One has only to go out early in the morning, and you see small heaps of garbage on the side paths all over the city. What is surprising is that you find garbage strewn around the dustbins while the dustbins are empty. And the municipal workers don't complain while they go about in their carts or trucks picking up the strewn garbage along the streets and lanes of Kathmandu.

If the heaps of garbage are bad enough, it is the smell of burning waste that irritates many passer-by. Since the municipality seems unable to enforce any rules, we expect the government of Dr. Baburam Bhattarai to do the needful to keep the streets clean. I think if the government were to introduce fines for those littering and dirtying the streets and strictly enforce them, Kathmandu would take a cleaner look. If this government could evict footpath vendors from different places of the cit, I am sure it can give Kathmandu a cleaner look. Especially with the country embarking on Visit Lumbini Year to attract a million Buddhist pilgrims, cleanliness and sanitation should be priority right from the time the visitors land at the Tribhuvan International Airport.

By: Preetam Lamsal, Kathmandu

Source: The Rising Nepal, January 28, 2012