The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Nepal may try out zero-waste concept

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 26, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Nepal may try out zero-waste concept

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

A Nepalese delegation is impressed by Kerala Tourism's novel project

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Nepal has evinced interest in the zero-waste project being implemented by Kerala Tourism with the cooperation of stakeholders of the tourism industry, local bodies and non-governmental organisations in the beach resort of Kovalam.

"The concept is new to us and we want to try it out to tackle garbage menace under the Strengthening of Environment Administration and Management at the Local Level (SEAM-N) being implemented with the help of Finland," Hari P. Rimal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Local Development, Nepal, told The Hindu here recently.

Mr. Rimal, who headed an 18-member delegation from the Himalayan kingdom to the State capital recently to study solid waste management, said they would recommend the concept to the Nepalese Government to include it in the second phase of the SEAM-N. "This is a unique concept in which waste is converted into resource and that can be carried out in one's household," he said.

The Nepalese team visited the beach resort of Kovalam, Zero Waste Centre and the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation's Hotel Samudra to see the biogas plant there, the Centre for Development Studies, Venganoor grama panchayat, a vermi compost unit set up in a house at Kowdiar and the Vilappilsala garbage plant during their four-day stay here.

According to Babu Ram Gautam, Under Secretary, Ministry of Local Development and the national project director for SEAM-N, the biogas plants set up as part of the zero-waste project in Kovalam were an eye-opener to the delegation. "There are biogas plants that depend on cow dung in almost all households in Nepal. But we were unaware that biogas could be generated from garbage," he added.

The first phase of the Euro 3-billion SEAM-N project is to be completed soon. Under the project, the Nepal Government is trying to make Kathmandu cleaner to attract more tourists, as 4 per cent of its revenue comes from tourism. Mr. Gautam said they would be recommending to the Government biogas plants for discarded garbage under the second phase of the project.

He said it had come as a big surprise to the delegation that waste was not segregated in Thiruvananthapuram and was dumped on roads.

"We have not banned plastic in Nepal so far. But we are looking towards it," he added. Nepal receives Rs.40 million a year by way of recycling of waste. It is even imported to Kanpur.

According to him, open burning of garbage on the banks of the Bagmati river had been stopped with the setting up of sanitary landfills.

The Government is trying to augment the sewer. In the metropolis of Kathmandu, an estimated 300 tonnes of garbage is generated daily and another 700 tonnes in the other four sub-metros and 53 municipalities of the Himalayan kingdom, he added.

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