Imagine 47,000 people per square kilometer living side by side. Dhaka, with a staggering 21 million people in total, is the most densely populated city in the world. Its population continues to grow with a rate of 4.2% per year. Waste generation is increasing at similar rates, posing undeniable challenges to the waste management system of Dhaka. Wet-markets are the most important locations for people to access fresh and affordable food. Depending on their size, these markets generate 8 to 50 tons of waste per day. What is happening to this waste?
To reduce roadside waste dumping, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has established secondary waste transfer stations (STS). These are intermediate collection points of waste before transferring to landfills or waste processing units outside of the city. The map indicates such stations in the form of red dots. Every day, waste is transferred from wet-markets (represented with black dots on the map) to the nearest STS via trucks. Two types of trucks are used for transferring the waste from wet-markets to STSs- DNCC owned trucks with a capacity of 3.7 tons and private company owned trucks with a capacity of 7.8 tons. Considering both truck types, spatial analysis reveals that 391 trips and 31,000 tk (at the fuel cost of 50 tk per km) are required per day to transfer the waste from all the wet-markets in DNCC to their nearest STSs.
Around 90% of the waste generated at the wet-markets is organic. By treating 60% of this waste at the source, the city can save 240 trips and 20,000 tk on fuel cost. GIS can quickly simulate the real-world change brought by the introduction of the waste management system at the site of waste generation. In addition, it helps to identify the wet-markets with low accessibility to STSs, measure the required capacity of STS, and find suitable locations for new STS’s. Such insights help to calculate the feasibility of project interventions through the presentation of measurable change.
Sources
- Enayetullah, I., Sinha, A. M. M., and Khan, S. S. A. (2005). Urban solid waste management scenario of Bangladesh: problems and prospects. Waste Concern.
- Yasmin, S., and Rahman, M. I. (2017). A review of solid waste management practice in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy, 5(2), 19-25.
