Celebrating this year’s World Habitat Day with the slogan ‘managing municipal solid waste’, CIUD and partners successfully organized Urban Dabali on September 28 at DUDBC hall in Babarmahal. In the presence of about one hundred audience, from different sectors including government and the private and the audience who were connected virtually (similar to webinar), the three speaker expressed their views and opinions on the municipal solid waste management from different angles through the power point presentations followed by the questions and answers.
Celebrating this year’s World Habitat Day with the slogan ‘managing municipal solid waste’, CIUD and partners successfully organized Urban Dabali on September 28 at DUDBC hall in Babarmahal. In the presence of about one hundred audience, from different sectors including government and the private and the audience who were connected virtually (similar to webinar), the three speaker expressed their views and opinions on the municipal solid waste management from different angles through the power point presentations followed by the questions and answers.
As the first speakers, Bhushan Tuladhar, from UN-Habitat, shared his decades-long experiences on municipal waste management, their successes and failures and analyzed the root causes and gaps of unsuccessful waste management practices and insisted on the need of institutionalization of the municipal waste management. He also shared the best practices that some municipalities have adopted in managing solid waste.
Speaking on behalf of private sectors, Tikaram Dahal, from NEPCEMAC shared the experiences of private sectors in municipal waste management through various practices, opportunities and challenges and urged for the recognition and the support from the local governments for the sustainable waste management.
Kalanidhi Devkota, the Executive Director of Municipal Association of Nepal, shared about how local governments can plan and even prepare acts of their own for the waste management with the full authority and the resources. He instated on integrated waste management and collaboration among the municipalities for sustainable waste management sharing the resources together.
Some of the designated guests present in the Dabali were Dwarika Shrestha, Deputy Director General, Department of Urban Dabali and Building Construction, Padma Sunder Joshi, Habitat Program Manager.
The World Habitat Day is celebrated each year on first Monday of October with different themes and slogans to reflect on the state of our towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter. It also reminds us we all have the power and the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns.
This year’s theme is Municipal Solid Waste Management with the main global observance taking place in Kenya. Solid Waste Management is a global issue that affects everyone.
A change in public attitudes to minimize waste and stop littering, the regularization of informal waste pickers, increased recycling and reusing, sufficient funding, solid waste planning including adequate landfill sites, can help cities to improve the current state of solid waste management and save money to become ‘Waste-Wise Cities’.