CCC stinks up city street
Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) workers, during their routine cleaning efforts, lifted piles of garbage from the drains of a road in the port city. What they did not do, however, was dispose them in a proper manner, as workers just neglectfully left the waste lying there beside the drains. This situation led to pedestrians and residents of nearby buildings suffering due to the filthy obstruction and stench.
The heaps of garbage have been festering for three days on Ujir Ali Shah By-lane of KB Aman Ali Road in Rahattar Pool area. Locals said CCC conservancy workers lifted the garbage on Tuesday but just left them there since then.
"It's common practice of the workers: every time they lift garbage from drains, they leave them lying there for many days," said Sagir Ahmed, an elderly shopkeeper in the area. "When it rains, half the garbage spreads out onto the road and the other half falls into the drain."
"When the garbage gets mixed with rainwater, roads become muddy and slippery, making it difficult to move about," said Karabi Das, a schoolteacher. "If most of the garbage just falls back into the drain because of rainwater, what's the benefit of cleaning the drains?"
As mentioned by locals, this is not a one-off event, as this is a common practice of CCC workers when they clean up KB Aman Ali Road, or at least try to.
"I remember, last monsoon, majority of the two-kilometre KB Aman Ali Road, which stretches from Chawkbazar Kitchen Market to Rahattar Pool, became muddy and slippery, as workers did the same thing then, leaving the garbage for around a week," said Chan Mia, a local of Phooltola area. "We asked them to properly dispose of the waste, but they didn't seem to care."
Contacted, CCC Ward 17 (West Bakalia) Councillor AKM Ariful Islam said CCC workers were supposed to collect the garbage in a day. "I am looking into the matter," he added.
CCC Chief Conservancy Officer Shafiqul Mannan Siddique, however, told The Daily Star that workers usually do not collect garbage lifted from the drain instantly.
"The garbage is left on the spot to make them dry," he said. "The muddy garbage is not collected instantly, as while carrying, the wet waste seeps out of containers, which falls on the roads and makes them muddy," he said.
In reply, Prof Sekandar Khan -- president of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan, Chattogram chapter -- said the argument is flimsy.
According to Prof Sekandar, the garbage dries up in a few hours, making it easy to dispose the waste.
"The main thing lacking is supervision. A group lifts garbage from the drain, and it's the responsibility of another group to collect and take them away," said Prof Sekandar. "But those who supervise the groups don't perform their duty properly."
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