Rubbish in the Bagmati River

‘Look at that!’ 

My Spanish colleague points at the banks of the River Bagmati that cuts across Kathmandu. We are in a tiny car heading from a small town called Lilipur to a western side of Kathmandu. The journey has been pleasant. Today is a beautiful day with lots of sunshine, though from experience, I predict monsoon rain at about midday for a couple of hours. 

We all peak out of the car windows. The banks of the Holy Hindu river are filled with rubbish. We cannot see any grass, sand or anything living - the banks are covered in paper, plastic, household waste... We can even see car tires and old lamps. It seems as if the rubbish is taking over the river. One does not even look at the river itself or reflect on the fact that it serves great importance for Hindus who  do everything in its Holy Water; be it washing oneself or throwing the ashes of the deceased into it. 

We are all quite. How can the Nepali treat their Holy River this way? Didn’t they want to respect it and not chuck all kinds of waste into it?

The driver looks at us through the car mirror. 

‘You know, in Nepal, there is no waste management. No place to take your rubbish to. The river and the forest are the only places. This is why there is so much rubbish there.’

We are all stunned on the back seat. I face Diego, my Spanish colleague.

‘This explains why we saw so much rubbish in the forest the other day when we were walking on the mountains.... This is why all the villagers throw their rubbish in the nature. No where else to out it.’

Diego looks at me and shakes his head. 

‘Yes, but this is crazy. They are ruining their beautiful and rich nature. They don’t understand what an asset and richness it it. They will only see it when it is no longer there... Fucking Nepali Government! They don’t see what they are doing by not having a waste management system.’

Petra, my Israeli colleague, looks at us. She has a worried expression on her face. 

‘I heard about a UN project that assists people in waste management, educates them and tried to increase the level of hygiene here. I can see that there really is a need for it....’

Diego laughs. ‘Certainly there is a need for it. The other day when we were walking on the mountains, we had some chocolate and then had the wrappers for them.  I kept on asking Tiija what to do with them; I just couldn’t throw them on the precious Himalayas. But in the end, that was the only option. Even if I took it back to the house, the family would have throw the rubbish out the window; this is what they did when I gave them some cookies. They just threw the rubbish out the window and it landed in their own garden!’ 

Petra looks out the window with a dreamy look in her eyes. 

‘When I stayed with the host family, they seemed to have no concept of hygiene. They would sleep in the same clothes as they wore during the day, they would bath out on the street every four days, they wouldn’t wash their hands after going to the toilet... Oh, and the toilet had not been cleaned for  long time.’

Diego nodded. 

‘Yes, we had the same issues. And the house was so dusty. It had not been cleaned properly in years.’ 

I looked at both of them. 

‘But people are happy. And healthy. They just have different concepts of what it means to be clean and for the need to be clean. Sometimes we are too clean in the west and our bodies don’t get used to any harsh treatment.’ 

We all look at the river for the last time. 

‘But there is definitely a need for some sort of waste management and hygiene, no matter where you are....’ I summarize our thoughts.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UN and other international NGOs have started up a waste management and hygiene project in Nepal. For more information, see this link:

http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd13/casestudies/case_studies_sanitation.htm