Improving waste services with data in the Nepal Waste Map

Partner: Clean Up Nepal

To increase the availability, accessibility and use of solid waste management data and  improve service delivery in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, the D4D Program supported Clean Up Nepal to develop the Nepal Waste Map.

Effective implementation of solid management in Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has long been a challenge for various reasons. There is lack of physical infrastructure as the one landfill site struggles to handle the large volumes of waste from Kathmandu; unreliable and inefficient waste collection; and a lack of coordination between KMC and private waste collectors who have been collecting over half of Kathmandu’s waste often without formal agreement.  Decisions regarding solid waste management by KMC have not been made on the basis of data due to political incentives and the lack of available data on household coverage, collection routes and schedules. This has impeded the development of integrated waste management plans as well as day to day operations and decision making. With support from the D4D Program, Clean Up Nepal set out to address the data related challenges through the development of the Nepal Waste Map website and app in close collaboration with KMC, ward officials and private sector companies.

As part of research phase, Clean Up Nepal conducted a political economy study as well as research into the technical challenges of the solid waste management system in Kathmandu Metropolitan City. The findings of the report were used to inform engagement with various stakeholders throughout the project. In parallel, Clean Up Nepal in close coordination with KMC, ward officials and private sector service providers collected data on 894 waste infrastructures and 13,746 households along with data on waste collection routes, waste hot spots, burning spots, and waste coverage in three wards i.e. 3,5, and 32. Furthermore, Clean Up Nepal in partnership with Young Innovations developed the Nepal Waste Map portal to enable access of the general public, KMC and private sector service providers to the data as well as an app to report illegal dumping sites. These technology products have been further refined over the course of the program based on suggestions of various stakeholders including making it more user-friendly, ensuring backend access and a data dashboard for KMC and private sector companies. To ensure the sustainability, back-end functionalities to easily update the data were also added.

In November, 2017, the draft website and app were presented as part of a multi-stakeholder workshop. The workshop gathered useful feedback about functionalities, visual designs, navigation, contents, and reliability of data. More importantly, the workshop was helpful in bringing government and the private sector in one platform to collaborate. Following the workshop Clean Up Nepal organized various meetings (both formal and informal) with KMC and private waste collectors about the strategy and roles for the testing phase and the functional requirements of Nepal Waste Map website and app. These meetings provided impetus for collaboration as it not only helped to resolve misunderstandings between private sector and government, but also led to agreement between wards officials and the private sector to update the data and make improvements in the routes and schedules prior to public release.

As part of a second phase, Clean Up Nepal conducted capacity building of KMC officials, wards officials and private waste management company officials to orient them on the use of the portal and app. At present, Clean Up Nepal is testing the portal and app in the three pilot wards in collaboration with KMC, ward officials and private waste management companies.

For more information about this project:

-Please access the Nepal Waste Map here

-Please download the Nepal Waste App here