At the ferry ghat on the Banar River in Kapasia, Gazipur, the boats, boatmen and passengers are all there, but the smell of rotting waste hits everyone who arrives. Passengers pick their way over polythene, rotten vegetables and other rubbish to board. Years of dumping have nearly blocked part of the ghat; some of the waste slides into the river and plastic spreads across the riverbed.

Locals say waste from Kapasia bazar and nearby areas has been dumped on the bank regularly for about five years. Schoolchildren, college and madrasa students and shoppers cross at the ghat every day. Residents also allege that some vegetable sellers at the market wash their produce in the polluted river water, which, if true, puts consumers' food at risk too.

'Who do we tell? Nobody listens to us,' said boatman Sudhas Chandra Monidas. Trader Md Shafiqul Islam said many governments had come and gone without anyone acting on the waste. Another trader, Nazrul Islam, said it was sad that this happens despite a waste management centre being there.

That is the striking part: only about 500 metres from the ghat stands a waste management and compost production centre built under the upazila administration. Opened in October 2023 to turn waste into organic fertiliser, it has been effectively idle since 2024, locals say.

Kapasia's assistant commissioner (land) said the existing centre is not working because it sits among homes and residents object. 'We will build a waste management plant. We are looking at a new site by the river,' he said.

Source: The Daily Observer