Dhaka, May 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) Garbage collection can earn lucrative profits in the Bangladesh capital; so attractive are the earnings that acquiring the “job” requires “blessings” from those in power, according to a media report.
In the heart of Dhaka, the seemingly mundane business of household waste management has become a gainful trade, deeply entangled with political patronage, according to a report in Bangladesh’s popular Bengali daily Prothom Alo on Thursday.
It revealed how control over garbage collection in the capital has shifted with each regime change, where local politicians wield influence to secure contracts, impose inflated fees, and muscle out competitors.
What should be a straightforward municipal service has evolved into a multi-crore “waste economy”, where power and profit intersect.
The newspaper spoke to a cross-section of people, including vendors and officials.
Shahabuddin Ali, once a scrap iron dealer in Old Dhaka, shared how small entrepreneurs are caught in this system.
Hoping for better returns, he invested 12 lakh Bangladeshi taka as a non-refundable deposit to secure a contract for waste collection in Ward 38 of Dhaka South City Corporation. He employed 24 workers and purchased vans, confident of steady profits.
He reportedly managed to secure the contract through an influential person during the interim government in Bangladesh, the report added.
Within two months of an elected government taking over, local Bangladesh Nationalist Party activists allegedly took over his operations.
“They threatened to beat me up and took away my job,” Ali told Prothom Alo, alleging that his appeals to influential leaders yielded nothing.
Left without earnings, except for the small shop he had inherited, his life’s savings soon dried up in supporting his family.
A similar story was cited about a businesswoman who received a waste-removal contract in Ward 58 of Dhaka South City in September 2024.
However, local Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders and activists allegedly prevented her from working, claiming she was involved with the now-banned Jubo Mohila League.
According to the report, Dhaka South City Corporation has 75 wards, each of which assigns garbage management to private players through tenders.
Officially, the deposit now ranges between Tk 15–17 lakh depending on ward size. Yet, in practice, contracts are controlled by political leaders, it claimed.
There have been no mayors or councillors in the two city corporation areas of Dhaka for the past two years, the report further pointed out.
It also claimed that even under the previous Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League rule, its councillors and activists dominated the trade.
Following the party’s ouster in August 2024, Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders and affiliates took control, the report added.
Although city regulations cap household waste-collection fees at Tk 100 per flat, residents often end up paying double or more, according to the report.
They are charged between Tk 120 and Tk 1,000 each, depending on the locality and the stature of the homeowner or business establishment.
Residents complained to the newspaper that they were “held hostage” by waste collectors, while city officials admitted to political patronage.
The trade, the report underscored, is highly profitable.
Even at the official Tk 100 rate, a ward can generate a monthly profit of Tk 3 lakh after expenses. With inflated fees of Tk 150–200, profits soar to Tk 4–5 lakh per ward.
Across 75 wards, this translates to Tk 3 crore per month, or Tk 36 crore per year. Urban planners, however, estimate even higher figures, the report added.
Based on 293,881 registered holdings in Dhaka South, the average collection of Tk 150 per flat yields Tk 26 crore monthly, amounting to over Tk 317 crore annually.
This dwarfs the city’s official sanitation budget, underscoring how waste collection has become a parallel economy, according to Prothom Alo.
Without local accountability, political groups have entrenched themselves in the trade, it said, adding that city administrators insist they are cracking down on contractors who exceed the prescribed Tk 100 per household charge.
Licences will be revoked for violators, they claimed.
Yet residents remain sceptical, pointing to the entrenched nexus between politics and business, the report added.
-- IANS
jb/dan
Source: IANS
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