Photo: AFP

Our huge population is responsible for production of a large amount of wastes daily. These wastes range from household garbage, sewage, old papers, packaging materials, wood, plastic products, glass, metals to various industrial effluents such as: toxic inorganic heavy metals, organic solvents, reagents, dyes, thermal discharges, tannery disposal etc.
These harmful wastes are produced in large amount in urban areas.
Sewage contains many varieties of extremely pathogenic micro-organisms which can cause serious health problem in the form of diarrhoea, hepatitis etc. The recent high frequency of hepatitis infections may have a direct correlation with our poor waste disposal system.
Tannery waste is one of the major cause of air, water & soil pollution in the urban areas.
Here, in Bangladesh, there is no environmentally safe solid & liquid waste disposal system. The only solid waste disposal system is dumping up the garbage in areas near slums while no well planned disposal systems are employed. These are a constant threat to the environment & carry a high risk of outbreak of pathogenic micro-organism which can cause serious diseases.
The issue must be handled a lot more efficiently.