Australian Ambassador to Nepal Peter Budd, Tirza Theunissen from The Asia Foundation, and Pradeep Amatya, Chief of Lalitpur Metropolitan City – Environment Management Department collectively inaugurated World Cleanup Day.

They acknowledged that illegal waste dumping and burning have been a major concern along with the ongoing landfill issues. In his opening remarks, the Australian Ambassador to Nepal, Peter Budd said, “It is very encouraging to see local organisations and local governments collaborate and take such initiatives for the environment”. The inauguration followed theatre arts and World Cleanup Day rally to inspire the public to own responsibility concerning the problems of waste and assist local governments while they are working to establish an integrated waste management system.

According to a press release, 148 groups celebrated World Cleanup Day on 15th September 2018 in 25 districts throughout Nepal by organizing cleanup and awareness activities to combat the ever-growing problem of littering, illegal waste dumping and burning in Nepal. Among these groups were local governments, community groups, educational institutions and local organizations who took ownership of the issues arising from waste and embraced the slogan, “HamroFohor, HamroJimmewari”.

They have been making continuous efforts to optimize public participation and collaboration between the local governments and private sector through programs like Mapping Waste Management Systems, Data for Development and KasingarMukta Lalitpur respectively.

World Cleanup Day 2018 is a result of synergy between Government of Nepal, Australian Embassy in Nepal, Clean up Nepal and Lets do it Nepal. It was amazing to see how the local governments, community groups, and educational institutions led organized cleanups and waste-related awareness activities throughout Nepal to keep their streets, rivers and public spaces clean and litter free.

Overall, the World Cleanup Day intended to nurture the right mindset needed for sustainable waste management among the people in order to mitigate environmental and public health issues in Nepal.Clean up Nepal estimates that 28, 796 people participated during the World Cleanup Day 2018 picking up 396 tons of garbage across 340 dumping and littering sites in Nepal.