Reza Mahmud :
Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) failed to implement its ‘clean year’ programme in 2016. Experts and DSCC officials said that the programme flopped due to insufficient preparations and raw plans. DSCC officials, however, partially blamed the city residents who are very much indifferent about civic sense.
“It is very important to draft sufficient preparations to make any plan successful. We have not found them well prepared to make Dhaka a clean city in a specific year,” said Urban Specialist Architect Iqbal Habib, who is also the Joint-Secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon.
DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon announced 2016 as ‘clean year’ in a press briefing on the 23rd December 2015.
The Mayor announced that he would introduce modern waste management system. The plans included construction of 100 public toilets, setting of LED lights in streets, arranging hot line for collecting allegations about mismanagements of waste, recover streets and pavements from the grabbers, and ban on hanging of banners and festoons without permission.
Of them, the City Corporation became successful to stop hanging of banners and festoons only without permission. Besides, DSCC set some LED lights in main streets.
But the experts and the city residents alleged that the waste management system, which was the main object of the ‘clean year’ has not be modernised yet.
“The cleaners of City Corporations used to collect waste after 10am though it was supposed to collect it after 7pm. In addition, they piled waste beside the streets after cleaning drains and kept for long days. It makes huge sufferings for residents,” said Abul Hossain, the owner of Medicine Point at Gendaria.
According to the plan, DSCC wanted to establish 26 Secondary Transfer Stations (STS) to keep waste temporarily after bringing from the houses. But it could build one to two STS only within due time.
The cleaners failed to keep waste properly before they sent it to dumping stations due to insufficient numbers of STS’s.
As a result, huge waste were seen overflowing from the dustbins across the city. It spreads stench in different streets at Jurain, Postogola, Gandaria, Dholairpar, Jatrabari, Syedabad, Dayaganj, Wari, Narinda, Dholaikhal, Bahadur Shah Park, Sadar Ghat, Gulistan, Banglabazar, Chalkbazar, Nayabazar, Azimpur, Bashabo, Sabujbag and West Malibagh.
The residents of those area are suffering from the odor. In addition, many residents are facing huge difficulties to walk past those areas due to the overflowing of waste. In Jurain, by the Buriganga Bridge, it has been seen that the rotten water seeped from the overflowing waste regularly. It created a regular mud on the streets which pushed the pedestrians at huge risks in the busy roads. The same thing has been found in Dholaikhal, Bahadur Shah Park and West Malibagh (Dakter Goli).
Besides, most of the existing public toilets are unusable. The City Corporation arranged eight new mobile public toilets only with the help of a non-government organisation, Water Aid. There are in total 47 public toilets for 50 lakh pedestrians in the city.
The Waste bin was the new dimension for the City Corporations. DSCC established 5,670 waste bins in different areas, costing Tk 4.5 crore.
But it was not used properly. Many of the bins were missing. Many of those have seen kept tightly up side down.
Many of those were found full of waste, but were not collected for long days. “We are honestly trying to make the city clean. Our staff were directed well. But everything may not work properly,” said Khan Mohammad Bilal, the Chief Executive Officer of DSCC.
At the same time, Khandoker Millatul Islam, the Additional Chief Waste Management Officer of DSCC said, “The consciousness of people is needed to make our city clean. We are initiated. We found some shop keepers to have kept the waste bins tightly with ropes. We fined them. It is the results of lack of consciousness.”
“All of us, including the citizens and officials, should take oath to make our city habitable,” he said.
Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) failed to implement its ‘clean year’ programme in 2016. Experts and DSCC officials said that the programme flopped due to insufficient preparations and raw plans. DSCC officials, however, partially blamed the city residents who are very much indifferent about civic sense.
“It is very important to draft sufficient preparations to make any plan successful. We have not found them well prepared to make Dhaka a clean city in a specific year,” said Urban Specialist Architect Iqbal Habib, who is also the Joint-Secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon.
DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon announced 2016 as ‘clean year’ in a press briefing on the 23rd December 2015.
The Mayor announced that he would introduce modern waste management system. The plans included construction of 100 public toilets, setting of LED lights in streets, arranging hot line for collecting allegations about mismanagements of waste, recover streets and pavements from the grabbers, and ban on hanging of banners and festoons without permission.
Of them, the City Corporation became successful to stop hanging of banners and festoons only without permission. Besides, DSCC set some LED lights in main streets.
But the experts and the city residents alleged that the waste management system, which was the main object of the ‘clean year’ has not be modernised yet.
“The cleaners of City Corporations used to collect waste after 10am though it was supposed to collect it after 7pm. In addition, they piled waste beside the streets after cleaning drains and kept for long days. It makes huge sufferings for residents,” said Abul Hossain, the owner of Medicine Point at Gendaria.
According to the plan, DSCC wanted to establish 26 Secondary Transfer Stations (STS) to keep waste temporarily after bringing from the houses. But it could build one to two STS only within due time.
The cleaners failed to keep waste properly before they sent it to dumping stations due to insufficient numbers of STS’s.
As a result, huge waste were seen overflowing from the dustbins across the city. It spreads stench in different streets at Jurain, Postogola, Gandaria, Dholairpar, Jatrabari, Syedabad, Dayaganj, Wari, Narinda, Dholaikhal, Bahadur Shah Park, Sadar Ghat, Gulistan, Banglabazar, Chalkbazar, Nayabazar, Azimpur, Bashabo, Sabujbag and West Malibagh.
The residents of those area are suffering from the odor. In addition, many residents are facing huge difficulties to walk past those areas due to the overflowing of waste. In Jurain, by the Buriganga Bridge, it has been seen that the rotten water seeped from the overflowing waste regularly. It created a regular mud on the streets which pushed the pedestrians at huge risks in the busy roads. The same thing has been found in Dholaikhal, Bahadur Shah Park and West Malibagh (Dakter Goli).
Besides, most of the existing public toilets are unusable. The City Corporation arranged eight new mobile public toilets only with the help of a non-government organisation, Water Aid. There are in total 47 public toilets for 50 lakh pedestrians in the city.
The Waste bin was the new dimension for the City Corporations. DSCC established 5,670 waste bins in different areas, costing Tk 4.5 crore.
But it was not used properly. Many of the bins were missing. Many of those have seen kept tightly up side down.
Many of those were found full of waste, but were not collected for long days. “We are honestly trying to make the city clean. Our staff were directed well. But everything may not work properly,” said Khan Mohammad Bilal, the Chief Executive Officer of DSCC.
At the same time, Khandoker Millatul Islam, the Additional Chief Waste Management Officer of DSCC said, “The consciousness of people is needed to make our city clean. We are initiated. We found some shop keepers to have kept the waste bins tightly with ropes. We fined them. It is the results of lack of consciousness.”
“All of us, including the citizens and officials, should take oath to make our city habitable,” he said.
