Open dumpsters Dhaka's stigma

When Sheikh Shahabuddin jogs at Bahadur Shah Park, he puts on a mask. He does so not to shut out dust but the putrid smell coming from the open dumpsters on the road.

This is not a problem exclusive to the congested Old Dhaka where two buildings barely have space between them and where one could easily get lost in the maze of narrow lanes. Almost all of Dhaka city is dotted with garbage containers on the road.

Taltola bus stand is a glaring example. At least four containers kept there contribute to traffic chaos on one hand and choke commuters with malodour on the other. To make matters worse, buses take passengers right from beside the containers.

Tahmina Khatun, a law student, said she had to wait sometimes up to 30 minutes to catch a ride, thus putting up with the smell. "We hoped that the new mayor would solve the problem immediately, but it has not happened so far," she said.

Driver of a small passenger vehicle, Zahid Hossain, said the dumpsters caused tailbacks especially during office hours. "Sometimes it takes as long as one hour to cross the small traffic points due to this," he told The Daily Star.

With a tinge of frustration and anger, Shahabuddin said, "It seems that the authorities don't care about city dwellers' problems."

Every day 5,000 tonnes of garbage is generated in the capital city, and 70 percent of it is collected by the Dhaka north and south city corporations. The rest is recycled and dumped randomly into canals, ditches or drains.

Presently, the city corporations collect household wastes from door to door and then store them in over 600 temporary containers, due to insufficient secondary transfer stations, before transporting them to the Aminbazar and Matuail landfills.

Such open containers are also found at Wari (under the flyover), Mirpur-10 roundabout, Shapla Chattar, Paribagh, Panthapath, Bangla Bazar crossing, Dholai Khal, Swamibagh, Dayaganj, Segunbagicha, Shantinagar, on Nawabpur Road, CR Dutta Road, in front of the Mirpur Post Office and OSB Eye Hospital in Mirpur-2 and the indoor stadium in Mirpur-10, and in Mohammadpur Town Hall, New Market and Aziz Supermarket areas.

Momena Begum, a resident of Taltola who was going to drop her daughter at school, said she saw the road being used as a temporary dumping station for the last one year.

People who use this road have to endure the bad smell daily, she said, calling on the authorities to stop using the spot on the busy road as a dumpsite.

This is not all the commuters go through. There are people who often relieve themselves on the footpath, making the place even dirtier.

When asked, officials of both the city corporations blamed land scarcity, which "compelled" them to keep garbage containers in the streets.

Acknowledging public sufferings, DSCC Chief Waste Management Officer Capt Raquib Uddin said if secondary transfer stations could be set up at every ward, this problem would go away.

He said DSCC had taken initiatives to set up seven transfer stations at Hazaribagh, Jatrabari, Jurain, and Panthakunja on a pilot basis but was receiving objections from locals, as many mistook the transfer stations, where garbage is stored in a confined environment until being transported to landfills, for dumpsites.

DNCC Superintendent Engineer (the garbage management department) Mesbahul Karim said they had sent letters to different government organisations requesting them to allocate their unused lands for construction of transfer stations at 23 places.