dr Shrestha says, people fail to see the connection between an unclean environment and their health. “As long as their homes are clean, they think they are safe but this attitude is detrimental to public health. A case in point is the recent pandemic.”

Laxmi Prasad Ghimire of Nepsemyak, a company that works in waste management, says large scale campaigns and awareness programs are needed to change people’s behaviors. But that, he admits, is a slow process and can take years. So, the government must be aggressive in its approach. According to him, urgent action whereby anybody who is caught littering is fined and punished immediately can prevent the problem from escalating. Dhurba Acharya, chairperson of Solid Waste Management Association Nepal (SWMAN), says there also needs to be more dustbins and other drop points for waste around the city. 

“People throw rubbish randomly on the road because they know there will be no consequences,” says Acharya. But there are rules in place against those caught littering. The problem is their weak implementation. The Solid Waste Management Act 2011 states those who throw trash in public places, which include but are not limited to roadside, can be fined between Rs 500 to Rs 100,000 as well as be jailed for up to three months. Years ago, the KMC had developed an app people could use to anonymously report anyone they saw throwing trash. The municipal police would show up within half an hour to take action against the offender. Unfortunately, the ambitious plan fizzled out in a few months. 

“But now the local authorities can and must come up with a similar course of action,” says Acharya. Dr Shrestha says every individual can do their bit in this regard. “Speak up when someone walking ahead of you on the footpath tosses a toffee wrapper. Post a photo on social media if you can. Insulting people who don’t value public property can teach them a little lesson,” she says. Ghimire of Nepsemyak says private waste management companies can step up and run cleanup campaigns with community participation. When people start picking up trash, they are less likely to litter.  

But those working in waste management say the city needs to manage its household and industrial wastes properly before it looks for help from its citizens. The landfill site at Sisdol, around 27km southwest of Kathmandu, has reached its capacity. The nearby settlements complain of health issues, mainly respiratory diseases, besides a drop in the quality of their agricultural produce. According to SWMAN, almost 70 percent of the 1,200 tons of garbage collected daily is compostable.

Segregation of waste at home would largely reduce the volume of trash that needs to be disposed. The larger a city, the more waste it will generate, and unless there is an effective system to dispose it, garbage will end up on the roadside. “When there is garbage on the road, nobody will keep trash in their pockets or cars and search for a dustbin and they become more prone to littering,” says chairperson Acharya. 

Dr Shrestha adds that the government has never prioritized waste management. For instance, she says, when the local authorities build a park, they should factor in how they will maintain it in the long run. A strategy to keep it clean should be developed alongside its construction plan. But that’s not the case here. 

Our government doesn’t take preventive measures, only trying to fix problems when they arise. The government and the public need to work in tandem to prevent waste from becoming a social burden, she says. “What’s needed are plans and policies from the government’s side and, on the public’s part, a little consciousness.”