IMC India - Waste Burning near Mt Everest

Waste Burning near Mt Everest
By Gopal Krishna 02/06/2003 At 14:14

Even the up coming 7th Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee of the Stockholm Convention on POPs, which will take place in Geneva from 14 to 18 July 2003 where Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) will make demonstrations is seeking elimination of burning as a tool on the Global Day of Action on waste and incineration on 14 July 2003.

Yesterday NDTV News Channel, around 7:50 PM broadcasted a news item about how the garbage left in and around Mt Everest is being dealt with. The anchor, Mr Debang-said, garbage is an environmental problem and Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) is working to solve this problem. He further said, SPCC collects it in a pit and burns to make Mt Everest Environmentally safe.

One wonders since when did waste burning became environmentally safe, at a time when world over there is a consensus that it waste management through waste burning is environmentally disastrous. There are both national and international treaties to that effect. These treaties such as Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), Kyoto Protocol and Recommendations of Global Mercury Assessment Report seek elimination of burning methods because it emits toxic emissions like dioxins and heavy metals which are lethal to the health and environment.

The Mt. Everest climbers from around the world liter more than 100 tonnes of garbage each year. Although it is mandatory for climbers to carry out all their waste materials, tons of non-biodegradable garbage has piled up. The high alpine environment found in the Sagarmatha National Park especially above 4,000 m, 13,000 feet is extremely sensitive.

Cleanup projects have been taking place on or around the mountain since 1989. With the growth in mountaineering on Mt Everest peaks since 1980s and 1990s, trash problem has been growing. Trash that is buried gets exposed as the glaciers melt shift or melt. Despite projects, mountaineering is not sustainable because base camps are becoming filthy and unhealthy due to improper management of garbage and human waste.

Taking this into cognizance, an environmental deposit system was initiated by the Government of Nepal, which is administered by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), established in 1991. This system requires that each team pay a fee of US$4000 (now it is 4500 US dollars), which is only refunded once the team, demonstrate it has removed all the materials, which it brought. Inspectors from the SPCC visit every base camp at the end of each season to ensure that trash is left behind.

The SPCC was set up to assist in cleaning up the trash left behind by trekkers and Expedition Teams trekking in the Khumbu area, particularly the Everest Base Camp. In 1993/94, the SPCC with the support of the Nepalese government and international donors collected 126 metric tons of garbage. The quantity of garbage increased to 243 metric tons in 1996/97.

The practice in the Khumbu region is to dig a large pit and dump the garbage in it and burn it. The SPCC has developed paper products burning as one of its regulations. One of the other SPCC regulations prohibits the use of wood to heat or cook food.

If burning wood is polluting, how is it that SPCC finds waste burning non-polluting. It would be in the fitness of things if environmental organizations based in Nepal persuade SPCC to give up waste burning and work for a Zero Waste Mt Everest.

Email:: meetgopalkrishna@rediffmail.com
URL:: http://

>>Add a comment

Comments

You Don't Get It!

Kashish D Shrestha 26/01/2004 02:23

kashish@kashish.com.np

I agree that there are flaws regarding the way in which the committe has carried out its regulations, but what you, the author of this article, needs to udnersatnd is that firewood is NOT prohibited in the Sagarmatha area because it pollutes. The rule was established because for fire wood, you need to cut trees and to go on tree cutting sessions in those areas is more than just wrong!It is also ecologically disastrous. So your closing argument for the article was well...not quite a punch like you and the readers would have hoped for.

Another thing: Why is it that all the European, American, Japanese and mountaineers from teh world over abide by the rules established by other richer and powerful countries (Alps, for example, or even the mountains in Denver)- but not abide by a simple and logical rule established in Nepal?

Is it even needed to make this rule about waste management? Should it not be basic logic? Or is it that because these folks pay money to get a permit to climb a mountain, they assume they have the right to leave behind their waste? Thats just wrong!

The mistake, to begin with, is on the part of those who go on these expeditions. Had they respected the mountain and nature, surely they would not be as reckless. But maybe being able to climb the mountain gives them the sense that they have in fact defeated nature, and so like raiders raiding tombs and farms of a defeated country, they too feel teh need and urge to behave with such barbaric manners.

FANTASTIC

OHHHK 08/05/2005 10:04

kool bannanas