Garbage in Mt. Everest
Most often when we talk about feat and extra ordinary events that happens in the climbing season of Mt. Everest there is one issue that always comes up: That is garbage left in the mountain. Like in the past the government regulator estimated that there will be 500 climbers going to the summit and double the number of support Nepalese staffs. This includes climbers to the adjacent peak – Mt. Lhotse. The garbage collection plan is initiated by the government and organized in cooperation with related non government organizations. They plan to bring down garbage from South Col (camp IV) and camp II. The garbage has become bigger issue as some dead bodies have been exposed right on the path to the summit. This is happening both on the north as well as south side of Mt. Everest; this is due to climate change in the mountain. Left behind old climbing garbage has littered the two most important camps on the way to the summit of Mt. Everest despite past several clean-up expeditions. Obviously the government liaison officers assigned to the expeditions did not do a good job to keep the mountain clean as they failed to regulate 2014 mountaineering rules that require each member bring down 8 kilogram of their garbage. On the other side of Mt. Everest Chinese authority has banned visitor in the spring 2019 to visit North base camp until further notice. In the mountain they are setting up portable toilets for the climbers to use. They are organizing their base camp to clean as well as to start various activities in the future.
These are over all positive news for the country and people who are living in the risk zone. Scientists and ecologists have been warning that glacial melt will have disastrous effect to villages downstream. The consequence of global warming will also have devastating effect on the dams, built to generate electricity, and roads that are being built in the hills and mountain on which people living in the remote villages are depending to uplift their hard life in extreme economic and natural condition.
