Waste of slaughtered animals still strewn around the city
The mayors of the two Dhaka city corporations of Dhaka claimed a day after Eid that they had fully removed the waste from cattle slaughtered on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha within 24 hours. While such claims are partly true for the old wards, it is a totally false claim for 36 newly formed wards of the two city corporations.
Reality is, both the city authorities failed to carry out waste management in those new wards. As a result, cattle waste has spread with the flow of rain water, polluting the environment.
The waste remains piled up in the places of makeshift cattle markets in those wards. Media reports said that same situation is prevailing in some places of the old wards too.
According to reports, Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka North City Corporation did not have any management for cattle slaughtering in those wards. People slaughtered at the places of their will in those areas. This led to spread of waste in nearby roads. The authorities are also not cleaning the waste.
Although the mayor duo basked in the claim of successful waste management drives, the officials of city corporations said they are failing because of lack of manpower and funds. They also said that they cannot do anything until they get adequate manpower and funds.
The government in July 2017 formed 18 new wards by dividing Badda, Bhatara, Satarkul, Beraid, Dumni, Uttarkhan, Dakshin Khan and Harirampur union parishads. And 18 more wards were added to DSCC dividing Shyampur, Dania, Matuail, Sarulia, Demra, Manda, Dakshingaon and Nasirabad unions.
Officials of waste management department of the two city corporations have said that they could not recruit cleaners in those 36 wards due to mismanagement. Waste management work is stalled for lack of adequate trucks and manpower. Many ward councilors like ward no. 61 councilor Jummon Mia said they do not know when waste of their wards would be disposed as they do not have any cleaners in areas.
Fear of dengue outbreak already grips Dhaka dwellers. Breeding of Aedes mosquitoes cannot be checked due to absence of effective medicine. Piled up cattle waste would only exacerbate the situation and it is feared that the dengue situation would turn grave as a result.
The city corporations should have the preparation for waste management as it is known that hundreds of cattle would be sacrificed during Eid. City authorities are running development activities worth million of taka and they have enough funds. But it is totally unacceptable that funds or manpower be inadequate for such an important public issue.
The date of Eid-ul-Adha is not known beforehand. So sufficient funds could be defrayed and manpower recruited. But city authorities utterly failed to do so.
Anyone can claim the success of cent per cent removal of waste from the cities at a press briefing. But the city dwellers get frustrated and angry when such claims do not jibe with reality. It is the responsibility of two city corporations to spare them from such frustration. They can do it only by removing cattle waste as soon as possible.