As the annual climbing season kicks off, Nepal is once again cracking down on littering mountaineers on Mount Everest.
Authorities are threatening stricter penalties for littering, but say the biggest problem is from human waste.
Human waste presents a major problem for the environment and local community, said Nepal Mountaineering Association chief Ang Tshering Sherpa.
“Discarded in ice pits, the human waste remains under the snow. When washed down by glaciers, it comes out in the open,” he said.
He said it then becomes a health hazard for local people who are dependent on fresh water from rivers fed by melting glaciers.
A rule enacted last year requiring a $4,000 ‘garbage deposit’ will be strictly enforced this year.
If a climber fails to bring back eight kilograms of trash and human waste, the deposit will be forfeited, a tourism official said.
Annual clean-up expeditions have been led by Dawa Steven Sherpa every year since 2008 and have retrieved more than 1.5 tonnes of trash, but it is unknown exactly how much garbage remains under the ice.
Around 300 climbers annually head to Everest base camp during the climbing season which lasts from March to May.
