Dhaka can take a lesson from Chittagong’s recently launched door-to-door garbage collection and removal program.
Our capital is badly in need of better waste management. Littering is a common sight, and even more serious problems are caused by garbage being dumped in rivers and water bodies.
It is expected that as our economy grows, so does our waste. There is a great need to manage that waste in a proper and environment-friendly manner.
Managing household waste with better garbage collection is a good place to start. We need initiatives which enable garbage to be collected from households and transferred directly to landfills of the city. Neighbourhoods would be cleaner as a result, and the problem of citizens being faced with overflowing amounts of waste in huge containers on the sides of the streets would be mitigated.
Cleaning up Dhaka has never been easy -- every stake-holder needs to co-operate. Citizens must make sure that they utilise the waste bins that have been placed around the city, and littering must stop. Households need to put their garbage out on time for the collectors to pick them up, and collectors have to dilligently carry out their duties of showing up daily and transferring the waste to its respective landfill.
It is time to take our country’s environmental matters seriously, and join in the initiatives to make Bangladesh a greener and cleaner place.
