Municipalities of three districts in Kathmandu Valley are exploring new alternatives to manage solid waste with the current landfill site at Sisdol fast running out of its capacity.

A joint meeting of the executives of municipalities of Kathmandu Valley on Sunday had formed a five-member committee to jointly operate a landfill site in Banchare Danda in Nuwakot district. The meeting convened by Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) CEO Rudra Singh Tamang and Tarakeshwor Municipality CEO Agni Prasad Adhikary decided to form the committee comprising KMC CEO Tamang;

KMC Environmental Administration Division chief Gangadhar Gautam; Deepak KC, social development officer at Kathmandu District Development Committee; Dipendra Bahadur Oli, legal officer at the Solid Waste Management Technical Support and Pradeep Amatya, environment engineer at Lalitpiur Sub-Metropolitan City.

KMC officials said they were working on the proposed new landfill site at Banchare Danda to bring it into operation within two years.

With the rapid urbanisation and surge in population in the Valley, the municipalities have decided to build a new landfill site as a long-term solution to managing the solid waste generated from the cities. The KMC officials said the capacity of the Sisdol landfill site, where solid waste from the Valley has been dumped since 2005, would be exhausted in two years. 

Currently, all municipalities of the Valley except the Bhaktapur Municipality have been dumping solid waste in Sisdol area of Okharpauwa VDC in Nuwakot district—about 27km from Kathmandu. The Bhaktapur Municipality has been dumping their solid waste in its own landfill site in Sallaghari.

According to officials, besides the KMC, Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City, municipalities of Madhyapur Thimi, Kirtipur Municipality, Tokha, Budhanilkantha, Gokarneshwor, Kageshwori-Manohara, Shankharapur, Changunarayan, Mahamanju-shree-Nagarkot, Surya-binayak, Mahalaxmi, Ananta-lingeshwor, Godawari, Karyabinayak, Dakshinkali, Chandragiri Municipality, Nagarjun and Tarakeshwor have been dumping solid waste in Sisdol.

Around 800 metric tons of solid waste from all these municipalities are dumped in the site on a daily basis.

The KMC alone produces more than half that, or 450 metric tons of solid waste. The meeting has also decided to request for a government support in developing the new landfill site in Banchare Danda.