A plan to construct garbage disposal and management facilities in Rupandehi district has been put on hold due to continuous political disputes and locals’ obstruction.

In 2010, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had agreed to fund the construction of a solid waste processing centre in Butwal and a waste management plant in Siddharthanagar. 

The original plan was to complete the construction within five years of the start of the project, but the deadline was later extended to December 2018. Nearly 10 months have passed since the deadline, and there is still no sign of the facilities. The projects have been marred by false starts, delays and protests, much to the frustration of the ADB. 

“The plan was to invest Rs 370 million in Butwal and Rs 350 million in Siddharthanagar for the waste management facilities. But now the ADB is not interested because of the delays and disputes witnessed by the projects,” said Shikhar Tamang, manager of ADB in Butwal.

Butwal Sub-metropolitan City generates 53 tonnes of waste daily, and it has no proper site to dispose of them. 

The plan to build a waste management facility inside Shivanagar Community Forest has been blocked by the locals of Charange in Devdaha Municipality. 

The residents of Charange have opposed the plan, saying that they don’t want a waste management facility close to their homes. 

In the absence of a waste management plant, the city authority has been dumping waste on the river banks and open areas. 

Areas like Hattisudh and Binapate are filled with city waste these days. People living close to the waste disposal sites have raised concerns about possible health hazard. Some of them have blamed the waste piles for a drop in their agricultural produce and loss of livestock to various diseases. 

Shakuntala Darji, a local woman in Binapate, said that the local unit should find a solution to the problem. “We cannot spend our days swatting flies that could be carrying infectious diseases. We have been living in harsh conditions here,” said Darji.

The proposed waste management centre in Siddharthanagar Municipality has also been obstructed due to locals’ protest. 

The municipal office has purchased six bighas of land at Patkhauli in Omsatiya Rural Municipality to build the proposed garbage management centre, but the locals are against it. 

Shailendra Shrestha, senior engineer of the municipality, said that locals of Patkhauli have stopped them from moving ahead with the construction plan. “We are out of option. The municipality has been disposing of waste in Danda Khola, close to the no man’s land between Nepal and India, as a result.”

The municipal offices of Butwal and Siddharthanagar have requested the federal government to solve the problem after the ADB cancelled the funding for waste management facilities. 

Following the request, the Ministry of Urban Development had conducted a feasibility study to dispose of waste somewhere in Tilottama Municipality. The ministry has not disclosed the site yet.