Our Cities with Solid-Wastes; Now and Ahead

Current Situation

We never being bothered on seeing anything in the street, park, home-yard or in our vicinity except the lost gold and wallet where we used to live in. We have strong believe that the rivers are just born to accept our garbage and wash away of our clothes but we never allow to make their cycle complete and harbor many flora and fauna. In fact they are swallowing our ignorance and just keep flowing if not take a stop over for whole dry season. We are fortunate enough that at least we have down pour of Monsoon to clear up our river once in a year. We are actually lagging far behind to realize and to act as a part of the civilized society of this world.We are just lagged behind as our political will and fairness. It wouldn’t be exaggeration to say that the country seems polluted as equally as politicians are corrupted.

The country in its very nature is virgin, but, some cities that produce much more municipal wastes used to be dismantled by composting for long time with less effort, and we witnessed some people near to the disposed area used to trap the methane gas for house hold work for cooking and else.

There is no doubt that public awareness is the most crucial factors, which we lacked in our home but we are in very initial stage of our pollution that could jump beyond our capacity to tackle in few years time if we don’t take it seriously. Cities are not big enough, industries were not swollen enough and population was not burst yet, so it would be good time to commence to act। Later is better than never. Otherwise, hospitals would offer the abnormal deliveries, elderly population seek refugee at hospital beds, public scene would be full of unpleasant site everywhere just because of pollution, which is likely soon if our politician are blind as they are now. We are just in the stage of looking for another Gokarna and Okharpauwa instead of looking latest technology to feed all these wastes.

Our Imminent Future

We are lucky in the sense that we are still living in the nature with low per capita releasing CO₂ back to environment, hence we are not a part to blame for global warming. Some exceptional case is we are cutting the trees, burning woods and eroding our gorgeous mountain as a part of inflating our all elevated land in an effort to make it better habitat. For sure, we will no longer abide by such stereotype life style any longer. We will not cook only homegrown Dal, bhat and tarkari even for long future. Instead, we go beyond to look for Italian Pizza, Japanese Shusi and Chinese dumplings. For this, limiting our work hour from 10-4 in office, asking help from our parents for our every basic needs, would be the matter of history in due time. If we cannt maintain all by own, our teenagers would be more eager to run either north or south to make their dream be ripen as soon as possible. Eventually, our all infra will developed on the pace of snail with repeatedly resting in as many chatutari as possible found and can make rural people happy saying that drinking water within 10 years, road within 15 years, electricity within 17 years, and then school to all within 30 years; at the time those who have listened would have departed to sway the beans.

Those who come with remittances back to home, brought nano-car where only he and his copartner not own son could be adjusted forget about their elderly and needy parents. Many cars plying on tiny road queuing in every traffic light, if it really exists, and every curves and inn, would be the common sight. If it is the case, we will have more tires to be burnt once the gang fight start somewhere asking for compensation they had just broken. Two brother will first fight together at home and come to major highway blocking all vehicles claiming half-millions if not possible to get a million. Every eye would be glassed, mouth plugged with mask, and will have double set of shoes on both feet for in case if something happen in road for hit and run. There would be a CCTV installed on the road to check at Okharpauwa and Chobhar whether any vehicles from Kathmandu Municipality is still plying or not. So, obviously what we do is we first fill all ditches still exists in and around of Kathmandu valley, after then we will just collect them on the bank of river from Sundarijal to Thapathali, and Tokha to Kalimati, just waiting heavy rain they will swallow down to Madesh. And doing so, the day will come when no priest and grandpa dared to dive into these then pristine and holy rivers. Hence, such a dumping canal, no more Bagmati or Bishnumati, will significantly reduce the skin-diseases. Considering all consequences, we would elevate the Kathmandu to new height bit close to Thankot as we are taking sand, bricks and iron rod all from outside the valley. Even, agro-product from outside valley or India which have in general 20-30% unacceptable solid waste, that goes together with already exist hump to be a mountain or at least plateaus. Because of Global warming, no ice melted river enter the valley to drive out all such heavy waste deposited in water, so it seems that in few year times, we will see nothing going out from Kathmandu but just a hump of everything. On last 10 years, we had never seen such volume of dust scattered in its atmosphere that trends are still extending to dreadful mountains making on the name of eco-friendly roads around the terrace. Not only the urbanites but also satellite urbanites and some lucky villagers breathing such filthy gas by their poor nose without any filter can no longer help them to merely take O₂. Being a landlocked country, and until and unless we don’t have pipeline of petroleum products from china or least likely form India, we will wait the tanker coming to high valley burning almost fuel it carried with little left. We all press the government to reduce the price of it, if not happen, we will again burn that petrol adding to already piled tires available everywhere, and warm ourself if it was in cold month and breath in such toxic fume with joy.

Possible solution

Just for sure, every coin does have two sides and neither side could necessarily be bright. Even the most developed countries could not be exception for that. In my observation, some cities do have burning practices of their solid-waste at very high temperature so that dioxin, a carcinogenic compound, formed on burning of carbonaceous compound with oxygen get dismantled. Back to home, we have such trends even in rural areas to manage the agricultural byproducts be burned. Hence, it should be done in big vessels maintaining the high temperature. The process on the other hand produces the fly ash leading to make metallic constructing component as we are supposedly using Alumina, Iron in our daily business that goes for damping which eventually could be reused for construction purposes. The sludge formed during the process could be used for filling materials for many construction site or city pavements, as we can look it in many cities of the developed countries.

Most interestingly, we have more rubbish and agricultural byproduct in our solid- waste, which could offer the manure once they are bio-degraded, for instance, by incubating many earthworms and fungus, and also energy once they are burnt by which we can produce the electricity that may gone to national grid. More importantly, what we lack is the man power teaching the importance of all materials in its respective field where it might be treated as ore. Making road by composting the garbage is nothing but merely fooling the people as all contaminant in a day or so goes back to water destroying the ecosystem further. The sludge and fly ash both can be used as construction materials with embodying with cement. The steam or exhausted gas can rotate turbine to provide the energy. Hence, we may assume that it is the one of many powerhouses instead of waste treatment plant compensating the energy demands of the nation as well.

Why not to say, it is a solution for an energy crisis exploiting the solid-waste. We can kill two birds with single stone but is not lucrative as a share disbursed by ITC to its employees in Nepal.