Joynal Abedin Khan :Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) could not establish a waste dumping facility three years and a half and there is no guarantee of establishing it in the next one year due to inability of RAJUK to handover land.As a result, the DNCC is now dumping waste on the road endangering public health and environment, experts alleged, while talking to The New Nation on Monday. “The Dhaka North City Corporation authorities has got the documents of 37 bighas of land at Gulshan area from RAJUK recently after two years of lobbying but did not yet get the possession,” said Captain Bipon Kumar Saha, Chief Waste Management Officer of the DNCC.Besides, the DNCC is also suffering from manpower shortage for establishing an effective waste management and disposal system, he said, adding that the DNCC was forced to place waste containers on the city roads due to lack of space.The two Dhaka City Corporations (DCCs) are responsible for collecting and disposing of 5,000-6,000 tonnes of solid waste from the city’s 90 wards every day. The DNCC has to collect about 2,000 to 2,500 tonnes of garbage and dump that on the roads every day, environmentalists alleged.About 40 per cent of city dwellers are currently dumping waste to the garbage containers and points while 60 per cent through those on the roads and open spaces, including drains, ponds, and lakes, generating risk for public health and serious environmental pollution. “Only 2% of DCC’s budget is spent on waste management which can neither cover the basic essentials to keep running a system, nor to invest in future developments,” an official said. “A project named secondary transformation station has already been taken whereby dumping facilities and waste recycling installation will be established in a number of wards in DNCC area,” Captain Bipon said, adding, ” This could take two to three years to complete.”
