WORLD’S HIGHEST GARBAGE DUMP

Climbers making multiple trips to Mt Everest have recorded how climate change is causing a meltdown of snow, resulting in a shorter trekking time. Treks across the icy path, that previously took 5-6 hours, can now be completed in barely an hour as the melting glaciers have exposed the rocks. Many fear that the impact of climate change, resulting in lower snowfall, may affect climbers in the form of water shortage.

More importantly, it would also have a serious effect on the entire ecosystem. Recent research by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has shown that Mt Everest’s glaciers have lost 2,000 years of ice in just the past 30 years. Researchers at ICIMOD, which has also been called upon to work on climate change in the region, have found that the South Col glacier has lost more than 54 metres of thickness in the past 25 years alone.

Every climbing season, the mountain becomes so overcrowded that climbers have to often stand in line for hours in freezing cold conditions to reach the top. They walk single file at a snail’s pace over the Hillary Step, the last obstacle before the summit. Each climber spends weeks on the mountain, adjusting to the altitude at a series of camps before  attempting the summit. During that time, each person generates, on average, around eight kilograms of trash, and the majority of this waste gets left on the mountain. The slopes are littered with discarded empty oxygen canisters, abandoned tents,
food containers and human faeces.

The Base Camp has tented toilets with large collection barrels that are carted away. Beyond this, climbers have to relieve themselves on the mountain. No one knows exactly how much waste is on the mountain, but it is in the tons. Climate change is causing snow and ice to melt,  exposing even more garbage that lay covered for decades. This waste now poses a serious health risk to everyone living in the Everest watershed.

The Sagarmatha National Park watershed is an important water source for thousands of people living in communities surrounding Mt Everest. The watershed includes the land that directs rainfall and snowmelt from the mountains into streams and rivers. There are no waste management or sanitation facilities in the area, so garbage and sewage are emptied into big pits just outside local villages, from where they wash into waterways during the monsoon season.

The local watershed has  contaminated, which could be incredibly dangerous to the health of the local people.