Valley Mayors Agree on Sustainable Waste Management Plan

The Valley Mayors Forum has decided to work with the federal government to develop a scientific and sustainable waste management system for the Kathmandu Valley, where garbage disposal has long remained a recurring crisis.

Speaking at the 13th meeting of the Forum held in Kathmandu on Thursday, Lalitpur Metropolitan City Mayor and Forum Chairperson Chiribabu Maharjan said that the Waste Management Study and Coordination Committee under the forum will study appropriate waste treatment methods and technologies and coordinate with the federal government to ensure collective implementation across all local governments in the Valley.

Kathmandu Valley currently collects household waste and transports it to landfill sites at Bancharedanda. However, reliance on landfill dumping has repeatedly triggered tensions with local residents, who often obstruct waste disposal, leading to piles of garbage accumulating on city streets.

Speaking after the meeting, Acting Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Sunita Dangol described waste management, public transport, drinking water supply, river protection, food hygiene, disaster management and climate change impacts as perennial challenges facing the Valley.

“Problems are endless; results come not by insisting solely on one’s own opinion within an administrative framework, but through recognising the coexistence of local levels in the Valley and collaborating in a coordinated manner,” state-owned national news agency RSS quoted Dangol as saying.

Urban experts have long argued that simply transporting waste to landfill sites only treats the symptom. They say sustainable management would require segregation of waste at source, large-scale processing facilities, recycling, compost production and stricter enforcement to prevent the direct discharge of sewage and drainage into rivers. Authorities frequently clean rivers, but unmanaged waste and untreated sewage continue to flow into them.

Chairperson Maharjan said the Forum aims to prepare long-term legal and policy frameworks to move beyond ad hoc measures and toward an integrated metropolitan management approach. He added that local governments are ready to cooperate with the federal government in implementing the proposed “Metro Concept” and developing the necessary infrastructure.

The Forum plans to present further analysis and concrete proposals in its upcoming meeting. – With inputs from RSS