BIWTA gets 2 dumping sites
The stalemate arising from absence of a suitable dumping site is temporarily over with the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) finding two privately owned sites at Jhaochar and Shoalmachi yesterday.
The BIWTA officials said that so far 2,500 metric tons of sludge and solid rubbish have been removed from the riverbed of Buriganga around Sadarghat area. Once the disposal picks up momentum, the clean up operation would be expanded, they said.
"We are learning from the whole process of cleaning the riverbed and disposal of the rubbish," said Md Nurul Anwar, BIWTA's Superintending Engineer.
The riverbed cleanup operation came to a standstill three days ago when the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) refused to take the toxic waste on its dumping ground at Amin Bazar. The BIWTA officials yesterday said that the private landowners have agreed to take the sludge and soil mixed garbage to develop their land.
But local people in Shoalmachi yesterday protested the move to dump this toxic waste on their land. Din Islam, a local businessman and father of a child said that the toxic waste on the land near his house is sure to cause serious health hazards.
At the site in Shoalmachi yesterday workers were seen pumping out a huge cargo of waste from a vessel and dumping it 200 meters away on a lowlying agricultural land. Some of the workers were manually sorting out solid wastes from the sludge which mainly consisted polythene, garments and coconut shells. Workers then filled up plastic sacks with the solid waste and said they would dry those before incinerating them.
A group of environmental activists under the banner of Save Environment Movement, led by the Vice Chancellor of BUET AMM Shafiullah visited the dumping site at Shoalmachi and expressed their concerns at the dumping of such toxic waste in the low lying areas there.
“We do not know what kind of toxic substances are in the solid waste. The waste will spread in the entire locality during the floods if the BIWTA directly dumps it,” said Abu Naser Khan, chairman of the organisation.
Save Environment Movement is going to form a technical committee to discuss and find a solution to the problem and suggest it to the government.
Experts from non-government organisations, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and University of Dhaka, will form the committee.
“We have options to improve the system. So we want to help the government in this regard,” Abu Naser Khan said.
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