Community Participation for Solid Waste Management - A case of Traditional Core of Kathmandu City

Abstract

Urbanization in Nepal is taking place rapidly. Kathmandu is the capital city which is one of the fastest growing metropolis in south Asia. Increasing population puts immense pressure on the services provided my municipality including the solid waste management. Solid waste management in Nepal is one of the major urban issues and unmanaged solid waste has direct impact over people and environment. There is a huge gap between demand and supply of solid waste management and this gap can be filled by active participation from community and public. Thus this paper focused on the community participation for solid waste management in Kathmandu city. The core areas are the densest place of the city so the waste generation is also high. Most of the core areas are serviced by only KMC for solid waste management and in absence of this service, the waste are disposed in the public arears. The study area of my research paper is ward no. 27 of KMC which is the historical part of KMC and located in the inner city and divided into different toles. The SWM service is provided by municipality only. There is no other stakeholders like NGO/INGO, private sector or CBOs. Currently the waste is collected by municipal vehicle and street sweeper and street sweeper collect charge for waste collection. Household questionnaire and interviews were used as the research tools and a total of 100 respondents were interviewed. The paper uses both qualitative and quantitative approach to analyze the information. Waste reduction is generally not practiced in this ward. The major waste that is generated in this ward is organic but very few household practice composting remaining waste is dumped in municipal vehicle. Also the scrap waste are disposed with other waste and not segregated for recycle purpose. Street sweeper plays important role in waste collection and cleaning in this ward and informal sector are important for waste reduction. The ward office and CBOs plays no role for the solid waste management of the ward. The people of the ward had not received any training programs regarding SWM. If proper assistance is received, people of this ward is willing to participate in waste management which help to reduce the waste that is carried by municipal vehicle to landfill site.