LET’S deal with some figures in the beginning. The capital produces some 3,000 tonnes of solid waste everyday. The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), entrusted with the responsibility of keeping the city clean, only disposes of 60 per cent of the garbage daily produced. With 410 containers. 150 carrier trucks and some 6.000 men. the DCC conservancy team is unable to take care of the rest. In other words, some 1.200 tonnes of rubbish lie scatted throughout the city to rot and pose serious health hazard to the residents. Now. a frightening fact: experts fear that mix of rainwater and solid waste at open dumpsites may trickle down to the water-table, carrying deadly micro-organisms (virus and bacteria) and toxic chemicals. The scenario speaks of the dire need for an efficient waste management system.

It is obvious that the DCC alone cannot manage the huge amount of waste generated by millions of city-dwellers. And even if it did. carrying the garbage and dump it on to open sites could hardly be called efficient or effective. The state could surely be blamed for not yet developing cost-effective composting and recycling methods. And as the speakers at an international conference on water and sanitation in the city observed on Wednesday. Bangladesh like other developing countries should start installing recycling plants in cities: for “chemical composition of solid waste has changed a lot due to change in lifestyle.“

However, what’s more important at this point in time is to get the community involved in waste management. Unfortunately, residents of the capital and other major cities in the country are largely indifferent to their basic responsibilities in this regard. There arc some localised initiatives for door-to-door garbage collection. But where there isn't. In most cases the residents leave the garbage out on the alleys or backyard to rot. It Isn't responsible, to say the least. The precondition to community participation in waste management is. each resident s awareness of his or her fundamental responsibility in this regard.