Indiscriminate waste dumping
Patuakhali municipality workers are dumping waste in BSCIC Industrial Area and Swanirvor Road on the bank of the Patuakhali river, and sometimes in any open space, as there is no dumping site in the town.
Patuakhali municipality was set up on April 1 in 1892 and upgraded to first class in 1989. There are 1.15 lakh people in the municipality covering 30 square kilometre area. There are 97 km of paved roads, 16 km of earthen roads, 43 km of RCC roads, 10 km of HBB roads, and 11 km of brick roads. There is a 23.30 km drainage system in the municipality.
There are 214 cleaners for cleaning the roads, bazars and other areas in the town. They gather waste from different points in the town, and five trucks normally dump it in BSCIC Industrial Area and Swanirvor Road, and sometimes in any open place. Bad odour from these sites spreads around the area, much to the suffering of local people.
Md Salim Mia, a resident of BSCIC area, said they have to face serious pollution, including bad odour, as the municipality dumps waste in open places.
Morjina Begum of Swanirvor Road area said they have to smell the bad odour round the clock, and children in these areas suffer from different types of diseases caused by pollution.
SM Akramul Nahid, head of the garbage section, also medical officer of the municipality, said around 50 tonnes of waste are created daily in the municipality area, half of which falls into drains and goes into the river. The rest is dumped by trucks, he added.
“We are providing free health service to children in these areas considering the effects of bad odour and polluted environment,” he said.
“We badly needed an environment-friendly dumping site where bio-gas and organic fertilizer can be produced from the waste,” he added.
Municipality Executive Engineer Abdul Halim said they need a dumping site to keep the town clean. They sent a letter to the local government ministry through Patuakhali deputy commissioner on May 16 in 2016 to acquire 7.50 acres of land in Bashak bazar area, about 10 km south of the municipality, but it was not approved.
Mayor Dr Shafiqul Islam said they cannot build a dumping site due to lack of land. They have to dump waste in the open and people suffer a lot for that, he added.
“We are looking for land to set up a dumping site,” he added.
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