Abstract:
The rapid growth of population together with increase in urban areas and changes in
consumption is a common phenomenon world wide and especially in developing
countries. In conjunction with rapid growth of cities, the exponential growth of solid
waste along with its environmental impacts is among the most critical problems that large
cities in developing countries face now-a-days. Also, huge quantities of energy and
resources are being wasted through the improper handling and disposal of solid waste in
developing countries.
The study revealed that, Barisal City Corporation (BCC), responsible for management of
solid waste of Barisal city is inefficient and unsatisfactory. The total amount of domestic
solid waste generated is about 140 tons per day from 4 lakh residents. Due to
uncontrolled recycling, mostly by scavengers, BCC can handle nearly 45% of the
generated solid wastes. With limited resources in terms of money, skilled manpower and
logistics managing such bulk volume of solid waste is difficult. Moreover, transportation
of solid waste through open Truck and Rickshaw Van results in public nuisances due to
irregular cleaning of open bin. These uncollected and untreated wastes are left to rot,
which pose a threat to the public health, environment as well as the ecology. It is found
from the study that domestic waste generation rate of BCC is 0.265 kg/ capita/day. It is
also observed that domestic waste generation rate from medium income residential area is
higher than that from slum areas. The average inorganic waste generation of high income
group is higher than that of slum areas. It is also found that, the amount of recyclable
waste that is generated from low income people is very less. They try to sell it to the
Hawkers and don't like to throw it to the bins. This also expresses that the waste
generation rate varies with respect to income level of the people.
It is found that, the waste generation rate during rainy season for high, medium and low
income groups of BCC are 0.33,0.24 and 0.23 kg/capita/day, respectively during summer
season is 0.30, 0.19 and 0.18 kg/capita/day. It is also observed from the surface water
quality analysis from the disposal site that these samples have high organic loading.
