Investment Board Nepal (IBN) is preparing to sign a project development agreement (PDA) with two Nepali companies Nepwaste and Clean Valley Company to manage the Kathmandu Valley’s garbage.

Nepwaste will implement the project in Kathmandu and neighbouring village development committees while Clean Valley will work in Lalitpur, Kirtipur, Bhaktapur, Madhyapur Thimi and adjoining village development committees.

IBN has recently formed a committee to start PDA negotiations with the two companies under the coordination of IBN CEO Radhes Pant.

The other members of the committee are joint secretaries of the ministries of Federal Affairs and Local Development and Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, executive officer of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) and executive director of the Solid Waste Management Technical Support Centre.

The senior divisional engineer of IBN, divisional head of KMC’s Environment and Management Department and under-secretaries of the Finance Ministry and IBN are also members of the panel. The committee is authorized to negotiate the terms and conditions with the two companies, and it has been instructed to submit the PDA to IBN after it is finalized.

Khagendra Rijal, under-secretary of IBN, said the committee had held the first meeting with the two companies and asked them to come prepared. “We are presently preparing a draft of the PDA. Once it is completed, we will invite them again for further negotiations,” said Rijal.

On April 27, a board meeting of IBN had given conditional approval to the detailed project report (DPR) presented by the two companies for the project’s development. IBN said a number of key issues were not in the report.

The first condition put forth by IBN is related to rights over valuables found in the waste. “The government has the right to take possession of expensive objects found in garbage,” IBN said.

Likewise, other concerns of the IBN were segregation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes at the source and plans to manage hazardous waste.

“As per our law, there should be segregation of the trash at source. But it was not mentioned in the DPR. The report was also silent on the developers’ plan to manage hazardous waste,” said Rijal.

“We have asked both the developers to address these conditions, and if they come up with an effective plan, we will sign the agreement soon.”

IBN has also asked the developers to come up with a scheme to absorb the existing workers of KMC and private operators involved in solid waste management into their project.

“Once the responsibility of solid waste management is given to private companies, the existing human resources at KMC will become redundant,” said Rijal. “So we have asked the developers to resolve the issue.”