ABSTRACT
Urban pollution is becoming an urgent crisis in Nepal as the expansion of cities with their associated hazards including waste generation, industrialization, and other factors. This is causing acute environmental injustices for marginalized populations who live near and sometimes work in hazardous facilities. This chapter critiques the conceptual framework of welfare economics through an environmental justice lens to analyze two case studies: (1) the community impacts of the Sisdol waste disposal site which receives trash from the Kathmandu Valley and (2) the impacts of brick kilns in the Kavre district. Using notions of distributive, procedural, and recognition justice, the chapter finds that both the Sisdol dump and the brick kilns are based on a range of social and economic disparities and causing dire cases of environmental injustice where already disadvantaged subaltern populations are bearing the costs for the benefit of more privileged urban residents and industrial firms. It also argues that the EJ paradigm is superior in highlighting the inequities and pointing the way toward equitable solutions.
