Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) with the help of a non-profit organisation has brought 56 zones of the city under the plan, which will work with small garbage dumping stations.
"We are calling them mini waste transfer stations," said an official at DCC”s waste management department. "The trash collected from the adjacent neighbourhoods will be stashed in these stations. This way the garbage trucks will have to make one pit stop to collect the trash rather than stopping in front of every garbage containers."
"The basic idea is to standardise the garbage disposal system in a way that the trash would not be lying around in streets. People will be obliged to dispose of their trash inside the containers rather than around it," he said.
“The tall brick boundaries are there to make sure that the trash would not lie around in streets. This will also stop the foul odour from spreading,” the official said.
The paved floors of the transfer stations are directly connected to Wasa sewerage lines to help the flow of liquid waste. Water hosepipes will also be available near the containers so that DCC cleaners can hose away the scattered trash.
“Full-time sweepers will be around the transfer station to make sure that garbage is disposed in the proper way,” the official added.
Sources at the waste management department of DCC said 12 such stations are now operational in the city. Another 24 will be introduced very soon.
"We have divided the city into different zones that need major refurbishments in the waste disposal management. We have constructed the mini transfer stations in some of zones. Construction of transfer stations in the other zones is currently in progress," said Commander Masudur Rahman Chowdhury, chief conservancy officer of DCC.
The currently functional mini garbage transfer stations in the city are located in Kalyanpur, Mirpur-2, Mirpur-14, Kachukhet Bazar, Sayedabad, Karwan Bazar, Kalabagan, Natun Bazar and some other places.
The DCC scheme is being financed by a non-profit organisation called Association to Assist The Underprivileged (ASAUP), sources said.
"This is undoubtedly a good move," said Shafayat Hossain, a resident of Kalabagan. "If you watch closely, most of the people tend to drop the trash beside the garbage container, not inside it. Now people will have to go inside the dumping station and dispose of their garbage rather than throw them in the street."
"Every morning on my way to office I see the garbage trucks making rounds inside the narrow streets to collect garbage from the containers, creating traffic jams. It will be better if they can collect the garage from the mini dumping station on the main road," said Rezaur Rahman, a resident of Sayedabad.
"However, the authorities should put more focus on creating awareness among general people so that they dispose of their trash in an appropriate manner. Otherwise, this scheme will have little meaning," he said.
DCC officials believe the new initiative will help the corporation bring some major changes in the outlook of the city. This will allow them to tackle the multi-dimensional problem of waste management that has become a major concern over the years.
DCC is the sole organisation responsible for the management of over 4,000 tonnes of waste generated in the of 360 sq km city every day.
Out of this whooping amount of waste, only around 1,500 tonnes are disposed properly, while the rest are left unattended and dumped locally, suggests a joint study by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and DCC.
The corporation has around 5,000 cleaners to sweep trash and litters off city streets. They are also responsible for waste collection and disposal activities. The number of cleaners per thousand population in the city measures below 1, sources said.
“We have to refurbish the whole system. If implemented properly, this would improve the overall situation in the long-run,” said Masudur Rahman.
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