None of the 23 municipalities in Rajshahi and Natore districts has a dumping station of its own. Twenty-two of them leave their waste along roads, in rivers or on open land. Only Katakhali municipality in Rajshahi sends its waste to the Rajshahi City Corporation dumping station.

Puthia municipality once dumped its rubbish beside the Rajshahi-Natore highway and burned it every few days. After the roadside trees died, it began dumping into the Musakhan River. Shakhawat Munshi, a Kanaipara resident and teacher at Dhokrakul Degree College, said the once-flowing Musakhan had been finished off by waste. Residents lodged a written complaint with the upazila nirbahi officer about a year ago, he said, but nothing was done.

Shibu Das, Puthia's municipal administrator and assistant commissioner (land), said nobody wants to give land once they hear it is for a dumping station, though the municipality keeps trying. Kankonhat municipality dumps by the road at Gorgoria, where locals say two large mahogany trees have died; dumping was still going on there on 18 September.

Banpara municipality in Natore dumps beside the Banpara-Hatikumrul highway, where six trees, among them palmyra and date palms, have died. Laila Jannatul Ferdous, the municipal administrator and Baraigram UNO, acknowledged the nuisance and said a government letter had asked for a dumping station on khas land if it can be found. Godagari municipality has none either; UNO Israt Jahan said land would be bought once a suitable plot is found.

Nazrul Islam, deputy director of the Local Government Division in Rajshahi, called a dumping station a basic need of any municipality. Taherpur has approval for one but has not built it, he said, and has been urged to do so. Shamim Hossain, his counterpart in Natore, said a dump should be settled before a town becomes a municipality; when he raised it in Dhaka he was told these would come in stages.

Open dumping is fouling rivers, roadside trees and the land around. Hasan Ali, working a field beside one dump, said that wherever the wind blows, the smell follows and no one can stand there. The report is by Prothom Alo's Abul Kalam Muhammad Azad.

Source: Prothom Alo