The executive body of the National Environment Committee on Thursday asked local government bodies to collect, carry and dump solid wastes from households in a segregated way to ensure proper solid waste management.
An executive committee meeting, chaired by environment minister Md Shahab Uddin, asked city corporations, municipalities and other local government bodies to develop a system where perishable and imperishable wastes would be collected and transported to landfills separately taking into account the health risks of the people and the protection of land and water bodies.
Accordingly, each household will have to segregate perishable, plastic and imperishable wastes, the committee draft resolution reads.
It also added that the local government bodies will have to develop a ‘closed system’ for carrying wastes separately as well as for sanitary landfill and waste recycling and reusing systems.
Urban planners said that roughly 40 per cent wastes produced in the country are dumped in a haphazard manner, which include medical wastes, electrical and electronic wastes, construction wastes and kitchen wastes, among others.
After the 15th meeting of the committee held on Thursday, the executive committee chairman Shahab Uddin told New Age, ‘We expect that our recommendations will be executed from this year.’
Agriculture minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, state minister for shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, state minister for water resources Zahid Faruk, state minister for disaster management Md Enamur Rahman and representatives of 19 other ministries, divisions and agencies participated in the committee meeting.
The National Environment Committee, chaired by the prime minister, was formed in 2012 and its executive committee, chaired by the environment minister, recommends strategies for sustainable development and follows up on their executions.
The executive committee expressed concerns over the absence of a proper medical waste management system in regions outside the capital.
It asked for initiating pilot projects on medical waste management at district towns in association with local government bodies.
It further asked hospitals and clinics across the country for developing incinerators or effluent treatment plants in phases.
For discouraging polythene and plastic use, the committee asked the department of environment and the law enforcing agencies for strictly enforcing the laws.
At the same time, it recommended giving incentives to entrepreneurs for manufacturing biodegradable bags.
It further suggested giving incentives so that people are inspired to manufacture concrete bricks and at the same time discouraged to develop brick kilns which were one of the main contributors to the disappearance of agricultural lands, deforestation and air pollution.
The committee meeting resolution reads that brick kilns alone contribute 50 per cent of the total air pollution in the country while they destroy an estimated 335 crore cubic meters of land to produce an estimated 230 crore tonnes of bricks per year.
Brick kilns burn an estimated 57 lakh tonnes of coals while some kilns burn woods illegally collecting them from forests, it adds.
‘We will request the finance division for announcing special incentives for producing biodegradable bags and concrete bricks,’ environment minister Shahab said, adding that the government took a policy to abolish the use of conventional brick by 2030.
Shahab said that the committee asked the agencies responsible to include a provision in the tender schedules regarding construction material management in a bid to control air pollution.
The committee further asked the department of environment, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and the police for strictly enforcing the laws to control carbon emission from unfit vehicles.
It also asked the agencies concerned for taking measures to control sound pollution.
Expressing concerns over an increase in the rate of hill cutting for developing rail tracks, roads and housing projects in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar districts, the committee recommended strict enforcement of the laws.
In case of initiating emergency government projects, the committee asked the agencies concerned for taking approval from their respective hill cutting management committees as well as from the department of environment.
For protecting the water bodies, the executive committee of the National Environment Committee asked the agencies concerned to strictly execute the laws while discouraging land use for development and housing projects.
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