We are dumbfounded by the situation that has been created in Chattogram city regarding waste collection from households. Reportedly, the garbage collectors of the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) stopped collecting household waste regularly since the beginning of the pandemic and over time, their absence has only become more frequent. While in an ideal situation, the waste collectors should come to collect waste every day, in the CCC areas, they only come twice a week now. Besides, there are no dustbins in the city areas where the citizens themselves can dump the waste. The result is, residents are being forced to dump all kinds of household waste in open spaces, which is ruining the city's overall environment. Our reporter recently visited some of the areas of the city and found household waste wrapped in polythene bags lying on roads and in front of houses, with dogs, cats and other animals spreading them around.

Reportedly, in 2017, the CCC appointed over 2,000 conservancy workers and started their door-to-door waste collection programme. During that time, the city corporations also removed most of the open and container dustbins of the city. Now that the waste collectors, appointed on a daily wage basis, are not doing their job properly, the port city's waste management system has completely broken down.

The questions that should be asked here are, why are the workers remaining absent from work? Do they have any grievances about their jobs? Are they being paid regularly or not? Could it be that they are engaged in other work, besides waste collection? Are the supervisors, appointed at every ward to monitor the particular ward's waste collection programme, doing their jobs? What was the logic behind removing all the dustbins from the city areas? The Chattogram city authorities must answer these questions in order to solve the problem.

Having a proper waste management system should be the top priority for any city. In the absence of such a system, it is not only the residents who suffer, but the overall environment of the city also becomes polluted. We urge the new mayor of Chattogram to look into the matter and solve the problem as early as possible.