City rife with littering problems

Rubble pile up on the busy road in front of Karnaphuli Garden City at Kakrail in the capital, causing suffering to road users. The photo was taken yesterday. Photo: Focus Bangla.com

An effective anti-littering campaign needs to be launched to address the growing littering problem in Dhaka, a mega city of 1.2 crore people.
“Littering is a big problem in many cities, but this is a bigger problem in this sprawling city,” said Dr Abduz Zaher of Dhaka University.
Dr Zaher, also chairman of Communication and Media Research Initiative (Camri), a research organisation, said littering not only reduces the beauty of a city, but it also finds its way into rivers and creeks affecting the environment.
“Conventional wisdom says if everyone just picks up an x amount of litter a day, then it would all be gone before long. Yet for some reason this has never been tried,” said barrister Ahsan Habib, a Bangladeshi-born Briton.
In the United Kingdom, he said, there is a maximum fine of £2,500 for persistent littering. Different local authorities also have the power to impose on the spot fines to those caught littering. These are generally under £100.
“Even anyone caught littering in Georgia can be ordered to pay a fine of up to $1,000 or more for serious littering violations,” said Habib, quoting one of his friends who visited Georgia, the USA.
Singapore is known as a “fine” city. To maintain the cleanliness, there are strict laws against littering of any kind.
A former Dhaka City Corporation official, who wished not to be named, said motorists and pedestrians are responsible for creating between 30 and 55 percent of litter. The rest comes from household or commercial garbage, construction sites, loading and delivery areas and uncovered trucks. Garbage, not properly disposed of, is easily blown by the wind spreading litter to neighbouring areas.
“What we clearly need is a strong, consistent message delivered all the year round that littering and illegal dumping will not be tolerated and that anti-littering laws will be formulated and then enforced. Without such messages, it is not possible to rid the city of littering problem,” he said.
Habib said people and businesses litter because they feel no sense of personal ownership for the area they are spoiling. For example, most people would never think of throwing a gum wrapper on their living room floor or throwing a bag of garbage over the fence into their own yard. But these same people may not think twice about dropping it in a park, parking lot, sidewalk, open space, or roadway.
“Preventing litter is an education effort and it isn't easy. Littering is a habit that is really difficult to educate people about,” he mentioned.
Citing findings of various research works, Habib said males aged between 16 and 30 do most of the littering along roadsides.
According to him, delivering anti-littering TV commercials, litter receptacles, laws prohibiting placement of garbage in these receptacles and specifying proper use of receptacles, free distribution of litter bags, and regulations requiring load cover and spill prevention measures are all helpful ideas to reduce roadside littering.
The types of littering Dhaka and other cities face include dropping of paper, domestic refuse, vegetable matter, cigarette butts, garbage, clothes and hard waste, throwing litter from vehicles, leaving litter uncontained on private property, abandoning unregistered or derelict vehicles on roads or other public land, and littering on building sites and allowing litter to fall or blow from vehicles.
Dr Zaher said education is a long-term answer. “We need to educate our schoolchildren that littering is a very bad practice and teach them the proper way to dispose of waste.”
He said thousands of children could be reached each year by providing promotional materials to teachers and organisations, participating in teachers' workshops, conferences and other activities and making presentations in schools.