Wastes dumped at Sadarghat crossing cause severe suffering
It has become a nightmare for people who live and work in the vicinity due to the foul odour from the open space garbage dump
The dumping of wastes in the open space under the Sadarghat overbridge, one of the busiest intersections in the capital, has been causing extreme suffering for the locals and people using the crossing.
Mohammad Belal Hossain, a long-time fruit seller under the overbridge, said the unpleasant smell from the garbage dump has made storekeeping at the spot increasingly difficult over the years as the volume of dumped waste kept increasing.
"I have been selling fruits at this very place for ten years. Now, it is suffocating to stay here," he said.
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Another shopkeeper Mohammad Jahangir Alam said, "It is only natural that customers cannot bear to stand even for a bit and as a result, our sales have dropped. When it rains, the foul smell turns too unbearable to sit at the store."
It is also a nightmare for pedestrians to cross the intersection and move through the roads, which are narrow and usually home to heavy traffic.
Locals say they have been demanding the relocation of the dumping ground for years now.
Ward 37 Councillor Abdur Rahman Miyaji told The Business Standard that there is no Secondary Transfer Station (STS) to store garbage in this ward.
"Setting up an STS in the Sadarghat area is a long-standing demand and its construction started after all the other wards," he added.
He also said, earlier there were 8 containers for collecting garbage in the ward but 4 of them are not functional anymore causing the delay in disposing of wastes.
Munem Ehsan, the waste officer of the ward told The Business Standard that a new STS is being constructed in front of Bulbul Academy on the banks of Waisghat.
"Hopefully the construction will be completed within the next month," he said, adding that the damaged containers will be repaired and handed over to the ward soon.
In 2020, Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said there would be no more garbage on any road or open space and STSs will be constructed in every 65 wards of the south.
The mayor also said at the time that garbage collectors will collect garbage from households from 6 pm and all waste will end up in the STS by ten o'clock.
