Nepal is celebrating a new democratic milestone – the local polls of 2022, our second since the promulgation of the new constitution. Political leaders spare no opportunity to tout this in their campaigns – and indeed the polls do reflect the progress we have made in terms of achieving democratic reform in the country.

But so do other incidents – take the Saturday garbage disposal for example.

After almost 8 days of waste remained uncollected in the city’s streets, KMC made the effort to collect the waste from the streets and keep it in Teku transfer station along the banks of Bagmati River. However, as agitations and roadblocks near the landfill area stretched beyond a fortnight, KMC had to do something.

To get a quick background into the incident: Kathmandu Valley dumps its waste at the Sisdol landfill area in Nuwakot. Sisdol residents have been demanding repair and upgrade of the Pasang Lhamu Highway along the Mudku-Tinpiple stretch for over seven years. With their demand being overlooked time and again, they obstruct vehicular movement along the stretch. preventing garbage disposal trucks from entering the landfill area. The frequency of obstructions have increased in the past six months with locals increasing pressure on authorities to repair the road on time or face the consequence of Kathmandu drowing in its own waste.

So the KMC asked the Home Ministry for help. The Home Ministry as a solution, offered security personnel – to deliver waste by force.

Therefore, on 7th May, 2022, 146 truckloads of garbage from Kathmandu Valley made their wayt to Sisdole, with security personnel guarding the stretch between Mudku to Tinpiple to prevent locals from protesting – or in effect “demanding better roads.”

It is also interesting to note here that the severely delayed road repair and upgradation project is awarded to Shailung Construction – a company famous for severely delaying projects, take for example the Kamalbinayak-Nagarkot Road Construction which is yet to be completed or the Kalanki-Nagdhunga road which took forever to complete. The company is said to make constant assurances that the Pasang Lhamu Highway upgradation, especially the stretch from Mudku to Tinpiple will be expedited, however, to no avail.