original

674x448

610x380

500x500

400x266

400x240

400x203

301x200

Managing Everest’s waste problem

https://youtu.be/IBCLqSG_HMMThe Everest Base Camp trek is arduous enough for fit people, but it can be even more difficult for someone over 70. And it is no mean feat if that person also wants to tee off at 5,100m in winter.Harry Tan, a 71-year-old Singaporean possibly became the first person to tee off from three points below Mt Everest above 5,000m earlier this month.A part-time physical education teacher at Nanyang Technical University and an avid golfer at the Seletar Golf Club in Singapore, Tan had come to Nepal in 2016 after the earthquake. His trekking partner, Raj Tamang, was himself raised in Singapore and is also a golfer.“We got really excited about teeing off from high points during the trek, but did not realise how difficult it would be,” Tan recalls. This was a winter trek with the Khumbu Galcier so windy that the wind chill factor made conditions difficult. The high thin air also meant that the golf balls behaved differently.After flying to Lukla and acclimatising in Namche and Ama Dablam Base Camp, the group proceeded up to Dingboche, where Tan decided to buy warmer feather mittens for the adventures ahead. “The gloves I brought from Singapore were not adequate for the job at hand,” he noted.They waited out a blizzard on 13 December and then walked on to Pheriche and Lobuje.The next day, they climbed to a ridge on the way to Gorakshep at 5,180m found a patch of flat ground and brought out a 3 Wood driver, rubber tee, and an ecobioball manufactured by Elbusgolf.It was a complete whiteout when Harry did the first-ever 5000-meter tee off by a foreigner in Nepal. (The previous record was by Tamang himself.) They continued on the lateral moraine towards Gorakshep, had a quick lunch and left for Everest Base Camp. Trekkers there who were talking about a Singaporean with a golf club and were wondering what he was going to do with it got to see the swings for themselves.

Teeing off below Everest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdJPUVWW9U4&amp;feature=youtu.beMt Everest has been called the ‘The World’s Highest Garbage Dump’ or ‘The Toilet Paper Trail’, but the international media has missed the good news: that Sagarmatha National Park is cleanest it has been since tourism started in the 1960s. And it is about to become even more garbage free as every visitor will be asked to volunteer to take down 1kg of trash back for collection by recyclers at Kathmandu airport.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58379c7e80680e05481fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="938" height="1005"/>Photo: TOMMY GUSTAFSSON<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a583a9c7e80680e054820jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1191" height="1257">Photo: ALTON C BYERSA ‘Carry Me Back’ bag that will contain 1kg of pre-processed solid waste that tourists will carry back to recycling facilities in Kathmandu.The spring 2019 climbing season saw another surge of international media coverage with daily stories of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/most-days-its-not-so-crowded-on-mt-everest/">‘traffic jams’</a>, newly exposed garbage, bodies and helicopter parts that surfaced as the mountain thawed due to climate change.Some 400 tons of plastic, metals, glass and other refuse is generated each year by lodges catering to the tourist industry, the bulk of it burned and buried in some 75 community landfills located near villages along the Everest Trail. Burnable garbage includes plastics that poison the air, contaminate the water, and create new health hazards for humans and livestock alike.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Living below Nepal's melting mountains,</a> Alton C Byers<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/high-water" target="_blank" rel="noopener">High Water,</a> Alton C Byers in the Barun Valley<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a583c9c7e80680e054821jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1016" height="762"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a583f9c7e80680e054822jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1016" height="762">Typical garbage pit outside of a village, usually out of sight of the main trekking trail. Landfills are particularly problematic in the alpine zone above 4,000m, where decomposition processes are much slower than those at lower, warmer and more humid environments. Photos: ALTON C BYERS<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58419c7e80680e054823jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1218" height="1642"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>It hasn’t always been this way. When I first visited the <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.15px;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/more-trekkers-more-trees/">Khumbu in 1973</a>, there were no lodges, the total number of tourists per year was under 2,000 and virtually no solid waste was produced. Food came in reusable packaging (doko baskets, cloth bags) and meals consisted of rice, lentils, potatoes and some vegetables.By the 1980s and 1990s a few lodges started being built, and trekking groups camped in village potato fields rented out by landowners. By the early 2000s the rush to build lodges to feed and shelter the growing numbers of tourists took off, transforming the cultural landscape. With lodges came both greater tourist numbers as well as an increased demand for consumables like beer, whiskey, wine, bottled water, fruit cocktail, sunscreen, TVs and batteries, with their non-biodegradable packaging. It all ended up in refuse pits to be routinely burned.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58449c7e80680e054824jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="328"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58469c7e80680e054825jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="328"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Going by the international press narrative, the problem is bad and getting worse. Are the Sherpa people, Sagarmatha National Park and government doing nothing about it? <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/">Far from it.</a> More than 20 years ago, the <a href="http://www.spcc.org.np">Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) </a>was launched as a local initiative to manage waste. Since then, the SPCC and its partners have installed 106 waste collection centres throughout the park, banned glass beer bottles, organised <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/expeditions-brings-down-11-tons-of-mt-everest-trash/">annual Base Camp clean ups</a>, conducted compost trainings, and continually look for new and innovative solutions to the challenges of managing the waste generated. Not much of this is reported by the international media.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58489c7e80680e054826jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="961" height="647"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>During two solid-waste workshops facilitated by the University of Colorado and Arizona State University in Namche Bazaar and Kathmandu last month, local stakeholders were looking for innovative new ways to manage the waste of 60,000 trekkers and climbers, plus their support staff, who are in the park every year. The SPCC is now working with <a href="https://sagarmathanext.com/about-us/">Sagarmatha Next</a>, which is setting up segregation stations for a ‘carry me back’ program, where every tourist agrees to take back 1kg of waste to recycling centres in Kathmandu.The trek from Lukla to Everest Base Camp has long been referred to as the ‘toilet paper trail’ -- today it is anything but. In spite of the growing numbers of visitors, support staff and pack animals, it is one of the cleanest and most beautiful treks in the high mountain world.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a584a9c7e80680e054827jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="633" height="475"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Of course, a lot more needs to be done. Participants at the Namche and Kathmandu workshops stressed the need for innovation to deal with solid waste in a location-specific way, while being sensitive to local culture and values. The first step is establishment of waste separation centres, pre-processing facilities (shredding, compacting, baling) and finding way to transport the material to recycling centres in Kathmandu and elsewhere. Some of the aluminium and plastic waste is already being turned into ‘Everest Art’ to be sold for fund-raising. Aluminium cans are also converted into utilitarian objects like frying pans and other utensils. Human waste can be addressed through new solar technology, and more efficient septic tanks can prevent leakage.As a first step, Colorado and Arizona will be working with the local government ahead of the autumn trekking season to follow up the recommendations of the workshops. A landfill-free and waste-free Sagarmatha National Park, where garbage is not burnt, can be a reality in a few years. It could provide a much needed model for other mountain areas where the problems of tourist-related solid and human waste management exist.The difference is, things get done in the Khumbu.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a584c9c7e80680e054828jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="633" height="475"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a584e9c7e80680e054829jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="320"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a584f9c7e80680e05482ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="960">Photo: TOMMY GUSTAFSSON<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141120/636a58529c7e80680e05482bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="960">Photo: ALTON C BYERSSagarmatha Next's Interpretation Centre in Syangboche.Alton C Byers, PhD, is a mountain geographer, conservationist and mountaineer specialising in applied research, high altitude ecosystems, climate change and glacier hazards. Field work for this project was supported by a grant from the National Geographic Society.

Everest fights back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZl2VlYpWgI&amp;feature=youtu.beGenerally, it is the nature of Canada and the Canadians to be low-key, and that is how the North American nation’s approach has been to development assistance in Nepal.The first time many Nepalis heard about Nepal and Canada working together was when the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/guarding-guards-afghanitan,3370">Taliban massacred 13 Nepali security personnel</a> guarding the Canadian Embassy in Kabul in 2016.Although Canada has been involved in development assistance in Nepal for the last 50 years through its aid arm, CIDA, or agencies like CECI and IDRC, most Nepalis do not know much about their work. Even though some of the projects have been <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/business/critiquing-canadian-aided-projects-in-nepal,1948">criticised for being unsustainable</a>, they have left their mark.For example, it was Canadian assistance that allowed Nepal’s civil aviation sector to graduate from piston-engined DC-3s to STOL turbo-props, which in turned opened up remote area airfields to air travel even before the roads got there.Canada provided the assistance for Royal Nepal Airlines to buy de Havilland Twin Otters and train Nepali pilots. Some of these planes are still the workhorses of Nepal’s domestic aviation, and a maintenance hangar built by Canada still stands at Nepalganj airport. <img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a35579c7e80680e0482a5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1669" height="942"/>Canadian ambassador to Nepal Nadir Patel. Photo: Monika Deupala.Canada’s early technical assistance was in hydropower planning, and in setting up the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat. However, much of the cooperation was below the radar, and that concerns Canada’s ambassador to Nepal Nadir Patel. Besides bilateral programs, he says Canada also helps Nepal through the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, or the UN system. “It’s not just about direct bilateral projects, it is about the sum of all initiatives, and Canada’s overall footprint in Nepal which in fact is quite significant,” Patel told Nepali Times in an interview.Canada’s involvement in Nepal has grown since Prime Minsiter K P Oli met his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last year. Canada sent a delegation to the Nepal Investment Summit last month, and one the biggest projects signed was the joint venture between the Chaudhary Group and Toronto-based SkyPower for a 600MW utility scale solar energy farm in Nepal.There are now 70,000 Nepalis settled in Canada, and about 2,000 students are enrolled in Canadian universities. More than 6,500 refugees from Bhutan have been resettled in Canada since 2007. In 2017, 15,000 Canadian tourists visited Nepal, and Deepak Raj Joshi of Nepal Tourism Board says there is a huge untapped potential to promote Nepal as a destination for the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign.Ambassador Patel is also concerned that trade between Canada and Nepal is very low, and points out that since there has not been political and regulatory predictability in Nepal for some time, Canadian companies need to be reassured about investment guarantees.“There is reason to be cautiously optimistic about the business climate with the economic reforms the Nepal government is undertaking,” he said, “but much more work needs to be done to ensure rule of law, governance issues, investment protection.”Patel is on a 10-day trek to Everest Base Camp this week to see for himself the impact of global warming in the Himalaya. He said: “Canada and Nepal have similar mountainous terrain topography, could share best practices, capacity building, exchange experiences to address climate change.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a35599c7e80680e0482a6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="338" height="450">Photo: Nadir Patel/ TwitterIndeed, Canada’s IDRC (International Development Research Centre) held its annual Board of Governors Meeting in Kathmandu last week and showcased its support for the assessment of climate impact on the Himalaya carried out by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/">That report said</a> the Himalaya was warming nearly twice as fast as the rest of the world, and if present trends continue the warming would be as much as  7oC by the end the century. If that happened two-thirds of Himalayan glaciers and ice would melt.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKEzzOxHSzI&amp;feature=youtu.beIDRC President Jean Lebel said the assessment was an urgent reminder that the world needed to act: “Unlike earthquakes, which happen suddenly, climate change is a slow-moving disaster. The ICIMOD report provides the science to be converted into policy and action. If we do not act now all our development efforts will be put at risk.”IDRC has been involved in Nepal since 1972, mainly in agriculture and health. Lebel said that although IDRC had been pushing for climate adaptation, its Kathmandu meeting discussed how even developing countries now needed to move towards a low carbon economy. He added: “Carbon mitigation is going to take a lot of amplitude in the coming years, for IDCR this is the next frontier.”

1250x600

1084x550

Canada and Nepal want to up trade, tourism and investment

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101128/636a21a89c7e80680e04174fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"/><figcaption>Photos: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>Scan the feedback section of travel sites: they are full of laments from frustrated trekkers stuck at Lukla’s Tenzing-Hillary Airport waiting days on end for flights out.After having descended from Mt Everest Base Camp after weeks on the trail, trekkers sprawl on their sleeping bags on the cold floor of the check-in area waiting for flights that are delayed either by congestion in Kathmandu, en route weather, wind or visibility in Lukla.Flying in the Nepal Himalaya has always been touch and go, and Lukla airfield with its inclined runway has earned a reputation for being the most challenging in the world. But airline managers and aviation experts say not all the delays can be blamed on weather -- better air traffic management at Kathmandu would help.One recent morning, the frustration of passengers here in Lukla was understandable: the sky was cloudless and there was no wind, but there was no siren indicating that the first flight had taken off from Kathmandu. The reason was poor visibility in Kathmandu leading to congestion.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/keeping-nepal-airlines-airworthy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Keeping Nepal Airlines airworthy</a>, Sharad Ojha<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Air-jam,4196" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Air jam</a>, Om Astha Rai<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101128/636a21ab9c7e80680e041750jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1111" height="721"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Kathmandu handles more than 400 flights a day on its single runway, but on smoggy winter mornings like this week, tiny Twin Otters are forced to circle alongside big international flights waiting to land. A 35 minute Kathmandu flight from Lukla can last 1.5 hours, reducing the number of Lukla ferries before the mid-morning tail wind closes the airfield.Capt Vijay Lama now flies Nepal Airlines Airbus 320s, but has three decades of experience landing in airfields like Lukla. He says: “A lot of Kathmandu’s congestion in winter can be eased if the early morning STOL and Mountain Flight traffic can be diversified to other airports.”Aviation experts add that separation time for international flights at Kathmandu could be cut by half if the parallel taxiway is simply extended till the threshold at both ends of the runway.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/incompetence-of-kathmandu-airport-magnified-during-shutdown,2086" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bad just got worse</a>, Om Astha Rai“They have been talking about it for 20 years, but have not done it even though you could remove half the congestion by extending the taxiways,” said an aviation insider.If you thought all this was bad, wait till next month when Kathmandu airport’s one and only runway will be resurfaced for the first time after it was built 35 years ago. Although this is going to be done in 80m sections, it means the airport will be closed from 10pm till 8am every day from April till June. The window for Lukla flights will now be even narrower, that too at the height of the peak season.The three main airlines that operate Lukla flights, Tara Air, Summit Air, and Sita Airlines, will have no option but to use alternative airfields with road connections. Fed up with cancellations in November due to congestion in Kathmandu, Sita Airlines ferried out about 200 Lukla passengers via Ramechap, a four-hour drive from Kathmandu. Others flew passengers from Lukla by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/heli-rescue-fraud-tarnishes-nepals-image/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">helicopter </a>to Phaplu.“If the runway repairs are going to cause delays, we will have to revive this option,” says Rajendra Bahadur Singh of Sita Airlines.Aviation experts say ATCs could also increase the efficiency of Kathmandu airport without compromising safety by adjusting visibility thresholds for different types of aircraft like international heavies and STOLs.Domestic airlines servicing mountain airports with seasonal peak traffic cannot wait for Kathmandu airport to get its act together. The delays are costing them money, and they fear that runway repairs will make an already overcrowded Kathmandu airport even more chaotic.Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Ahdikari says a new STOL airfield in Kavre’s Nagidanda is still an option, and adds: “We are working to minimise the disruption at Kathmandu, but the repairs are overdue and we need to improve the airport for Visit Nepal Year 2020.”<h2>Everest's Helicopter Highway</h2><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101128/636a21af9c7e80680e041751jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933">The sound of low-flying helicopters reverberate all day along the narrow Dudh Kosi gorge in the Sagarmatha National Park. There are as many as 50 chopper flights a day from Lukla to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/more-trekkers-more-trees/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Everest Base Camp</a>: for sightseeing, mountaineering rescue, or expedition cargo.Congestion has got so bad that it is affecting safety. Rotor downwash from a helicopter taking off in November caused the still rotating main blades of a Mountain Air AS350 Écureuil to hit its tail boom, causing serious damage, but luckily no injuries. Since then, Lukla airport has added five new landing pads in its new heliport to accommodate the growing number of passengers who fly to Lukla on fixed wings and transfer to helicopters.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101128/636a21b29c7e80680e041752jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">There are now private helipads where chopper companies have to pay landing charges. As a chopper approaches, people scramble into position. The exchange happens in minutes: cargo comes off, people board, and the pilot takes off within seconds back to Lukla.But even locals are now complaining about the noise pollution from helicopters, fearing that it may affect trekking.

More than luck in Lukla

mainNavigation

footerNavigation

opinionSubnav

ebc

Managing Everest’s waste problem

Teeing off below Everest

Everest fights back

Canada and Nepal want to up trade, tourism and investment

More than luck in Lukla