S.A Shofiee, Sylhet :
Many spots along Sylhet city’s thoroughfares look like huge dustbins due to haphazard dumping of various wastes as authorities appear indifferent to the urgency of taking effective measure to keep the Sylhet clean.
Nowhere in the world would one come across such scenes in a Sylhet city. The universal practice in cities is to collect garbage from midnight and dispose those by sunrise.
Lack of proper waste management by the city corporations has turned Sylhet into a veritable city of dumping ground, many city-dwellers told daily sun.
Roadsides in many areas of the Sylhet city lie littered with household wastes even whole day long – or for days together – due to sheer negligence of the authorities concerned to remove them regularly, they alleged.
Urban planners blamed weak management of the city corporations for such messy condition on different roads.
Administrative faults, insincerity, lax monitoring, manpower shortages and lack of advanced technology are the main reasons for haphazard dumping of wastes, they said.
Noted urban planner of Sylhet said as a responsible body, both the city corporations have failed to live up to people’s expectation of a clean Sylhet city.
‘Decentralisation of the SCC activities to ward level may yield a fruitful result in mitigating public sufferings,’ he observed.
According to the SCC citizens’ charter, the waste-management department has to keep wastes from 6:00pm to 10:00pm in dustbins and sweep streets, footpaths and market surroundings regularly.
‘SCCs will also clean deep sewer pipelines every six months and storm sewage line once a year,’ the charter mentions.
But the reality is diametrically different. Sweepers do the cleaning all day long, much to the chagrin of people, many a city-dweller alleged.
SCC leaves household wastes at many a spot for days together. Getting decomposed, the rotting waste spreads overpowering stench into the surrounding areas.
Local residents are forced into enduring the suffocating environment for the callous role played by the SCC waste department.
The amount of litter in the streets is unbefitting for the historic city, said Munjur Khan, a resident of Kodamtoly area.
Nizam Uddin a resident of Shibgonj area, said it is very difficult to walk on this road as the signal point has become a dumping spot for household waste.
Due to delayed waste disposal, it fast decomposes and spreads stinky smell through the surrounding areas, she added.
‘I do not think SCCs are serving the citizens properly, rather they are busy collecting revenues. It shows carelessness in alleviating public sufferings as mismanagement in waste disposal as well as water-logging is still a mojor problem,’ said Anwara, one of the aggrieved taxpayers.
