Kathmandu, May 3
The Kathmandu metropolitan city says the amount of waste that it collects from different areas of the city has reduced by around 30 to 50 per cent in the past four days since the city entered another round of lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus.
Usually, the city government sends 25 trucks of garbage to the landfill site. However, on Monday, only 13 of them are travelling thanks to the reduced amount of rubbish, informs the KMC Department of Environment.
Hari Kumar Shrestha, the chief of the department, says the amount of waste has significantly decreased in the commercial areas whereas the amount of reduction in residential areas is also noticeable though less.
Mitra Ghimire, the general secretary of the Solid Waste Management Association, however, hopes the amount of household waste could decrease further in the next few days. “As the businesses have recently closed, people are cleaning up their houses and yards now, and it has shown the amount a bit bigger.”
Meanwhile, the city government has urged the public to disinfect the waste before handing it over to the collectors if there are any Covid-19 patient at home.
