When garbage stands in way of Liberation War Museum

The government framed its "Solid Waste Management Rules" late last year, keeping a provision of Tk2 lakh fine or two years' imprisonment or both for littering a place by any individual or entity.

However, the Dhaka North City Corporation, responsible for managing waste for the capital's northern area, has itself broken the law. It has been using an open street adjacent to the Liberation War Museum in the capital's Office Para as a waste transfer station for the last five months.

The city corporation dumps tonnes of waste on the road every day, and, after primary processing, it sends the waste to different landfills, as its two transfer stations at ward-28 have remained inoperative for long.

The road in Agargaon's posh area is creating negative impacts in three ways – damaging the environment, causing traffic jams, and hampering the image of the country to Museum visitors, particularly foreigners, according to local residents and visitors.

"Although the street remains moderately okay in the morning, it turns into a complete dumping ground spreading bad smell in the evening," said Sabrina Haque, who commutes to work through the area.

"Besides, a lane on the road remains almost blocked due to the dumped waste, waste-laden vans and trucks there, which often cause traffic congestion," she told The Business Standard.

"What messages are we delivering to visitors, especially foreigners, with the waste dumped in front of the museum," asked Sultan Ahmed, who came to visit the Liberation War Museum recently.

The city corporation should address the issue as early as possible, he suggested, and called for dumping the waste at the fixed dumping stations.

A recent visit to the area by the TBS correspondent revealed city corporation workers separating different types of waste there, from households, offices, shops and hospitals of ward-28.

Some 30 tonnes of waste are brought to the place on 30 vans every day and later sent to sanitary landfills on 3 large trucks.

People were seen in a state of exasperation by the bad smell of the garbage while passing through the area.

A secondary transfer station of waste of the DNCC near the area was found abandoned. A large pile of scrap metal was kept there.

Talking to this correspondent, waste workers there said they were using the street as a secondary transfer station for the last four to five months as the two stations in the ward were damaged due to road construction. The city corporation is yet to reconstruct the stations.

When contacted, the DNCC Assistant Chief Waste Management Officer for Zone-5, Mafizur Rahman Bhuiyan, told The Business Standard that they were now in a "temporary problem" over waste management for the ward as their transfer stations were damaged.

"Construction work on a new underground transfer station is expected to begin soon," he said.

When asked about the Solid Waste Management Rules, issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, being broken, the DNCC official said the authorities were forced to do that as there was a lack of land for waste management.

"However, we are trying to relocate [the temporary station on the street] as early as possible," he added.