ROADSIDE SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

Ritika Prasai (Program – Coordinator)
Contact number: +977- 9843083664
Email address: Ritikaprasai3@gmail.com

ORGANIZATION CONTACT : 

National Youth Council, Nepal
Gongabu, Kathmandu, Nepal
Email: info@nationalyouthcouncil.org  / nationalyouthcouncilnepal@gmail.com
Phone : +977 9851152843 / 9801152843 / 9860900548
Website : www.nationalyouthcouncil.org

INTRODUCTION 
In short, environment is the relationship between man and his surroundings. Environment may be broadly understood to mean our surroundings. It can be divided into non-living and living components. The environment provides resources which support life on the earth and which also help in the growth of a relationship of interchange between living organisms and the environment in which they live. It is important to realize that humans enjoy a unique position in nature due to their exceptional ability to influence and mould the environment. In the recent past the term nature has been used as parallel to word environment. It has been generally believed that nature is what man has not made. In our discussion environment and nature have been used as synonym, which incorporate most of the visible manifestation of geography. Raymond Williams defines nature as ‘the material world itself, taken as including or not including human beings.’ Tracing the history of the term he suggests that ‘nature’ has meant the ‘countryside’, the unspoiled places’, plants and creatures other than man.’  

CURRENT ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: 
Acid rain, global warming, forest deforestation, decreased agricultural production, early and late flowering and fruiting of forest trees, biodiversity loss, melting of snow and rising sea level, change in general raining pattern are some of the environmental issues that we have been facing in these days. We have been heard the news on pollution and have directly faced its impacts. Among many causal factors the major thing we should have to eliminate is the poor management of wastes. Waste and wastes are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance which is discarded after primary use, or it is worthless, defective and of no use ie  runoff), radioactive wastes, and others. Inappropriately managed waste can attract rodents and insects, which can harbor   gastrointestinal parasites, yellow fever, worms, the plague and other conditions for humans, and exposure to hazardous wastes, particularly when they are burnt, can cause various other diseases including cancers. In context of Nepal, inappropriate waste management is the major problem.  Managing solid waste is one of the major challenges in urbanization. A survey conducted in all 58 municipalities of Nepal in 2012 found that the average municipal solid waste generation was 317 grams per capita per day. This translates into 1,435 tons per day or 524,000 tons per year of municipal solid waste generation in Nepal, yet it lacks an efficient system to manage that waste.   Many of these technically and financially constrained municipalities are still practicing roadside waste pickup from open piles and open dumping, creating major health risks. Renewable energy experts call it a “waste of waste,” as the trash could easily be converted into power and compost.

So many organizations have been involved in waste management projects but either they are limited to some central area or they have not been effective in their job. We can easily observe wastes thrown in open space in almost all roads of Nepal. The scenario is also the result of peoples ignorance in this issue. Hence the problem lies in peoples thinking rather than the policy. Despite public awareness campaigns, there has been little change in household attitudes to managing waste. Residents tend to dispose of their garbage by burning it or throwing it away in any open space. Hence youths can play a very vital role in turning out this scenario. Therefore there is strong need of urgency to take action in creating  effective awareness among people in this serious matter. It is a definite truth that best management of roadside wastes alone can help to make Nepal look more beautiful and clean and youths from almost all parts of Nepal can play a  tremendous role in this campaign.

Therefore this campaign is proposed here to gather active youth members from different parts of Nepal and form a very good network to initiate waste management campaign from local level. Until and unless local people are involved to solve this serious issue, there can never be the proper management of wastes in the country. This campaign will unite youths of every parts of Nepal to work together for proper waste management. This campaign will start its work from Pokhara with the participation of youth members and will extend its work with the support from stakeholders. 

About National Youth Council Nepal (NYC Nepal):

National Youth Council, Nepal (NYC Nepal) is a nonprofit, charitable and youth volunteer organization based in Nepal founded in 2011. It was established as an initiative to develop the social network between volunteers and dynamic youths of Nepal with the objective of empowering backward community. It has been conducting programs in various fields such as National Youth Conference, Personality Development Workshop, Youths for Entrepreneurship Campaign, Leadership Bootcamp, Relief Programs, Earthquake Survivals Support Campaign and others research etc. Some of the major programmes conducted by National Youth Council, Nepal (NYC Nepal) are Educational for All, Computer Literacy Mission, Oreintation Programs for Rural Areas Youths and Youths Empowerment Programs and Training etc. This organization is now trying to work in the field of Waste Management collected at roadside.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CAMPAIGN:

The major objective of this campaign is to create a sense of responsibility among local people towards better solid waste management thrown anywhere in roadside in coordination of youths from almost all districts of Nepal. Specific objectives of this project are:

• To inspire youths to involve in the conservation of environment, provide them a source of employment opportunity and create a sense of responsibility among youths towards country’s welfare.
• To carryout awareness programs among local people regarding effects of poor solid waste management in coordination with youth members and involve  local people in proper solid waste management collected  at roadside.

Rationale of The Campaign:
Poor solid waste management along road side is one of the serious issue in present context of Nepal. Throwing of solid wastes anywhere in open space has resulted in increased pollution specially in urban areas with high population. Though many organizations along with municipalities have been trying best from their level, still a very good networking of active members to work for the best solid waste management  is lacking in the country. There must be active participation from local level to make a progress in this campaign. Hence this campaign will invite all the active, energetic and passionate youths from all districts to coordinate for the better solid waste management in the country by creating awareness among the local people and involving them as well. This campaign will benefit the country both by creating a source of employment to large group of youths on one hand and removing unnecessary wastes on the other. People will be awared to collect and throw wastes only in tankers placed in roadside and collected wastes in tankers will be burnt safely with the help of incinator device.

METHODOLOGY AND PROPOSED ACTIVITIES:
This campaign aims at creating a youth network residing in different districts of Nepal to work together for better solid waste management in the country and impose a sense of responsibility among the local people towards this issue. Youth network will be established through social networks. A Youth committee will be formed in each district. About thirteen members will be included at initial phase to coordinate in this campaign and their number will be extended according to the necessity. Programs and schedule of the campaign for each district will be made in coordination with the members of respective districts. Youths involved in the campaign will be given salary facility to increase their interest towards the campaign. This campaign will first start its work from Pokhara   and extend its work with the support from the stakeholders.

PROPOSED ACTIVITIES: 

SANITATION PROGRAM: 
We propose to conduct weekly sanitation programs in main roads of almost all districts with the aim of making roads neat, clean and plastic free removing all the garbage from roadside premises  in the participation of all the interested youth members belonging to respective districts. Vehicle from the municipality will be taken for the garbage collection and the collected garbage will be burnt safely with help of incinator devices. Management of incinator devices will be made for each districts and their number will be maintained according to the demand and necessity. Local people will also be made aware about the effects of poor solid waste management and they will also be involved in the campaign.

DUSTBIN DEMONSTRATION AND PLACEMENT: 
Different types of dustbins (Plastic, Glass and Decay able) and compost bins of various sizes will be placed in roadside in distance of certain interval in almost all districts of Nepal.  Dustbins will also be placed in local buses, tourist buses. Youth network will play a vital role for this purpose.

ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY BAG DEMONSTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION:
Environment friendly bag will be demonstrated among the youths, local people with the view of using less plastic by using the eco friendly bag and disseminate the knowledge about the negative impacts of plastic. Environment friendly bags will be made with some message of the campaign. 

HOARDING BOARD AND PUBLIC NOTICE:
For the public awareness and new message to the local people Hoarding board will be placed in almost all main roads at certain interval of distance at different districts.  Notice paper will also be placed in local buses, tourist buses, private vehicles to aware the people.

ORIENTATION CLASS TO LOCAL PEOPLE:
A short orientation class on campaign update and sanitation will be given to local people. Eco-friendly bag and flyers will also be distributed to local people.

EXPECTED OUTCOME:
This campaign is believed to act as a strong tool to motivate young, energetic and passionate youths to work for environment conservation and involve local people in this sensitive issue. This campaign will unite youths of almost all districts of Nepal and provide a wonderful source of employment opportunity which will help to solve the growing unemployment problem of the county to some extent.  This campaign will also activate local people to contribute for the better solid waste management collected at roadside. Hence this campaign will definitely lead to a beautiful and clean Nepal.

Wastes Management Proposal