Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions

media. The local community is engaged at various stages during the initiative from planning to implementation. Expeditions are planned and implemented in partnership with a local Skardu-based NGO, Khurpa Care Pakistan, which has been promoting porter rights in the Baltistan region since 2005. Additionally, camp managers at various sites collect and bag up improperly discarded waste and the clean-up teams collect it on the way down to Askoli free of charge. Providing benefits to the local porters. • More efficient clean-up of camps and trails result in increased tourism and improvements to the local economy. • The health of the glacier is connected to the health of porters. Water at the site is currently non-potable and porters regularly suffer from a variety of waterborne diseases.

• 35 porters receive a guaranteed expedition income. • In addition, medical assistance is provided at all the camps set up during the clean-up expeditions. Free first aid and basic health care treatment is provided to porters for common problems faced at high altitudes. The team intends to continue this practice of free medical support in all its camps. “We feel that an integrated approach devised by all stakeholders including the local government, NGOs currently cleaning the glacier, tour operators and porter welfare organizations is the only way forward. Our work currently is serving as a bandage but everyone needs to come to the table to ensure that individual efforts aren’t being replicated and proper measures of accountability are put in place to ensure that future waste is not improperly disposed of on the rooftop of Pakistan”. – Hanniah Tariq, HASP

HASP team members collecting rubbish at lower altitudes. Photo © Hanniah Tariq/HASP

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