In the afternoon of 25 May, Munni Akhter took her 10 year-old younger brother Mahin to Shaheed Sheikh Russel Shishu Park on Mirpur Road in Kalabagan from her home in Tejkunipara in Tejgaon. She has come to a small amusement park for the second time to let her younger brother enjoy the rides. But the problem she was facing was the fetid air blowing in the park because the park is set up next to a Secondary Transfer Station (STS) of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).
“The place is not healthy but I had to bring him so that he can enjoy the times,” said Munni, who visited the park for the first time with her friend some months back.
Dhaka’s two city corporations have set up 119 Secondary Transfer Stations (STSs) across the city to effectively manage the solid waste to make a healthy environment but the places, where STSs are stationed, are posing a huge threat to public health.
Photo: BFirst
This correspondent visited the STS at the Mohammadpur Fertility Services and Training Centre which is also a 100-bedded Mother and Child Health Hospital. Next to the gate of the hospital lies a STS, the waste vans are coming and the waste were unloaded inside the station. The leachate of the waste has spread in the road in front of the STS, making the road unhealthy to walk on.
Dilara Begum, a betel leaf and cigarette seller, has been sitting at the gate of the hospital for more than two years. She said that they cannot stay at a place with a bad odor for long.
“We go a long distance to have our food and the rickshaw pullers cannot stay for a long time because of the odor,” said Dilara Begum. The STS was set up on such a road which is used by many school going children every day too.
Mohammadpur Fertility Services and Training Centre Director Muniruzzaman Siddiqui said the STS at the gate of a hospital poses a serious health hazard for the patients.
“The hospital is specialised for pregnant women and babies. As a result, it poses a serious health threat for these vulnerable groups of the people. The STS in front of a hospital of such sensitivity is undesired. It is a breeding ground for germs and bacteria,” said Muniruzzaman.
He added that they informed the Dhaka North City (DNCC) Mayor Atiqul Islam in 2019 and the mayor himself visited the STS and asked city corporation officials to take measures in this regard. Meanwhile, it has been five years and no initiative of relocation has been taken yet, he continued.
A 2020 study titled ‘Exploring health risk of people living near the Secondary Transfer Stations and Landfills in Dhaka’ found that the leachate migration from the landfill and STSs make the surrounding environment worse and causes health sufferings to the people living near the STS or landfill along with the people directly working.
“Findings from the spatial data reveal that 12 STSs within 50-100 meters and 54 STSs within 100 meters radius of an education institute and around 75 STSs are also located within 100 meters radius of the health facilities,” the study found.
The study stated that poor management and incautious allocation of the STSs and landfills have adverse effects on the people's health residing nearby. Managing waste in the landfill and STS with a proper manner, and engaging more manpower with adequate safety equipment could be a great help to reduce the health sufferings of the people living nearby.
DNCC’s Chief Waste Management Officer Captain Fida Hasan said they have set the STSs wherever they found spaces. He also said that no one in the city corporation wants to give space for setting up STSs.
“We will consider shifting the STSs if we get alternative places for setting up those,” said Captain Fida Hasan.
He added that DNCC has a total of 55 STSs in its jurisdiction. He further said that it decided to set up a total of 108 STSs.
However, Fida Hasan echoed that STSs pollute the environment.
When asked about the location of the STSs in front of the health facilities and educational institutions, he said that they will consider whether they can relocate the STSs from health facilities and educational institutions.
DSCC’s Chief Waste Management Officer Mohammad Nasim Ahmed said they know that some secondary transfer station waste give off bad smells. But they do not have any plan to shift the STSs because they do not have any alternative places to set up stations.
“What we can do right now to manage the solid waste more efficiently, we cannot shift those STSs which are next to a park,” said Nasim.
He went on saying that they have a total of 68 STSs across the DSCC area. Of them, four are under construction. They want to set up more STSs but they cannot because they are not finding a place to set up.
The same scenario will come to view on the Ring Road in Mohammadpur area. The DNCC has set up its STS next to the gate of the Badsha Faisal Institute. Even at noon, the garbage vans have occupied one-third of the space of the road in front of the STS.
A guardian of a 9-year-old Bayzid who studies at the Badsha Faisal Institute was standing at the gate and looking for a rickshaw. She said that she finds it very hard to stay at the gate of the school for more than five minutes but nobody cares.
“The wind is filled with such a putrid smell that you cannot even for a minute. But we don't have an alternative because we have our children in the school,” said the guardian.
One of the officials of the Badsha Faisal Institute said that they contacted the city corporation authorities and the local MP to relocate the STS but the initiatives did not become fruitful. As a result, the students, teachers and the officials of the institution especially have been suffering from the problem for years, he continued.