a.    Urban area is increasing: Number of urban areas has increased from 10 in 1952 to 58 in 2001 and 99 in 2011. So far looking at the trend of the urban growth of the country it is observed that the urban areas have been declared as per the political interest rather than fulfilment of criteria as declared in LSGA (1999).

Some areas have been classified declassified and reclassified as municipality over the past 50 years and the territorial boundaries of many settlements have been redrawn to include surrounding rural areas to meet the population size criteria. This might have been motivated by the political interest. (ADB, 2006)

This increment of urban area is not within the acceptable limit of urban environment.

b.   Slums are increasing

A study by Lumanti shows that slums in Kathmandu has increased from 13 to 62 in 20 years and population has risen from merely 2000 to more than 13000. Slums are usually located near the river and are deprived of basic physical facilities. They are considered to be the illegal settlements by the government hence they cannot exercise facilities being provided to the city dweller despite being resident of an urban area. Therefore facilities of water and sanitation and solid waste management are very poor. Sewages are directly passed to the rivers and same rivers are the dumping sites for slum dwellers. This is not only degrading the quality of environment but since they are also not socially accepted, inter class tension is likely to rise. (Bhatta, 2012)

c.  Environmental degradation is rapid

The rapid and haphazard urbanization is exerting immense pressure on urban environment and municipal managers often do not have sufficient expertise and resources to deal with rapid growth (WB and Environment and Public Health Organization [ENPHO], 2007). LSGA 1999 has given rights and responsibilities to manage the urban environment and provide other services, due to weak institutional capability and inadequate resources those services has not been made. As a result many cities in Nepal are facing environmental problems such as drainage, solid waste management and waste water management. The capital of the country and the most urbanised part of the country –Kathmandu valley is extremely suffering from environmental degradation. None of the rivers in the valley carry clean water, moreover they look like open sewers in the dry season, however most of the waste is washed away in the rainy season. Besides, another major problem of the valley is solid waste management, which itself is not a great problem as still almost 64% of the waste is organic and inert or hazardous waste is very minimal (Dongol, 2012). Hence management of waste really must have been easy for the municipalities, however due to lack of people?s participation and weakness in the system it is a headache to all.  With increasing urbanization smaller municipalities will also soon face major problems of environmental management as they have even less resources to deal with these challenges.

d.   Initiatives from government sector is inadequate

So far many acts, rules and regulations have been prepared for urban development however observing the conditions of urban areas in Nepal, it is clear that many of them have not been adequately implemented. Policies related to urban management has been initiated from 1967(Shelter Policy), however the policy guiding urban development that is NUP came into existence only in 2007. Though the policies are developed besides some major initiatives like land pooling, urban environment improvement programs and implementation of building bye laws, most of the policies have not been adequately implemented in the field. An example of it is the urban congestion and urban sprawl in the Kathmandu valley. According to Sharma (2012) municipalities lack 41000 million rupees for the infrastructural development of 58 municipalities. Though Decentralization Act was gazetted in 1982 the process of decentralization has not been observed as yet. Urban primacy of Kathmandu valley still prevails with rapid urban population growth. Municipalities are said to be being declared to decentralise, but most of them seem to be outcome of political interest more than the fulfilment of criteria given by LSGA 1999. This implies infrastructure is not adequate in these areas which will directly cause unplanned exploitation of natural resources, degrading living environment in urban.