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Abstract
Solid waste management in Kathmandu (Metropolitan City), Nepal underwent reorganization in 1980, followed by a series of foreign aided projects. Despite the foreign aid and several reorganization efforts, waste management has been in crisis in Kathmandu.
This dissertation aims to understand waste generation, characterization, and management practices; examine institutional structures applied to manage waste; discover the resources employed; probe governance at the national and local levels of government; and scrutinize foreign aid in waste management in Kathmandu to determine the drivers of persistent failure.
This research used tools from engineering and social science disciplines as well as four site visits, two household surveys and sampling of wastes, 38 interviews, focus group interviews in landfill sites, consultations with government and aid agencies, and a literature review.
Kathmandu's municipal solid waste generation was 0.66 kg capita -1 day-1 or 523.8 tonnes a day, where 71% of household waste consisted of organic wastes, and 1% of wastes were hazardous in type. The unit spending on waste management was $2.71 capita-1 annum -1 or 1.01% of per capita GNP, very high compared to peer cities. There are laws, policies, guidelines, as well as national and local organizations covering waste management and yet the laws are not enforced and instead they are frequently repealed and replaced with new orders. Even with a 526.3% overall increase in salary in 1997/98, municipal workers are the lowest paid in the South Asia region. Almost half of all households directly dump wastes in the streets, suggesting the need to upgrade sweepers' equipment. The hierarchic structure of employment adds more challenges to waste management. Governance from the national government to local agencies is poor with reports and charges of corruption. Foreign aid has historically failed to meet its objectives, and 97% of survey respondents with knowledge of aid blamed corruption for its ineffectiveness.
Waste management in Kathmandu serves as an example of the failure in that waste quantities are poorly understood, its management is very costly, laws are not implemented, resources are not coordinated and lack adequacy, governmental efforts need better governance, and foreign aid lacks the accountability to sustain its practices.
