BEST PRACTICES ON SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT OF NEPALESE CITIES
1.0 BACKGROUND
In Nepal, urbanisation is increasing at an alarming
rate1. It is putting immense pressure on municipal
services. One of the problems of the urbanisation
and increasing consumerism is the increased generation
of waste. This waste is not being adequately managed
and is therefore creating a serious health and
environmental hazard, particularly in the slum areas,
where the residents have less capacity to pay for better
services and are often ignored by the official agencies.
Poor urban settlements are more affected because of
indiscriminate dumping and the lack of open space. In
such a setting, Practical Action Nepal has initiated a
project known as “Strengthening Local Capacities in
Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) in
small and medium municipalities of Nepal” with
financial support from European Union under its EC
Asia Pro Eco II Programme. The project is targeted at
four municipalities – Bharatpur, Vyas, Birendranagar
and Nepalgunj. The project is a partnership between
Practical Action, GTZ/UDLE, the Municipal Association
of Nepal (MuAN) and WASTE Netherlands with the
respective municipalities.
When the project started, the target municipalities and
community groups were found to have limited access
to information on
how to improve waste systems,
how to use waste in an economically productive way,
and
alternative waste management techniques and
practices which would significantly improve the
livelihoods, health and environment of the urban poor.
Since the poor urban areas are the worst affected, the
project’s main objective was to improve the health and
environmental conditions of disadvantaged people living
in the emerging municipalities of Nepal. Specifically,
the project aimed to strengthen the capacities of four
small or medium-sized emerging municipalities in
1 At the rate of 7.1% per year ( CBS, 2001)
1
Western Nepal to better manage their waste through
effective participatory planning and the introduction of
sustainable waste management systems that cover the
whole town, including low-income areas. The project
works with the four chosen municipalities and a variety
of local stakeholders, including the Municipal
Association of Nepal (MuAN), community leaders,
small-scale business entrepreneurs, and local formal
and informal private sector enterprises that provide
waste management services.
In Nepal, a number of solid waste management projects
have been evaluated. One of the major activities of this
project was to bring together all the lessons learned
from these projects and disseminate them. Drawing on
international best practices for sustainable waste
management technologies, processes and approaches,
the project developed and promoted approaches that
are well suited to the selected municipalities. In this
context a publication entitled “Best practices on solid
waste management of Nepalese cities” is being put
together. It will review replicable, community-based
initiatives in Nepal and assesses potentials and
constraints so that the project partner and other
municipalities can build on these experiences as they
adapt and develop appropriate initiatives. It is hoped
that this anticipated publication will strengthen the
capacity of municipal governments and other
organisations in improving waste management
practices.
This review work for this report has been done within a
short period of time and relies on the information currently
available. Maximum effort was focused on identifying
effective waste management practices in the cities and
towns of Nepal. This study focuses only on examples of
best practice and it does not cover schemes which have
failed, theoretical cases which were never implemented,
and policy, institutional and legislation aspects.