Garbage litters Dhaka-Aricha highway
Wastes are dumped beside Dhaka-Aricha Highway at Genda Bus Stand of Savar while a woman, inset, covers her nose to avoid stenches from the garbage on the road in front of the kitchen market at Savar Bazar Bus Stand. Five such waste dumping sites are found on the busy road from Savar to Aminbazar posing a serious threat to health and environment. Photo: STAR
Tonnes of wastes from kitchen markets and garment factories at five points on the busy Dhaka-Aricha highway in between Savar and Aminbazar pose a serious threat to public health and environment. The stench from the accumulated garbage at Savar Bazar Stand, Savar Thana Stand, Genda, Hemayetpur Bazar and Aminbazar is so pungent and unhealthy that passers-by are forced to cover their faces. The entire atmosphere at these five points is visibly polluted. The piles of rubbish from these kitchen markets on the highway are also obstructing traffic flow. In the rainy season, the degraded wastes quickly become sludge turning the thoroughfare inaccessible for pedestrians and dangerously slippery for the motorists. The local government authorities, responsible for the waste management, say they are unable to find suitable places for disposing off the wastes due to a prohibition enforced by the highway authorities. “I am aware of the problem,” says Haji Refayetullah, the mayor of Savar municipality, “but I am helpless because the highway authorities do not allow us to install containers at these points,” he added. But Monir Hossain Pathan, Roads and Highway Department (R&HD) engineer, in-charge of Dhaka-Aricha highway, categorically contradicted the mayor's claim. He told The Daily Star that the municipality authorities in Savar have totally ignored his repeated requests not to dump rubbish on the highway. “They (the municipality authorities) did not pay any heed to our repeated pleas,” said Pathan. “If the municipality authorities are unable to do their job to manage its own wastes, they should formally inform of the matter to the Roads and Highway Department.” Meanwhile, Rafayetullah, the mayor of Savar pointed his finger at the traders of the kitchen market saying, “The market authorities should dispose these wastes of properly.” But the president of Savar Hawker Bohumukhi Samobay Samity, under which all kitchen markets of the municipality are run, Selim Uddin said that the municipality authorities must do the job for which they pay regular taxes. Traders in the market as well as residents nearby blamed the municipality for not managing the wastes properly. Dr Abdur Razzak, a resident of Sabujbagh in Savar, said lives have become unbearable for people who live near these markets with piles of rotten rubbish scattered all around. Sakhina Begum, a pedestrian, said that it is extremely painful to walk beside these kitchen markets due to severe stench from the wastes. “We have no alternative. If we walk on the highway escaping from this suffering, we risk being run over by vehicles,” she added.
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