SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT OF DHAKA CITY By Firoz Reza
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In this article I will emphasize urban Solid Waste Management in the context of Dhaka city. Solid waste management is considered as one of the most immediate and serious environmental problems confronting municipal authorities in developing Asian Countries. Municipal authorities are the only govt. institution to tackle this situation. In the last decade, however, importance of community involvement in solid waste management and use of adapted technologies were recognized for improving the solid waste management system. Introduction: Waste is an unavoidable by product of human activities Economic development, urbanization and improving living standards in cities. Rapid growth of population and industrialization degrades the urban environment and places serious stress on natural resources, which undermines equitable and sustainable development. Inefficient management and disposal of solid waste is an obvious cause of degradation of the environment in most cities of the developing world. Municipal corporations of the developing countries are not able to handle increasing quantities of waste, which results in uncollected waste on roads and in other public places. Composition of Solid Waste: Brick, Wood, Metal and Glass, ploythene Shredded Skin and Leather, Paper, Cloth Hospital Waste, Food waste, Industrial Waste Other Waste Evolution of Solid Waste Collection Method & Technique: Below is the historie of Dhaka city waste management system: 1717 Manual night soil collection system 1864 Night soil collection by bullock cart by Dhaka Municipality 1963 Liquid waste collection by DWASA & Dhaka Municipality side by side 1982 Bullock cart system suspended, night soil collection replaced by Septic tank, introduction of open truck for solid waste collection by Dhaka Municipality. 1989 Introduction of night time waste collection instead of day time collection. 1993 Demountable container introduced along with closed and open truck. 2002 Open truck replaced by covered truck. Introduction of Dhaka City: Dhaka City, the Capital City of Bangladesh is one of the most populated City in the world, ranking 35 th, and accumulating approximately 10 millions populations within the area of 360 sq. km. In addition to this about one million commuters visit the city everyday in search of their livelihood. The population of Dhaka city has increased rapidly, with a growth rate of 3.72% per year.
Waste Management in the City: DCC (Dhaka City Corporation) is the govt. institute headed by city mayor who is an elected representative of its people. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) a senior level bureaucrat deputed by Government, is responsible for overall management of five principal areas of responsibility in DCC, i.e. engineering, conservancy, revenues, accounts and health. Waste collection and disposal from DCC area is the responsibility of the Chief Conservancy Officer (CCO) who manages it with the support of a Deputy Chief Conservancy Officer (DCCO) and 02 Assistant Chief Conservancy Officers (ACO). The Assistant Conservancy Officers are again assisted by ten Conservancy Officers working in ten zones with Conservancy Supervisory Inspectors (CSI), Conservancy Inspectors (CI) and Cleaners. The conservancy department is supported by the transport department controlling the garbage vehicles and mechanical department for maintenance of vehicles and equipment used in landfill sites (bulldozers, excavators etc). Types of Solid Waste Solid wastes are basically of two types (a) soft wastes or organic wastes, which include vegetables, fruits, leftover food staff from households, hotels and restaurants, and (b) hard wastes, such as pieces of wood, metals, glass, plastics and polythene materials, paper, rubber, cloths and textile factory waste and construction materials. As is evident from Table 1 food and vegetable wastes comprise 60 percent of all wastes in Dhaka city, while about 18 percent comprise of plastic, rubber, wood and leathers, 11 percent is paper products, about 9 percent is garden wastes, while rocks, dirt, debris etc. make 2.3% and metals constitute only 0.15. Table 1: Composition of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in Dhaka City Components Percent Food and Vegetables 59.91 Plastic, rubber, wood and lather 17.67 Paper products 11.21 Garden wastes & etc. 8.76 Rock, dirt, debris & Misc 2.3 Metals 0.15 Total 100.00 Source: Huda, 2002
Source of Solid Waste Interms of sources of solid waste, households account for nearly half of the wastes generated in the city while markets or commercial centres contribute one-fifth, industrial waste account for about 24 percent and hospitals and clinic contribute about 7 percent (Table 2). Table 2: Total solid waste generation per day (DCC, 2002) Types Amount Percentage (tons) Residential 1718 49.08 Commercial 722 20.86 Industrial 835 23.86 Hospital and 255 7.29 Clinical Total 3500 100.00 Source: Bhuiyan, Huq and Hossain, 2002
Household/Residential Waste: Household waste is an aggregate of all substance from a household ready for disposal, which is about 1718 tons /day at a percentage of 49.08 %. These include paper, vegetable peelings, onion seed coat, broken plastic and festal, spider net, soil and dust, pieces of thread, animal fasces, grasses, used shoes, pieces of cloth, small bottles, soot, used car parts, e.t.c. The waste aggregate more frequent and most abundant in the whole mass of household waste is house sweeping, which is composed of soil and dust followed by pieces of paper and vegetable peelings. Households which have regular chatted chewing members have a lot of waste in the form of chat sticks and leaves. Commercial & Industrial Waste: There are over 1,000 small and large industries in the Dhaka metropolitan area generating a significant amount of toxic and hazardous wastes and contributing to environmental degradation in and around Dhaka City. These industries include chemicals, textiles, dyeing, printing, tannery, iron and steel, metal, plastic, rubber, and tobacco. In Dhaka, industry has developed in a background characterized by low labor costs and ineffective anti-pollution laws. This has resulted in the generation of significant quantities of industrial waste. Lead, cadmium, and mercury are all widely used in industry. These materials should be carefully monitored and controlled to avoid pollution in waste disposal. A total of about 722 tons and 835 tons of Commercial & Industrial Waste generated per day from Dhaka city. Hospital Waste: There are over 500 clinics and hospitals in Dhaka City. Based on a Directorate of Health inventory, the present average clinical waste generation in hospitals and clinics is calculated using 1kg/bed/day and an extra 200 kg/year for clinics. It is estimated that 20 percent of the whole hospital wastes (255 tons, 7.29 % of total solid waste generated per day) generated in the city is infectious and hazardous. Waste is collected from small bowls (plastic or metal) or plastic bins provided for each bed and emptied into larger containers. These containers are then conveyed by pushcart to the nearest municipal bin for dumping. The municipal bins are located either within the hospital itself or nearby outside. Wastes from operation theaters, laboratories, and kitchens are also dumped into these municipal bins. Since hospital wastes contain toxic and infectious materials, they are more dangerous than other types of wastes. In Dhaka, all types of medical wastes, including syringes and needles, are thrown into the municipal dustbin indiscriminately. It is therefore quite likely that waste collectors will become infected from these materials. Moreover, municipal dustbins in Dhaka are usually open. Therefore, the spread of infectious organisms through various means from hospital wastes can increase the risk of epidemics of such infectious diseases as hepatitis, typhoid, pneumonia, gangrene, and AIDS. Tanning Waste: Another type of industrial waste is now polluting environment as well as drinkable water and soil in Dhaka, called Tanning Waste. There are about 149 tanning industries in Hazaribagh area in Dhaka producing 18,000 liters of liquid wastes and 115 tons of solid wastes during peak time and 75 tons during off-peak time. Wastes from tanneries contain sulfuric acid, chromium, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, and calcium
oxides that may seep into the groundwater. Tanning wastes have a very severe impact on environment in terms of health, welfare, and environment like fever, headaches, respiratory and skin diseases and may also bring undesirable changes in land use and fisheries. It has also negative impact on groundwater, surface water, and the ecosystem in general. NGO Involvement & Partnership Project‘s Success & Issues in the Past: In 1995, a local NGO called Waste Concern initiated a small-scale, community-based organic waste recycling project for composting the municipal solid waste. Waste Concern’s initiative had three aims: i) Capture value from the organic portion of Dhaka’s solid waste, ii) Create job opportunities for the urban poor and iii) Create business opportunities for local entrepreneurs. Waste Concern’s activities ware as follows: i) Plan and design the project, collect wastes from the nearby staff quarters of DCC, provide collection vans ii) Install 1 ton capacity compost plant iii) Conduct training and awareness-raising activities on proper waste separation and management iv) Operation and monitoring of the project v) Market development for the compost vi) Documentation and information destination in relation to the project benefits and activities In January 1996 a local Lions Club (Dhaka North) donated a small piece of vacant land (1000 square meters) for the composting project. Waste concern’s composting plant is the first of its kind in Bangladesh. The primary goal is to explore the technical and commercial feasibility of labor-intensive aerobic composting. The technique is based on waste reduction and separation of compostable, recyclables, and other wastes. Sourceseparated organic wastes are collected from the neighboring community, vegetable markets and local hotels. In 1987 another small scale private project was initiated by one Mr. Khurram who with his friend devised a mechanism to tackle the local waste management situation. He purchased two old rickshaws and turned them into carriers. With the local community participation attitude these vans began collecting waste from house to house and disposing them at community bins. The van rickshaws were fitted with honk and each van rickshaw was manned by 3 persons. The success of this operation has led to the formation of numbers of CBOs at different parts of Dhaka city. The experience of the Kalabagan CBO approach reveals that a house to house collection of domestic waste is very effective from the viewpoints of cost and environment (Mohit, 1995) From January 01, 2002 Sheltech Consultants (Pvt) Ltd. has started a pilot project to manage the solid waste related problems of Dhanmondi in a precise way along with assistance of Dhaka City Corporation. The main objective of the project are to relieve residents of the area from hazard of unmanaged garbage bins to provide door to door garbage collection by specially designed conservancy vans and disposal in municipal garbage containers & drain and street cleaning.
Benefits of Partnership-Based Waste Management: Citizens have since realized that municipal efforts to solve the waste problem are not sufficient and as such they have started working something on their own initiatives. The communities have started to organize their own informal waste collection services for keeping their localities clean. In Dhaka City, more than 170 communities of varying sizes (less than 50 to more than 300 households) have stared this participatory intervention. The system has already increased garbage collection coverage by 20 percent of the generated waste and created approximately 500 jobs and proven to be appropriate for addressing local problems. Below are few benefits enjoyed for those initiatives: • •
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A clean and healthier environment for the citizen Participatory approach through willingness to pay, raising awareness towards cleanliness, changing household practices towards throwing wastes from the windows of apartments Labor intensive, indigenous, creation of employment opportunities for the poor Enhance social mobility and integrity through participation in different awareness program (observance of cleanliness campaign days, meetings of welfare association) Create a strong sense of community spirit through formation of a green force from the members of the community to work as watchdog Scope for documentation & dissemination of information regarding the project benefits and activities to other communities Increase institutional competence and capacity through getting hands-on training in waste management Reduce burden on the formal sector, contribute to a reduction in waste disposal costs Reduce health hazards associated with wastes on roadsides, prevents unhygienic waste picking from communal bins
Problems Encountered In Implementing the Programme: The initial problems that found when starting to implement the program were• •
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Scarcity of land in the area of the community Lack of interest shown by the municipal authority in providing valuable land for recycling The municipal authority had an impression that micro-level initiatives could not help to solve the solid waste problem in the city The initiatives were not properly received by the municipal authority as they were afraid than their activities could be undermined Municipality was less interested to put any effort into small-scale recycling projects Chemical fertilizer is available to farmers, and as such there had been an absence of a wider market for organic compost Source separated waste is hard to get from the household since the community has a poor understanding of the composting process
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As it is difficult to get land for recycling near the community, entrepreneurs should be encouraged and enabled to get lease of government land Recycling has both tangible and intangible benefits; the intangible benefits should be quantified or clearly presented to help the municipality understand the importance of recycling Compost should be supplied free of charge initially to community to encourage their interest in participation Source-segregated waste is essential for good quality compost, so households should be motivated accordingly The importance of organic compost should be well demonstrated to farmers by the Ministry of Agriculture
Lessons Learnt From The Experience: The following recommendations need to be made for improvement of the collaboration programMunicipal ordinance on waste management should include waste recycling as a treatment option prior to disposal Modification of municipal ordinance is needed to accommodate the inclusion of NGOs, CBOs, and micro enterprises into the main stream of Solid Waste Management SWM. Public awareness of waste segregation, recycling and reuse should be raised through public campaigns and media demonstrations through NGOs Community-based organizations should be given support to organize co-operatives and micro enterprises to effectively handle small scale waste recycling The Ministry of Agriculture should develop good markets for organic compost • The Municipality should facilitate innovative, community-based programmes rather than capital-intensive projects. •
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Current State and Management of Solid Waste: One of the most alarming problem of this city is solid waste (Organic and inorganic) management. The total amount of solid waste generated everyday in DCC area is about 4500 to 5000 tons. According to Mott Macdonald International Ltd report of 1991, waste stream fraction of Dhaka city is 46.8% domestic, 21.8% street sweeping, 19.2% commercial, 12.9% industrial and 0.5% clinical. Solid waste flow of a residential area is 58.7% domestic, 33.08% street sweeping, 7.9% commercial and 0.32% clinical (Salam, 2001). Analysis of physical composition of domestic waste show that the primary component is food waste covering 72.50%, polythene 13.70% (production banned by now), paper and cardboard 5.63%, and plastic 3.31%. There is a variation of waste composition between down town and residential area of new parts of Dhaka. Domestic waste generation rate for residential area is 0.60 kg per person a day (Salam, 2001) Dhaka City Corporation collects municipal wastes which are accumulated in DCC's bins or containers. About 7146 cleaners are employed for street sweeping and collection of waste found in places other than dustbin, road side, open spaces, ditches etc by hand trolley. It has 2,080 hand trolleys for primary collection of waste. DCC has 128 demountable container carrier trucks for collection of accumulated waste in 414
container and 242 open trucks to collect waste from municipal bins at different locations. In some residential areas like Kalabagan, Dhanmondi, Banani, Gulshan, Baridhara, Uttara 'house to house' waste collection service has been organized by some private initiative. Rickshaw vans are used for collection of waste from houses to municipal containers. 50% of populations are using waste enclosure or bins, 20% of population using roads to dispose of waste, 20% of population using drains to dispose of waste and 10% of population using open ground to dispose of waste (MMI, 1992). Sold Waste management by DCC (Key Points): DCC sweeps roads & drains daily. Accumulate wastes from roadside. Cleaners collect & transfer to the nearest dustbin/container. • DCC’s truck dump to the dumping depots. Dressing by bulldozers, tire dozers, pay loaders & excavators. • • •
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DCC’s Drawback in the service of Solid Waste: DCC, which is responsible for collection, transportation, and disposal of solid waste in Dhaka City, is providing a very low level of conservancy service. DCC has 5,200 conservancy and 135 supervisory staff for the solid waste management. 378 garbage trucks (1.5-5 ton capacity), 104 demountable trucks, 3,000 hand carts, 5,200 cleaners, and a budget of about Tk90 million, DCC provide a highly unsatisfactory conservancy service. Below points are considered as the main bottlenecks of solid waste management in DCC: Negligence of duties and non-accountability. Bureaucratic red tape – Reporting system from Sweepers and cleaners up to the • chief conservancy officer, who is responsible to the mayor. Lack of supervision. Lack of coordination. •
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Recommendations Institutional strengthening Capacity building: Training to the Conservancy department personnel to manage • scientifically the solid waste management issues. Gradual privatize solid waste management (collection, transportation and disposal) Landfill design and management Formulate the policy for community-based program, local initiative, NGO- small enterprise initiative. Waste reduction and recycling project. Preparation of legislation, (by laws, rules, regulations) Exchange of information Public awareness program Assistance for sustainable solid waste management through generation of • electricity, gas, fertilizer, ceramic product etc. •
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Conclusions: Dhaka takes some pride to be known as one of the megacities of the world but feels embarrassed when it is introduced as a city of the poor and city of multifarious problems. Managing its solid waste has been one of the more critical problems faced by the city. Solid waste management system in the city is very ill organized and inefficient. Traditionally, the City Corporation has been the organization solely responsible for collection, removal and disposal of the solid waste. But the city’s capacity and efficiency only allowed collection of around 50 percent of the waste, the rest being forgotten or allowed to be taken care of by informal sector waste pickers and others. However, at all stages of the solid waste management process, the poor of the city have been closely involved and that so in large numbers. On the other hand, the poor as citizens receive only marginal service from either the city authority. The intervention of some donor agencies and NGOs have somewhat improved the waste service in low income settlements. It has been found that the success of a communitybased program depends largely on identifying and addressing the community’s needs while sustainability of the project depends on involving them in the cost-recovery/cost sharing process. Community based projects have demonstration effect. NGOs can play an important role in initiating, demonstrating new concepts, providing technical knowhow and providing training to others. Small-scale compost plant can be located within the community provided appropriate scientific composting method is followed. Decentralized compost plant is commercially viable as seen from the Mirpur experience. It has been found that women from informal sector are interested to work in the composting plant which is socially acceptable. Initially, marketing of compost was a major problem. This problem was solved involving the private specialized fertilizer marketing companies (experienced and already having extensive network all over Bangladesh). Press has played a positive role in disseminating the project activity in Bangladesh. Apart from media, Government has to make necessary policy conducive to marketing of compost. Based on the evidence gathered so far by the pilot project of Waste Concern, it appears that this type of micro-enterprise can be replicated elsewhere in Bangladesh as well as in other Asian Countries. During implementation of Dhanmondhi project it has been found by SCPL that a large number of residences are not aware of health hazard and solid waste related problems. Many households are not taking the project service rather dispose of garbage in near by open spaces. Therefore, it is important to launch a long-term awareness building and campaigning programme in the area so that people get motivated about enhancing own environmental conditions and participate in the pilot project willingly. Awareness building programme can be launched in other areas of the city to motivate people about cleanliness and personal hygiene. Recently NGOs/CBOs have also become involved in SWM in middle class and upper class residential areas. Their work started as supplementary to DCC’s SWM service, but to some extent they are seen to be replacing DCC responsibility. Often, their services are also not of satisfactory level. As of now, SWM in Dhaka can at best be described as amateurish. All these issues have led DCC to undertake a new project entitled “Clean Dhaka, Green Dhaka” jointly with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) by 2005 with the objective of preparing a Master Plan for SWM in Dhaka City. With the financial aid and technical help by JICA & the govt. of Japan a 10 years long plan for solid waste
management initiative has been taken. Already a part of this initiative has been implemented. Open dustbin and open truck to carry waste has been replaced by a environment friendly COMPACTOR TRUCK. These truck is carrying waste two times in a day. Local concerns are collecting waste from houses to municipal container and DCC’s Compactor truck is carrying those collected waste to selected sanitary landfill. About 14 places have been selected primarily to collect waste by Compactor truck. In future all area of DCC will be included for this program. Program Director Dr. Tariq Bin Yusuf informed that DCC has been purchased 100 cars from Japan to successfully implement this program. In these 100 cars there are 20 Amrol container truck, 45 CNG Container and 35 Compactor Truck. All these cars are engaged in moving solid waste from Kawranbazar, Fakirapul, Lalmatia, Palton, Dhanmondi, AGB coloni, Mirpur, Lalbagh, Adabor area. It is hoped that a sustainable system will be devised with adequate role in it for the urban poor. It should also extend delivery of waste removal service to the urban poor settlements. The task is daunting but can not be sidetracked. REFERENCES
Ahsan, Rosie M. 1996, “Solid Waste Recycling in Dhaka City” in Dhaka Folk Work and Place” pp. 83-97, USP, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bhuiyan, M.A.H., Huq, N.E., and Hossain M.M., 2002, “Unplanned Waste Disposal and its Possible Impact on subsurface Environment of Dhaka City, Bangladesh” in Bangladesh Environment 2002, Vol. 2. (Ed.) M. Feroz Ahmed, Saleh A Tanveer, ABM Badruzzaman, pp. 723-731, BAPA, Dhaka, Bangladesh. CUS, 2004. Survey of NGOs and CBOs Involved in Solid Waste Management in Dhaka City. Dhaka: Centre for Urban Studies (CUS), for JICA. DCC-JICA, May 2004. Clean Dhaka Master Plan, Newsletter ERD, GOB, 2003. Bangladesh: A National Strategy for Economic Growth, Poverty Reduction and Social Development (IPRSP). Dhaka: GOB. Enayetullah, Iftekhar and Sinha, A.H. Md. Maqsood, 2002, “Barrel Type Composting for Slums: Experience of Waste Concern in Dhaka” in Nagar Saili Vol. 1, pp. 27-29, Department of Urban Regional Planning, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Huda, Nurul K.M., 2002, “Municipal Solid Waste Management – Dhaka City Perspective” in Bangladesh Environment, 2002. Vol. 2 (Ed.) M. Feroz Ahmed, Saleh A. Tanveer, ABM Badruzzaman, pp. 732-746, BAPA, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Imtiaz, N. and Alam, M.S. 2002, “Healthcare Wastes of Dhaka City: A Socio-environmental Assessment”, Bangladesh Environment 2002, Vol. 2. (Ed.) M. Feroz Ahmed, Saleh A Tanveer, ABM Badruzzaman, pp. 751-769, BAPA, Dhaka Bangladesh. Islam, N., N. Huda, F.B. Narayan and P.B. Rana, 1997. Addressing the Urban Poverty Agenda in Bangladesh: Dhaka UPL and ADB. Nagayama, K., 2004, “The Study on Solid Waste Management in Dhaka City – overview of Preliminary Findings” paper presented at the seminar on Solid Waste Management in Dhaka City, 17 June 2004, Dhaka, JICA. Sarker, A., 1990. “Co-existence with Garbage”, Weekly Holiday, June 29, 1990. Shamsuzzoha, M. 2002, “Dhaka City’s Waste and Waste Management Scenario” in Bangladesh Environment 2002, Vol. 2 (Ed.) M. Feroz Ahmed, Saleh A Tanveer, ABM Badruzzaman pp. 818-829, BAPA, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Sheltech Consultants (Pvt.) Ltd. 2004 Survey of Cleaners in Dhaka City (Draft Report for JICA)
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