Long queue of garbage vans causes misery for Kalabagan pedestrians
A long queue of garbage collection vans parked on the road along a secondary waste transfer station in the Kalabagan area at the capital's Dhanmondi creates a nightmare every evening for people, pedestrians in particular.
It creates trouble mainly in two ways. One, the garbage-laden vans block the walkway and a portion of the motorway too. And two, it causes a bad smell in the surrounding environment.
Jamil Ahmed, a private jobholder, who passes through the area on his way from Sobhanbag to Dhanmondi-7, told The Business Standard, "I go to my office on foot every day. I have to endure a bad smell on my way back home every evening."
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"This is a public road along with the footpath. The city corporation has no right to create troubles for pedestrians by gathering garbage on the footpath," Jamil expressed his resentment about the authorities.
The Business Standard correspondent found more than 100 garbage collection vans – mostly non-motorised three-wheelers – waiting on the Mirpur Road alongside the secondary transmission station to transfer the waste to garbage trucks.
Right now it is difficult for anyone to stand there even for a minute due to the unpleasant smell.
Garbage truckers and cleaners also have their resentments over the volume of workloads and abuses hurled by sufferers.
"Pedestrians often engage in altercations and misbehave with us over the garbage management. But we are not responsible for working it out," Kabir Hossain, a waste truck driver of the Dhaka South City Corporation, told TBS.
"We can just carry waste, it is only the responsibility of the city corporations and its ward councillors," he added.
Jubayer Hossain, a cleaner, said garbage is collected from ward numbers Dhanmondi-17 and Kalabagan-15.
"This secondary transmission station is too small for the two wards and now our job duration has been longer due to waiting to transfer the waste to trucks. For this reason, we have to be on duty from 10am to 3/4am the following day on a regular basis," he added.
The Kalabagan transfer station, constructed only for Ward No 15, has to take the burden of Ward No 17, which is yet to have its own station, needed because of the scarcity of a place, Rafiqul Islam Bablu, the local ward councillor, told TBS.
"It is true that people are suffering due to garbage spillover on the road in front of the transfer station which caters the waste from a 44 square kilometres of Dhanmondi area," he said.
Compared to the volume of waste produced daily in the area, the size of the station is very small, Bablu added.
On top of that, he said, the number of city corporation waste carrying trucks is fewer than the requirement and ward councillors' funds are not available to solve this problem.
"From the last one and half years, we have repeatedly told the city corporation to relocate the roadside transfer station. The city corporation said it will be shifted to an area near ZH Sikder Women's Medical College and Hospital in a very short time," the councillor added.
"According to city corporation rules, there will be a secondary waste transfer station for every ward but we have yet not found land for setting up a station for Ward No 17," Mohammad Asgar, assistant waste management officer, zone-1, told TBS.
"For this reason, the pressure of garbage management has been increasing day by day. Now, we are trying to shift the station from the roadside area and to increase the number of garbage carrying trucks."
