A Tk 93.4 crore ECNEC approved waste management project of the Dhaka City Corporation has remained shelved since July due to lack of funds.

Implementation of the DCC project, first of Its kind, envisaging land filling of an additional 32 acres at Matuail and installation of at least two incinerators for city's clinical waste could not be started as neither the donor nor the government kept its promise, sources concerned said.

After being approved by ECNEC on July 7. the only communication received by the DCC in this regard was a letter from the Netherlands Embassy of August 17. The ambassador said in the letter that only 50 per cent of the promised Tk 48.45 crore could be made available now under the Dutch Environment and Economic Self-sufficiency Programme (MILIEV).

DCC engineers said the work on the project could not be started till they received the entire amount.

DCC officials said the city was running out of space for dumping 3.000 to 4.000 tonnes of solid waste every day. The present dumping site for it at Matuaii has almost reached Its 'saturation point.'

Although the project does not address the long awaited recycling of waste, the proposed installation of incinerators comes as a relief. Most of the thousands of kg of clinical waste from more than 450 clinics. hospitals and diagnostic centres in the city every day are simply dumped haphazardly in open space

A DCC engineer said that to start with they would like to set up one incinerator at Pangu Hospital and the other at BSMMU Hospital.

Asked whether they were aware that incinerating hospital waste could be hazardous to public health, he said the whole thing was quite new to them, but they would seek foreign assistance to complete the project as per international standard.