As much as 80 per cent of residential and commercial buildings in Dhaka city do not have sewerage connectivity. RAJUK has a provision for all residential and commercial buildings to install wastewater management systems. But only 20 per cent of buildings in Dhaka have such systems. The rest of the buildings are directly connected to the City Corporation’s drains. Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has given them six-month time to install their own wastewater systems. If this is not done within this period, DNCC will close the drains. Dhaka’s inadequate and age-old sewage management system is taking a huge toll on the environment as wastes mostly end up in rivers, severely polluting them.
A city of around 2 crore people, Dhaka generates approximately 20 lakh cubic metres of wastewater every day. The Pagla sewage treatment plant, which is the city’s only sewage treatment facility, has the capacity of treating 1.2 lakh cubic metres of waste per day. However, only one-third of the plant’s capacity can be utilised because of its decades-old pipelines that do not function properly.
Domestically generated wastewater carries human waste or faecal sludge. Experts said Bangladesh mainly follows two faecal sludge management methods. One is an off-site method which consists of a sewage pipe network with a central treatment plant and the other is on-site method. The on-site method involves setting up a septic tank with a building or constructing a soak pit.
Building owners set up septic tanks or soak pits in 75 per cent areas not served by the sewerage system and they are supposed to manage the sewage on their own. To redress the mismanagement, five separate plants at Dasherkandi, Uttara, Rayer Bazar, Mirpur and Pagla are being constructed. The work of Dasherkandi plant is at the final stage. If these are implemented by 2023 and sewage flow to drain is stopped, the canals and the rivers will be free from faecal pollution. A smart city requires smart management of sewerage and water, but the metropolitan city of Dhaka still follows the old system in managing household waste.
