ASIA / PACIFIC
July 1, 2019
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Trash Mountain: Abandoned tents add to detritus on Everest
By Binaj Gurubacharya
The Associated Press
ATHMANDU, Nepal — After
every party it’s time to clean up
and Mount Everest is no different.
The record number of climbers crowding
the world’s highest mountain this season
has left a government cleanup crew grap-
pling with how to clear away everything
from abandoned tents to human waste
that threatens drinking water.
Budget expedition companies charge as
little as $30,000 per climber, cutting costs
including waste removal. Everest has so
much garbage — depleted oxygen
cylinders, food packaging, rope — that
climbers use the trash as a kind of
signpost. But this year’s haul from an
estimated 700 climbers, guides, and
porters on the mountain has been a shock
to the ethnic Sherpas who worked on the
government’s cleanup drive this spring.
Moreover, the tents are littering South
Col, or Camp 4, which, at 26,240 feet, is the
highest campsite on Everest, just below
the summit. The high winds at that
elevation have scattered the tents and
trash everywhere.
“The altitude, oxygen levels, danger-
ously icy and slippery slopes, and bad
weather of South Col make it very difficult
to bring such big things as tents down,”
said Dawa Steven Sherpa, who led an
independent cleanup and has been a
leading figure in the campaign to clean
Mount Everest for the past 12 years.
Exhausted climbers struggling to
breathe and battling nausea leave heavy
tents behind rather than attempt to carry
them down. Sherpa said the logos on the
ice-embedded tents that identify the
expedition companies were deliberately
ripped out so the culprits could evade
detection.
“It took us an hour to dig out just one
tent out of the frozen ice and bring it
K
down,” said Sherpa. His expeditions have
alone brought down some 44,000 pounds of
garbage since 2008.
Sherpa estimated 30 tents had been left
on South Col, and as much as 11,000
pounds of trash. Bringing it down is a
herculean task when any misstep at such
altitudes could be fatal.
It is impossible to know exactly how
much litter is spread across Everest
because it only becomes visible when the
snow melts. At Camp 2, two levels higher
than Base Camp, the campaigners believe
that around 17,637 pounds of human
excrement were left during this year’s
climbing season alone.
Some climbers do not use makeshift
toilets, instead digging a hole in the snow,
letting the waste fall into small crevasses.
However, rising temperatures have
thinned the glacier, leaving fewer and
smaller crevasses. The overflowing waste
then spills downhill toward Base Camp
and even communities below the
mountain.
People living at Base Camp use melted
Over 40% of newly elected
Indian lawmakers facing charges
Continued from page 4
biggest
spender,
accounting for about 45% of
the total. The Congress
Party
accounted
for
between 15% and 20%.
Analysts say a key cause
of corruption is the way
political parties are funded
in India. Parties are per-
mitted to receive foreign
funds, any company can
donate any amount of
money to any political
party, and any individual,
group or company can
donate
money
anony-
mously through electoral
bonds.
Donors do not need to
disclose the party they
have donated to, nor does
the party have to reveal the
source of its money.
Quraishi is calling for
more
transparency
in
campaign funding as well
as a cap on election
spending.
“The
people
want
transparency, the donor
wants secrecy. Whose wish
should prevail?” he said.
Celebrate
Earth Day everyday!
Reduce w Reuse w Recycle
snow for drinking water that climbers’
toilets threaten to contaminate.
“During our expedition to Camp 2, eight
of our 10 Sherpas got stomach illness from
bad water at Camp 2,” said John All, a
professor of environmental science at
Western Washington University who
visited Everest on a research expedition.
For the Nepalese who regard the
mountain as “Sagarmatha,” or Mother of
the World, littering amounts to desecra-
tion. Climber Nima Doma, who returned
recently from a successful ascent, gets
angry thinking that the sacred mountain
is being turned into a garbage dump.
“Everest is our god and it was very sad to
see our god so dirty. How can people just
toss their trash on such a sacred place?”
she said.
The trash is creating danger for future
climbers and spurring calls for action now.
“When the snow melts the garbage
surfaces. And when there is high wind,
tents are blown and torn and the contents
are scattered all over the mountain, which
makes it even more dangerous for climbers
TRASH TROUBLES. Members of the garbage
retrieval expedition pile up empty oxygen cylinders
collected from Mount Everest in Namche Bajar,
Solukhumbu district, Nepal. The record number of
climbers on Mount Everest this season left a cleanup
crew grappling with how to clear away everything from
abandoned tents to human waste that threatens drink-
ing water. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
already navigating a slippery, steep slope
in snow and high winds,” said Ang
Tshering, former president of the Nepal
Mountaineering Association.
Ang Dorjee, who heads the independent
Everest Pollution Control Committee, has
demanded that the Nepal government —
whose general oversight of Everest has
come under scrutiny this year as climbers
died waiting in line to ascend — institute
some rules.
“The problem is there are no regulations
on how to dispose of the human waste.
Some climbers use biodegradable bags
that have enzymes which decompose
human waste but most of them don’t,” he
said.
The bags are expensive and have to be
imported from the United States.
“The biggest problem and concern now
on Everest is human waste. Hundreds of
people are there for weeks who go to open
toilets,” Tshering said. Melting conditions
at Camp 2 create an odor that is sickening
to climbers, and the waste will eventually
contaminate water sources below and
become a health hazard, he said.
Tshering and other mountaineers say
the government should mandate the use of
biodegradable bags. It would spare Dorjee
and his team the unpleasant task of
collecting the waste and carrying it down
the dangerous slopes.
The government is working on a plan to
scan and tag climbers’ equipment and
gear. All climbers would have to deposit
$4,000 before their ascent and might not
get the money back if they return without
their items.
Malaysia detains four Indians, seizes drugs, 5,255 turtles
SEPANG, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian authorities have
arrested four Indians and seized more than 14 kilograms
of drugs and over 5,000 turtles from their luggage at the
Kuala Lumpur airport.
Senior customs official Zulkurnain Mohamed Yusof
said agents found a total 5,255 red-ear slider baby turtles
kept in small baskets from the luggage of two Indian
nationals who flew in from Guangzhou, China on an
AirAsia flight on June 20.
He said the men had no permits for the turtles and told
investigators that the terrapins, estimated to be worth
$12,700, were meant to be sold as pets in India. The men,
30 and 42 years old, are expected to be charged and could
face up to five years in jail and a fine, he said.
The red-ear sliders are one of the world’s most com-
monly traded turtles meant for the pet and meat markets.
Permits are required as young turtles are susceptible to
carrying salmonella and pose health concerns.
Separately, Zulkurnain said officials also found a total
of 14.34 kilograms of methamphetamine worth 717,000
ringgit ($174,000), hidden in special compartments in
boxes that were hand-carried by two men. One of them
flew in from Hyderabad, India on June 19 and another on
June 20 from Bengaluru, he said in a statement.
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The men, both 30 years old and believed to be drug
mules, are expected to be charged and face the death
penalty if convicted.
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