The government has moved a step closer to signing a project development agreement (PDA) with Nepali-Finnish joint venture company Nepwaste to manage the Kathmandu Valley’s solid waste. 

Nepwaste and Investment Board Nepal (IBN) have agreed on the major points to be inserted in the PDA of the Kathmandu Valley Integrated Solid Waste Management Project. IBN is the implementer of the project. 

According to IBN, Nepwaste will undertake Package Number 1 of the project which includes Kathmandu Metropolitan City and neighbouring VDCs. The company has agreed to build a sanitary landfill site and waste processing centre at Banchare Danda in Nuwakot at its own cost. 

Nepwaste has also agreed to manage the existing workforce of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City and other private contractors engaged in solid waste management. 

IBN had asked Nepwaste to present a plan to integrate the existing solid waste workers of government bodies and private operators before providing conditional approval to its detailed project report.

The integration of the existing workers is considered to be one of the key challenges in making the project successful as they might disrupt the project if they were to be laid off.

Similarly, Nepwaste has agreed to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste at the source after undertaking the project. 

“The project developer has said that it will provide separate trash bins to households to collect different types of waste,” said the IBN official involved in the PDA negotiation. “It has also agreed to initiate a campaign to make people aware about the need to separate waste for efficient processing into fertilizer and energy.”     

Likewise, the project developer has pledged not to jack up service charges. Households will not be asked to pay more than what they are paying now for garbage disposal.

“Although, there have been no extensive discussions on the tariff, they have said it won’t be more than the existing rate,” said the source. 

Another condition put forth by IBN is related to the right over valuables found in the trash. 

According to IBN, the government should have ownership to valuables found in the waste, and the developer has agreed to this condition.  

IBN is currently preparing a draft of the PDA after including the issues that were resolved during the discussions. “Once the written draft is prepared, there will be a number of rounds of discussions. The contract will be signed after that,” said the source. 

After the PDA is signed with Nepwaste, the board will start PDA negotiations with Clean Valley Company which will undertake waste management in Lalitpur, Kirtipur, Bhaktapur, Madhyapur Thimi and neighbouring VDCs under Package Numbers 2 and 3 of the project.