Existing workforce, a big challenge for Waste Management Project

Kathmandu, Sept 10: As the private sector is bracing for the management of the solid wastes of the Kathmandu Valley, handling of the existing workforce involved in the field has posed as the biggest challenge for the Integrated Solid Waste Management Project.

Chief executive officer (CEO) of the Investment Board of Nepal (IBN) Maha Prasad Adhikari informed that the management of government and private sector workers involved in waste management was one of the key challenges for the new project which will manage the solid waste of the three cities in the Valley.

According to Environment Management Division chief of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Office Rabin Man Shrestha, there were about 1,100 workers involved in the solid waste management in the Valley.

Likewise, more than 100 private sector companies are collecting and managing solid waste. They have also employed hundreds of workers.

However, the KMC and IBN both claimed that the initiative was commenced to study the possible methods of workforce management.

"We have been discussing the matter with the Sanitation Workers Union. We want to settle the matter amicably not by force. The KMC is contemplating on relocating the sanitation workers to other departments as far as possible," said Shrestha.

Photo source: www.ciud.org.np

As per the IBN, the project was also facing challenges in development of landfill site, regulation and collection of tariffs, acquisition of additional transfer stations and meeting expectation of viability gap funding from development.

These critical issues might cause delay in the project implementation.

The government has to provide all transfer stations including Teku and 400 ropanis at Banchare Danda for the landfill site.

The solid waste management of the valley will be implemented in three packages for which negotiations are underway for Project Development Agreement (PDA).

Package I covers the Kathmandu Metropolitan city and other municipalities, except Kirtipur, in Kathmandu district.

Nepwaste, which has Organic Village as the local partner and Finnish company Compunication OY as foreign joint venture partner, has been selected to implement the Package I.

Organic Village has 51 per cent stake in the company and Compunication has 49 per cent.

Package II and III covers Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City and Kirtipur, Bhaktapur, Madhyapur and other municipalities in Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts.

Clean Valley, which has Kryss International as local partner and Indian companies BVG and Greenfield Waste Management as foreign joint venture partners, has been selected for the Package II and III.  

Kryss has 50 per cent stake in the company while BVG has 45 per cent and Greenfield 5 per cent.

The project cost of Package I is Rs. 6.3 billion while Package II and III will be implemented at the cost of Rs. 1.9 billion.

Approximately 901 metric tons of waste is generated in the Valley every day.

About 76 per cent of such waste is household waste, 11 per cent street and drainage waste, 11 per cent commercial waste and 2 per cent medical waste.

"About 60 per cent waste generated in the Valley is organic which can be used in producing biogas and fertilizer. After the implementation of the new project, problems like waste dumping in open area will be solved and the waste will be sort out and recycled," said Adhikari.