The Dhaka North City Corporation’s (DNCC) landfill at Ameenbazar has been running without a clearance from the department of environment for over a decade now.
The corporation has been dumping waste at the flood-prone area without any clearance since 2007.
The issue was tabled during a meeting of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s parliamentary standing committee on Thursday (Apr 4).
The Ammenbazar waste landfill was built on 50 acres of land in the 2005-06 fiscal year. DNCC began waste treatment there since 2007 and is still continuing doing so although the plant expired in 2017.
Everyday nearly 3,000 tonne of waste is treated there and despite the expiry date the management capacity hasn’t been increased yet.
According to the committee the landfill was given clearance for the location back when the city corporations were undivided.
They, however, didn’t have any clearance from the environment ministry as they didn’t submit the ‘Environmental Impact Assessment’ report based on which the clearance is given.
“Dumping operations cannot be carried out with only location clearance. The question is how they have been working for all these years,” said Saber Hossain Chowdhury who is heading the committee.
He said that the dumping station is located in a flood zone and during monsoon the waste is polluting the nearby river.
“Although 50 acres of land was procured they are working on 73 acres which is damaging for the landowners as well,” he added.
The committee also expressed reservations about the impact of increased plastic bottle use on the environment.
In 1990, the use of one-time plastic in Bangladesh was 15,000 tonne which currently stands at 120,000 tonne.
On the rise in plastic use, Chowdhury said, “There is no regulation regarding one-time plastics.”
He added that much work hasn’t been done in the country regarding this. “We need to figure out how to recycle it.”