Both formal and informal waste management personnel in Kathmandu face a multitude of challenges, ranging from systemic issues to personal hardships.
Challenges Faced by Formal Waste Management Personnel (e.g., Municipalities, Government Officials):
- Inadequate Funding and Resources: Local governments, including Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), often operate with limited budgets, technical limitations, and insufficient human resources. Most of the municipal solid waste management (SWM) budget is spent on street sweeping and collection rather than diversified waste management practices. Municipalities are largely dependent on central government grants and foreign aid, which can lead to a cycle of dependency and hinder long-term planning.
- Limited Infrastructure: There is a lack of adequate infrastructure for waste collection, segregation, sorting, and treatment facilities. Existing facilities like the Teku transfer station lack proper segregation and composting practices despite initial design. There's also a significant lack of land for transfer stations and waste treatment facilities for private companies and the metropolitan.
- Outdated Practices and Lack of Diversification: KMC primarily focuses on waste collection and disposal in landfills, with minimal consideration for moving towards resource management-based approaches like recycling or composting. Open dumping and burning are still common practices, exacerbating pollution.
- Bureaucratic Hurdles and Lack of Coordination: There's a lack of coordination among different government departments (e.g., Ministry of Urban Development and KMC) regarding waste infrastructure development and management responsibilities, leading to delays in crucial projects like the new Banchare Danda landfill site.
- Insufficient Data and Planning: The formal system lacks up-to-date and reliable data on waste generation, composition, and collection rates, hindering effective planning and policy formulation. Waste collection routes are often not based on scientific methods or spatial modeling techniques.
- Policy Implementation Gaps: Despite the Solid Waste Management Act of 2011 and the Solid Waste Management National Policy of 2022, implementation of waste segregation and recycling policies often falls short due to limited regulatory mechanisms and a lack of financial incentives or penalties.
- Political Influence and Capacity Issues: There's a culture of transferring government employees based on political affiliation rather than work, qualification, and experience, which can result in inexperienced personnel heading environment departments. Municipal staff often lack adequate training and resources.
- Public Opposition: Landfill sites face longstanding issues of protests and blockades by local residents due to concerns over foul smell, respiratory diseases, and environmental justice, disrupting waste disposal.
Challenges Faced by Informal Waste Management Personnel (Waste Pickers, Itinerant Waste Buyers, Scrap Dealers):
- Lack of Formal Recognition and Legal Status: The informal waste sector, particularly waste pickers, lacks legislative recognition in Nepal's SWM Act of 2011, and their significant contributions are not formally acknowledged by the government. This leads to their exclusion from policy discussions and development programs.
- Hazardous Working Conditions and Health Risks: Informal waste workers operate in extremely unsanitary and dangerous environments like landfills, transfer stations, and scrap centers. They are exposed to toxic substances, sharp objects, medical waste, dust, and fumes from open waste burning. This results in frequent injuries (cuts and bruises), chronic health issues like respiratory diseases, and even deaths. They often lack proper protective equipment.
- Low and Unstable Income: Earnings are generally low and fluctuate based on seasonal variations and market demand for recyclables, making financial stability difficult. They are often paid based on quantity rather than a fixed wage, leading to hard work for little return. Some workers are promised more daily wages but paid less in reality.
- Social Stigma and Discrimination: Waste pickers face profound social stigma, misbehavior, and humiliation from the public and officials, often linked to their perceived low social status, caste, and language/origin. Traditionally, waste management was associated with "untouchable" castes in Nepal, perpetuating this stigma.
- Vulnerability and Exploitation: Many are poor, illiterate, and migrants (from Nepal's Terai region or India), engaging in waste picking as a survival strategy. They are vulnerable to exploitation by middlemen or scrap dealers.
- Lack of Organization and Collective Bargaining: Most informal waste pickers remain unorganized, lacking member-based cooperatives or associations, which limits their collective bargaining power for better working conditions and formal recognition.
- Threat of Displacement: Government plans for modern, mechanized SWM systems, often through large-scale Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) with transnational corporations, pose a significant threat to the livelihoods of existing informal waste workers, potentially displacing them without adequate inclusion plans.
- Taxation Issues: Government attempts to tax informal waste operators (scrap dealers) through measures like VAT on scrap materials have led to protests, as it threatens the profitability of their labor-intensive business.
0 Comments