How good is solid waste management in Dhaka City?

The concept of solid waste management developed gradually over time. In many European countries in the 1660s, burial in cotton or linen shrouds was banned to allow more cloth for papermaking. In 1896, the first combined waste incineration and electricity scheme began operation in East London. Until the early 1890s, New York's garbage was mainly dumped in the Atlantic Ocean, polluting the beaches, resulting in protests by the resorts on the shores of New Jersey and New York. Then in 1894, a programme of source separation was implemented on the premise that mixed refuse limited the options for disposal, whereas the separation of wastes at the source allowed the city to recover some of the collection costs through the resale and reprocessing of materials.

In the early part of the last century, an ethnic minority in Egypt, the Zabbaleen, was one of the world's first communities to integrate recovery and recycling of municipal waste. It was the environmental movement in the late 1960s, which formally presented integrated Solid Waste Management as a guiding principle for managing the refuse. Since then this notion was widely implemented mostly in the industrialised countries.

In Dhaka City solid waste management has been becoming a serious issue day by day and its management system is in fact a continuous maintenance system. Broadly, the material flow stream of the solid waste from generation to ultimate disposal comprises (a) generation; (b) collection and transportation; (c) processing (if any) and (d) disposal. To keep the service running, continuous participation of the community receiving the service, as well as the services provided by the City Corporation is required.

City Corporation services are mainly centralized affairs, where wastes are collected from a particular location. But privately the wastes are stored in a specific bag, bin or brought to an agreed point, which are earmarked by the Corporation authorities. In most of the cases these do not materialize. This means that community participation is an important aspect of solid waste management for the city.

Perhaps it may be even more important than in any other urban services. Only recently has the management of solid waste services by communities themselves received attention. Some of the Community based solid waste management projects that are running in city are activities carried out by members of the communities to clean up their neighbourhood. In some cases they earn little income from solid waste. But these projects are limited to some particular areas or neighbourhood and are primarily concerned with the collection and transport of solid waste from their location to a dumping site outside. The final collection and transport of the waste to the final disposal site and operation from these sites is supposed to be carried out by the Corporation.

Community members can participate in solid waste management by contributions in cash, kind or labour. They can also participate by participation in consultation and by participation in administration and management of solid waste services. Community members and local leaders in urban communities play different roles in solid waste management in different parts of the city. These roles correspond to different levels of community participation.

In present Dhaka City, divided into old and new, local leaders can be divided as traditional, formal and informal leaders. Traditional leaders derive their authority from hereditary rights and from their status in the local culture (particularly in old part of Dhaka City). Formal leaders are elected as local representatives of the government (the Ward Commissioners). Informal leaders are influential members of a community on the basis of their personal status or of their activities in community-based organisations such as political parties, religious, youth and women's organisations, and cultural committees. All three types of local leaders may have different roles in solid waste management. Usually formal and informal leaders are more involved in solid waste management than traditional leaders. Involvement in management of solid waste services includes participation in the management of solid waste services and keeping contact with both the Corporation and the community. Traditional leadership in the older part of the city can play a vital role in this aspect.

Households form the largest category of stakeholders in waste management. They have a multi-faceted relationship to waste management activities: waste generators, waste service clients, receivers of information and participants in mobilisation for waste management. Households prepare their garbage in such a way that it can be collected by micro- and small enterprises, the local authority or a private company, or by waste pickers, or bought by itinerant buyers. Important roles of households in waste management are to store garbage, set out the garbage at the agreed place and time, use the official disposal sites and maintain private waste facilities. The community leadership has to look into the heterogeneity composition of the community to have better participation and to support households in playing their expected roles. The community leaders should also the gender, age and income class distinctions for practical consequences for SWM.

There are direct and indirect beneficiaries of urban waste management. Direct beneficiaries are the residents of a community who enjoy cleaner streets and surroundings, businessmen can operate efficiently, residents exposed to fewer diseases. The indirect beneficiaries are the government, which is charged with the responsibility for the services, since cleaner cities make their other responsibilities easier; businesses, for whom the investment or business climate improves with cleaner cities; national and regional governments responsible for environmental health in cities; and citizens of the country, whose economic affairs are linked to the conditions in the cities.

There is a need for genuine commitment at the household and community level for improved services in solid waste disposal. This involves the need for consultation between the stakeholders, following which there is a trade-off between what people want and what an institution is prepared and/or able to supply. Commitment may depend on the awareness of health, social and economic benefits of improved services and a willingness to contribute to the development and maintenance of the facilities. People may be happy to pay for services if they feel that they have a direct say in decisions: making a contribution is also perceived as a declaration of equality in status. There is also a role for the agency in being willing to encourage communities to make these improvements. In recent years Community-based solid waste management is a reality in many cities in developing countries, although it may take different forms. Given the continuing lack of means and regardless of the type of waste management, community-based SWM will be an important option for Dhaka City to keep its environment clean. To translate the concept into reality the conscious citizens must take the required initiatives.

Mesbah-us-Saleheen is Professor, Department of Geography and Environment, JU.