Delegates from across four municipalities in Nepal visited the Waste Management Facility at Coonoor to study our methods of dealing with municipal waste. The facility tour was the initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs and the District Administration.
These municipalities situated in what is called as ‘Hilly Region,’ face far greater challenges than our hill district vis-a-vis segregation at source, waste collection, transportation and disposal.
According to a recent report by the Asian Development Bank report only 30% of households practice source segregation. Although collection efficiency ranges 70-90% in major towns, it is at times below is below 50% in several smaller municipalities. Of the waste collected just 11% is disposed off in a sanitary landfill or at a controlled dumpsite. Resource recovery is almost nonexistent, and whatever little that happens is by the informal sectors.
Despite the tight budgets and scarce resources that have made municipal SWM an environmental, financial, and social burden to these municipalities, we hope that their visit will help them in finding answers to manage their waste effectively, using local based solutions as is being done in the township of Coonoor.