The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) held a joint seminar some time ago on solid waste management. Its aim was to build awareness about the participatory aspects of proper management of wastes. Meanwhile, many people are found to be careless and littering the roads with wastes instead of putting them inside dustbins. The DCC again is rather uncaring in habituating the people with these orderly practices. Thus, there is a lot that the DCC ought to be doing to make the citizens aware of their responsibilities for safe waste disposal.

As for the large scale disposal of the waste, the mode of dumping wastes at landfills-- some of which are near residential areas -- is most undesirable to say the least. JICA offered help to DCC to set up a modern solid waste management system for the city that would include also recycling of wastes. The JICA proposal envisages comprehensive waste collection and recycling activities. The kitchen wastes would be treated and turned into composts, wastes in the form of tin cans would be recycled and turned into tin sheets and all kinds of broken and useless glasses into glass sheets.

Even large quantities of the wastes from organic sources can be burnt to produce notable amount of electricity to be supplied to the city. At the completion of the project, the poorly managed and polluting landfills would give way to much cleaner processes that would lead to transformation of wastes into products of economic value. Management of hospital wastes is another matter but a serious issue from the environmental and health perspectives of the people. Such health hazarding wastes are burnt in incinerators to prevent their indiscriminate throwing into dustbins.