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.”
