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Report: Searching for a way to sustainability: technical and policy analyses of solid waste issues in Kathmandu

Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, mdangi1{at}jhu.edu

Ronald R. H. Cohen

Environmental Science and Engineering Division, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, USA

Michael A. Urynowicz

Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA

Khem N. Poudyal

Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Pulchowk, Lalitpur, Nepal

Kathmandu Metropolitan City has attempted to reorganize its solid waste management a number of times. The German Technical and Financial Aid Organization led early efforts that were followed by a number of more recent experiments that left the city with an unsustainable solid waste management system following the termination of foreign aid. To examine this failure, the research team evaluated household surveys, field observations, interviews, and other primary and secondary information within the context of technical, social, and institutional analyses. The survey results show that the solid waste collection rates are far below the 90% claimed by the metropolis and street sweeping consumes approximately 51% of its solid waste budget. As a result of the relatively low collection rates the city residents are encouraged to dump waste into public lands. Consequently, too much of the city's resources are focused on sweeping rather than collection. Kathmandu needs to recognize informal waste picking, privatize, use local techniques, build capacity, promote bottom-up and participatory styles of management, and regulate policies to maintain solid waste management.

Key Words: Municipal solid waste • solid waste management • developing countries • sustainable waste management • Kathmandu • wmr 1282—1

This version was published on May 1, 2009

Waste Management & Research, Vol. 27, No. 3, 295-301 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0734242X08094951


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