Solid Waste Management of Dhaka City: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

Waste production is obvious to human being. Either in consumption or in production process or commercial transaction some material will be discarded called urban waste. Waste may be gaseous, liquid, or solid. Whatever is the nature of waste that must be disposed in such a way that ensures the sound environment and clean city. It is easy to dispose the gaseous waste that is dispersed into atmosphere, liquid waste relegated to the water bodies, but solid waste management is too difficult. Volume of waste is increasing with economic development and changed consumption behavior. The sheer immensity of voluminous solid waste, the financial and infrastructure constraints including the lack of land for safe disposal, lack of awareness and apathy at all levels have come in the way of inefficient and unsafe solid waste management. Population ·boom and urbanization derives volume of solid waste and the city authority cannot cope with it. Solid waste management with other essential services cannot keep pace with increased population. The developed society manages their solid waste with modern technology and big investment. Most of the cities of developing countries are seriously suffering with huge volume of solid waste. In most of the Afro-Asian cities, half of solid waste generated remains unattended. Officially on an average one-third of solid waste generated reaches in municipal dumpsite. The quantum of waste in this region is high, owing to higher level of population density in the cities. The tropical Asian climate with high levels of rainfall and huge humidity coupled with the organic character of waste aggravates the problem of solid waste disposal. Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh with 8 million populations within 302 km2 area. Dhaka City Corporation area is 131 km2 with 5. 7 million populations and produces about 3,700 tons of solid waste every day. Solid waste generation is 0.422 kg per person per day. Most of the solid waste is organic in nature. From food and vegetable, contribute for 53% the solid waste. DCC collect and transported for final disposal only 1200 ton amounting to 33% of total solid waste. The informal waste pickers collect 16% solid waste for recycling. Therefore, almost 50% of total solid waste is unattended and uncollected in developing countries. This uncollected solid waste goes to drains, lakes, ditches and open spaces or elsewhere. Solid waste management of Dhaka City is in deplorable condition. DCC could not show efficiency in the sector. Moreover, the air, water, and land pollution in and around Dhaka city is devastating. Solid waste management issue has got less important in the past. There was no thorough and comprehensive study held in this regard. The present study is an empirical as well as analytical or descriptive study based on both primary and secondary data. Therefore, it is a multidimensional research work. Questionnaire survey, key informant interview, observation, case study, and photographs used for primary data. The present study attempted to identify the various aspects of solid waste with a view to develop an integrated waste management policy guideline, which would be combating for sustainable environmental development of Dhaka city. The study provided lot of scope to visualize the present practice of waste management in the city. It has conducted aiming to find the current solid waste management practices of Dhaka city. Solid waste is the valueless and unwanted matter in solid nature. The things, which has 'been discarded and have no economic value to the owner is treated as solid waste. With time span of urbanization and economic development, the amount and nature of solid waste has changed dramatically. For efficient solid waste management it is needed to know the constituents or properties of the waste. Integrated waste management is the combination of all waste handling with due importance. Waste management matrix provides the self-sustained role of the society. Solid waste management hierarchy follow the function one after another. There are number of functions of solid waste management. Primary collection is carrying the waste from source of generation to transfer stations. Secondary collection is carrying solid waste from the primary collection points. 51 % primary collection is done by CBOs and NGOs and rest 49% collected by the generators. Treatment is minimizing its environmental impact before final disposal. Historically, solid waste disposal consisted of open dumping. However, hog feeding, ocean dumping, simple dumping or general landfill, sanitary landfill, incineration are different solid waste disposal method. Particularly in developing countries are still using the open dumping method for waste disposal. Land reclamation is the ultimate goal of waste disposal. Only 33% solid waste is collected by DCC for final disposal, 16% of total is recycled by the informal sectors. 65% of collected solid waste is finally disposed at Matuail landfill sites, 30% is at Berri Band sites and only 5% is only at Uttara sites. --------