Four Morang local levels join hands for landfill project

By Hari Prasad Koirala,Urlabari, Dec. 10: Four local levels in Morang, which have been facing increasing challenges in managing solid waste, are now working to launch a joint integrated waste management programme.

Rangeli and Sunbarsi municipalities, along with Kanepokhari and Dhanpalthan rural municipalities, which had earlier begun the concept of an Integrated Disaster Management Centre, will now operate an integrated solid waste management facility through shared investment. Before awarding the construction contract, a team from the four local levels travelled to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, on Monday to observe the city's waste management centre. 

The team includes the mayors of Rangeli and Sunbarsi, the chairperson of Kanepokhari, senior administrative officers from all four local levels, and the deputy mayor of Rangeli. Rangeli Municipality has already provided one bigha of land free of charge for the facility. Once the land was allocated, the four local levels agreed to jointly invest in constructing the waste management centre, said Rajmati Ingnam, chairperson of Kanepokhari Rural Municipality.

None of the 17 local governments in Morang has built a modern dumping site. Kanepokhari has been dumping waste in a community forest area protected by the Local Rural Improvement Community Forest users, while other municipalities have been dumping waste along riverbanks.

After 13 goats grazing near the Kanepokhari dumping site died, locals banned waste disposal there. As a result, waste collection in Kanepokhari has stopped, said Yubaraj Bhujel, chief of the Municipal Police.

According to him, after the goats died on November 11, 2025, locals dug pits in the forest to bury the waste. The entrance to the dumping site has now been fenced with wire mesh.

According to Ingnam, the Koshi Province Government has committed Rs. 50 million, the Swiss Government Rs. 20 million and Habitat Rs. 10 million to the integrated waste management project -- ensuring a total of Rs. 80 million in funding. 

The four local units have agreed to contribute their share of the remaining cost of the Rs. 130 million projects based on use and consumption. 

A study of waste generation, volume produced in major market areas and household membership is currently underway in all four local levels.

Jibachh Prasad Gachchhadar, Chairperson of Dhanpalthan Rural Municipality, said his municipality joined the project after Rangeli provided land free of cost. Dumping waste along riverbanks had created health risks, and the joint project aims to offer a lasting solution to the garbage problem, he said.

Earlier, the same four local levels initiated construction of an Integrated Disaster Management Centre under the Integrated Disaster Management Programme to coordinate all disaster-related functions from a single location. The centre is currently under construction in Dervesa of Ward No. 8, Rangeli Municipality.