Reza Mahmud :
The waste bin project of two Dhaka City Corporations has failed due to inappropriate management and unawareness of city dwellers.
“We are trying to make Dhaka a clean city. The waste bin project was one of the initiatives to this end. But it is not only City Corporations’ responsibility. The city people also need to be aware oof its necessity and use. They should use the waste bins properly,” Khan Mohammad Bilal, the Chief Executive Officer of Dhaka South City Corporation, told The New Naiton.
He said the DSCC has found many of its waste bins broken and being unusable due to inappropriate uses. He also said the authority is now monitoring the waste bins to make the project a success.
The Dhaka South City Corporation fixed 5,670 waste bins in different places. Besides, the Dhaka North City Corporation has set 1,000 waste bins.
The two City Corporations have spent around Tk six crore on this project.
But mismanagement and misuse of the bins make the project flopped.
The bins, full of dirty garbage, and the broken ones create extra wastes in the city.
While visiting Swamibag area, this correspondent found most of the wastebins unusable as those were full of garbage. Because, the cleaners have not cleaned the bins.
“Day by day, the waste bins have been filled with wastes, but the cleaners have not turned up and collected those garbage,” a man residing in the area said.
A shopkeeper at Dayaganj said, “We have not so far found any waste bins. The street people may have stolen those.”
However, some stands of stolen and broken waste bins were on the Dayaganj-Jurain road.
Gulistan and Wari area people also experienced a similar scenario.
Even a waste bin at Gulistan, a few yards away from the Nagar Bhaban, the head quarter of DSCC, was found filled with wastage for long, but no one cleaned that.
Stands without bins were also found in Mirpur, Farmegate, Tejgaon and other DNCC areas.
According to officials at the DSCC, 30 waste bins have been stolen and 90 broken in Hazaribagh and Jhigatola areas. In Lalbag-Chakbazar and adjacent areas, nearly 150 waste bins were stolen and more than 300 broken. As many as 50 waste bins have been broken and 20 stolen in Dhanmondi area.
In Khilgaon, Bashabo and Mugda areas, 54 were stolen and around 300 broken.
When contacted, Khondokar Millatul Islam, the Additional Waste Management Officer of DSCC, told The New Nation, “Some waste bins were found broken and missing in many places in the DSCC areas. We are trying to replace all of those soon.”
