Cleaning the city in an unclean way

• Wards: Dhaka South- 75; North- 54
• Daily waste generated: Dhaka North- 3,500 tonnes; South- 3,000 tonnes
• Daily transfer to landfill: Dhaka North- 84%; South- 90%
• Secondary Transfer Station (STS): Dhaka North- 62; South- 59
• Cleaners: Dhaka North- around 5,000, South- 5,400
• Experts recommend an integrated waste management system

Making a mess while cleaning up the day-to-day household wastes seems to be the way cleaners of Dhaka North and South are operating nowadays.

The secondary transfer station (STS) for waste management in Dhaka North's Kuril flyover area collects and briefly stores household waste from nearby areas. 

Cleaners start piling up the waste in the morning and by the afternoon, when the pile in STS grows larger in size, the waste is dumped on the road in front of it, stinking up the air for pedestrians and locals.

"The sight of open garbage accompanied by the pungent odour the STS creates on the road every day makes living unbearable," Rifatul Islam, a resident of Kuril, told The Business Standard (TBS).

"Every passerby in this area suffers from the messed-up cleanliness efforts of city cleaners in silence. The situation is getting worse over time and the authorities have taken any action yet," he added.

When asked, Salim Reza, chief executive officer at Dhaka North, told TBS, "We are constructing secondary waste stations in that area wherever we get a space, which is difficult to get. But even then, mismanagement prevails in some cases." 

"To prevent such a situation, we have planned to build underground STS and we are working on how to utilise the existing STS in a more environment-friendly way to build a clean city," Salim Reza said.

A few days ago, cleaners of Dhaka South were seen unclogging the sewerage lines in the Dayaganj area. They pulled up the waste accumulated in the drainage pipes but left the sewage on the street and waited for a week to remove the dirt.

It is not only about the lack of STS in Kuril or the drain waste in Dayaganj, residents in most of the Dhaka areas alleged that everyday waste is being disposed of by both the city corporation haphazardly and in an unsanitary manner.

About keeping drain waste on the roadside, Dhaka North Chief Executive Officer Salim Reza said, "We have given instructions in this regard that sewages cannot be kept anywhere on the road and must be removed from public places immediately after extraction from the drainage system. Failure to do so will result in stern action against the responsible people."

Visiting several areas of Kuril Bishwa Road, Nikunja, Natunbazar, Mirpur, Agargoan, Kakrail, Mohammadpur, Karwan Bazar, Banglamotor, Panthpath, New Market, Sayedabad, Jatrabari, Dayaganj, Bangshal, and Old Dhaka, The Business Standard found that several wards, out of 129 wards of the two city corporations, do not even have any STS.

As a result, waste is left exposed for a long time at road junctions or in residential areas, causing suffering to commuters.

In most places, the instructions of the Department of Environment are not followed in terms of the accumulation and segregation of waste. Segregation of household waste takes place in open or semi-open areas. In areas where there is no STS, waste is dumped on the roadside, which is taken to the landfill by garbage trucks when night falls.

As there is no STS in the 60 feet road area of Agargaon, household waste is kept at 2-3 places on the road from morning to night, creating traffic congestion, not to mention the stenchy inconvenience to residents.

Saiful Islam, a resident of this area, told TBS that it would not be wrong to call this road a "waste road".

Taslima Begum, a resident of the Khilkhet area, told TBS that the city corporation workers clean the drainage pipes twice a year, leaving the waste on the roadside for 5-7 days. 

"These wastes contain stool and urine, making it difficult to walk on the road. As vehicles move, waste is spread all over the place. Why would a city's waste management system be like this?" she asked.

The city corporation cleaners, however, said the drain waste is liquid when pulled out of the drainage pipes and needs to dry out before removal by trucks. The city corporations do not have a direct liquid waste disposal system.

Experts say that the amount of waste in Dhaka will increase gradually and it is not possible to build a smart city if this waste is not properly managed. 

Around 80% of waste generated in Dhaka can be recycled and they proposed to bring waste management into the business model to do so.

Mohammad Fazle Reza Sumon, president of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP), told TBS, "Those involved in waste management in our city are not fully aware of the issues residents are facing every day. In integrated waste management, if there is a system of collecting and depositing the city's waste in landfills, the waste would no longer be left on the streets."

"For this, the city corporation has to work as a team. A smart city will never be possible if waste management is not brought into order. Incorporating waste management into the business model will reduce government costs," said the BIP chief. 

In our neighbouring city of Kolkata, separate waste collections are made from homes. From the last 1 December, every ward of Kolkata city has to dispose of waste separately for decomposable and non-decomposable waste. In addition, one blue and one green dustbin has been provided in each ward.

Since long ago, Kolkata's sewage water has been filtered instead of dumped directly into the Ganges River and the rotting garbage has been dried first before being dumped.

LGRD Minister Tajul Islam held a meeting with Kolkata City Mayor Firhad Hakim at Pradhan Purbhaban in Kolkata on 9 March 2019, for building a waste management system like the model of Kolkata. 

A delegation of 11 people from Bangladesh accompanied the minister in this meeting held on the details of urbanisation and city beautification projects in West Bengal.

In addition, the two city corporations of Dhaka regularly send officials to different cities in the world to learn about waste management and other issues. But there has been no significant progress in waste management in the capital, one of the most polluted cities on the planet.

According to a World Bank report, about 100,000 people die every year due to environmental pollution in Bangladesh. Among them, 18,000 people died in the capital alone.

Due to the lack of proper disposal of solid and liquid waste, at least 5.2 million people die worldwide, including 4 million children.

A study titled 'Urban Waste Management in Bangladesh: An Overview with a Focus on Dhaka', published in October 2021, observed the situation over the last three decades and said that an average of 55% of solid waste in urban areas remains uncollected.

According to the survey, about 6,500 tonnes of waste are generated in Dhaka every day and the amount may increase to 8500 tonnes by 2032.