Private waste collectors forsubsidy to ensure scientific management

Private waste collectors in the city have called upon the government to provide subsidy for ensuring proper management of three million kilogrammes of waste collected every day. The waste collectors under the banner of Dhaka Waste Collection Management (DWCF) raised their demand at a press conference at the National Press Club in the city Saturday, reports BSS. DWCF President Md Manir Hossain Komol read out the written statement, while Maj Gen (Retd) Amin Ahmed Chowdhury, Sharif Jamal of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon, Nazmul Karim of Paribesh Bachao Andolon and PWCF General Secretary Nahid Akther Laki spoke in the press conference. They also demanded of the government to allow diversification in their work through tree plantation and awareness creation about earthquake among city dwellers. The DWCF president said the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) does not provide adequate assistance to the association though the private waste collectors rendering a huge task by cleaning about three million kg waste from the city every day. "If the members of the foundation get proper funding and assistance from the government it can produce 0.22 million tonnes organic fertiliser, 0.2 million tonnes of paper pulp from the waste," he said. International agencies like Japan International Cooperative Agency (JICA) and German Technological Cooperative Agency GTZ are interested to assist waste collectors where they only need DCC endorsement, he added. A total of 17.5 million people, including 12 million permanent city dwellers, generate a total of 5200 tonnes of solid wastes every day, according to a DCC estimate. The DCC has a total of around 8,030 waste cleaners to cover a 144 square miles area of all the wards, he said. The DCC team can remove at best 2,200 tonnes of waste but the remaining waste is managed by the private cleaners. Absence of segregation of domestic wastes, lack of proper collection mechanism, construction materials dumped in drains and inadequate road coverage constitute one-third of the problems the DCC faces in waste management.