BEST PRACTICES ON SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT OF NEPALESE CITIES
2.0 NATIONAL BEST PRACTICES
IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
In developed countries, the main motivations for
waste reduction are frequently related to legisla
tion, environmental protection, the scarcity of sites
for landfills, and the risks associated with toxic
materials. The same considerations apply in developing
countries to large metropolitan areas that are subject
to many economic and environmental pressures. Urban
centres which do not have effective collection and
disposal systems should not devote resources to
developing waste reduction measures until adequate
waste management systems are in place. For this, or
other reasons, solid waste managers in developing
countries tend to pay little attention to the issue of
reducing organic wastes which make up from 50 per
cent to 90 per cent of the total waste generated.
Management of solid waste is a growing concern in
Nepal as urban population densities increase and flat
usable land is in short supply. Although small urban
centres were declared to be municipalities2, they suffer
from a lack of infrastructural and technical resources
to tackle the problem of waste management. With
increasing public awareness about good health and a
clean environment, solid waste management has now
come to the top of the priorities of the municipalities in
Nepal. When the environmental impacts of proposed
landfills are being investigated, it is often found that
residents refuse to accept landfill sites near their homes
and local leaders from various political parties are often
involved in protests against proposed landfill locations.
Though the Local Self Governance Act of 1999 has
empowered municipalities to take every necessary
action at the local level, the absence of elected
representatives3 since 1998 has been causing
difficulties in its implementation. Even though
collection systems are still not in place, most of the
municipalities are expressing their desire to develop
final disposal systems. They are also promoting waste
reduction, reuse and recycling among local
communities.
Some of the 58 municipalities in various parts of the
country are providing effective house-to-house waste
collection services and some are making good progress
towards final disposal. For this review, communities and
private sector service providers have been selected
according to their present performance in waste reduction.
Priority is given to those community-based organisations
(CBOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that
are playing effective roles in waste reduction at source,
collection, processing and recycling. Table 1 provides
details of the regions and municipalities in Nepal.
2 Population more than 20,000 with annual revenue of NRs. 10 million.
3 At the time of writing there are no elected mayors in the municipalities of Nepal and municipal
administration is being handled by government bureaucrats. There have been no recent municipal
elections and local bodies are not allowed to function.
2