Zakir Azad, ,Cumilla

Chandina Municipality of Cumilla has waste of 14.2 square kilometers with 9 wards now become a burden for the authorities.

The municipal authorities, which are polluting the environment by dumping waste next to the highway today, and next to the regional road tomorrow, are now not getting a place to dump garbage.

The authorities concerned are helpless and are not cleaning the garbage in the municipal area. Piles of garbage in important places including the municipal headquarters have now become a mess. This has caused extreme suffering in public life.

The Chandina Municipality, formed in 1997, has been upgraded from 'C' category to 'B' category, and the organization has not been able to develop a specific place to dump waste even after 27 years of its establishment After dumping garbage on the side of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway for a long time, at one point, the municipal authorities started dumping garbage on the side of the regional road from the highway in the face of the cannon of the news workers.

After dumping garbage in the Dumuria area of the Chandina-Badera road for a few years, the municipal authorities faced public anger there too after the fall of the Awami League government on August 5.

Finally, they were forced to start dumping garbage in their own field inside the boundary wall of the municipal building. When it was difficult to enter the municipal building due to the garbage for a few days, the municipal authorities started dumping garbage at the Road and Highway Department's place in the Katherpul area of Chandina, adjacent to the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. The last time was a week ago, the Chandina Municipality faced a roadblock by the Highway Police there too. Currently, the organization has stopped collecting garbage in the municipal area. Due to which the municipal headquarters, including Chandina Bazar, and its surrounding areas, have become a mess.

The pile of garbage in the market itself has become a mess day by day. This has put public health at extreme risk. It can be seen on the ground that the rotten smell of garbage piled up on the main road of Chandina Bazar has spread throughout the area.

All the garbage piles in the market include waste from houses, hotels and restaurants, as well as hospitals. The pungent stench of garbage from the fish market and meat market is suffocating.

The garbage piles in the vegetable market are rotting and spreading an extreme stench. In addition, the non-removal of daily garbage from residential areas has caused extreme suffering in public life.
Meanwhile, mobile shopkeepers standing next to the garbage piles are setting fire to the garbage piles in the dark of night. This not only pollutes the environment but also poses a serious fire risk. Debabrata Bhowmik, a resident of Baganbari area of the municipality, said that there are at least 21 families in our house. We used to keep the daily garbage in a specific place at the gate of the house.

The municipality would pick them up after evening. But now, due to the non-collection of garbage for a week, it has become difficult to stay at home. We pay taxes to the municipality. The municipal authorities are supposed to look after the facilities of the citizens. If they show full responsibility now, people will get sick from the stench of this garbage.

Chandina Bazar trader Enam Bhuiyan said, the most important area of Chandina Bazar is our business in the cloth market. There is a pile of garbage at the entrance of our market. It has become difficult to do business here because not only the garbage from the market is there, but also all the garbage including fish scales, meat bones and other garbage from the houses in the area.

Besides, people are not willing to enter the market due to this pile of garbage. Bilal Hossain of Maharang village, a buyer who came to the market, said that there is garbage all over the market. Earlier, in addition to collecting garbage from the municipality after evening, the market was swept after evening. Now, far from having brooms in the market, no workers or municipal trucks are coming to the market to collect garbage. I do not know if such a situation exists in any municipality in the country.

President of the Chandina Bazar Merchants' Association Md. Ershad Ali Bhuiyan said that after the establishment of the municipality, no one has been able to determine a place to dump garbage! Not only the residents of the municipality come to Chandina Bazar. Chandina Bazar is the place of people from the entire upazila and several surrounding upazilas.

The entire bazar area is full of garbage due to the non-removal of garbage from the market and surrounding areas for more than a week. If the municipality does not take immediate action, the people will face extreme suffering.
Executive Officer of Chandina Municipality Md. Yusuf Ali said that people are not allowing garbage to be dumped anywhere in the municipality. The municipality has to clean at least two pickup trucks of garbage every day. But we are not able to dump even a single piece of garbage anywhere. None of the previous mayors could buy a specific place to dump garbage from the municipality.

They even played no role in waste management. Due to which, now the garbage of the municipal council is not being removed. Chandina Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) and Municipal Administrator Nazia Hossain said, we are ready to buy a specific place to dump garbage from the municipality. But we are not able to buy a place to dump garbage anywhere.
On the other hand, we are facing blockages wherever we go to dump garbage. Due to which no waste from the municipal area is being removed. We are discussing the matter with the higher authorities. Some arrangement will be made soon.