Waste of the sacrificial animals had yet not been removed from several areas and roads in Dhaka city till Tuesday afternoon, the third day after Eid-ul-Azha, one of the biggest religious festivals of Muslims.
During a visit to the Lalbagh area at about 11:30am on the day, mats used for processing the meat of sacrificed animals, cow hides and other waste materials were found disposed of along the Bakshibazar Road near the Dhaka Education Board office, spreading a terrible stench.
Similar waste was seen in Imamganj, also in Lalbagh area.聽
A resident of Bakshi Bazar, Md Mamun, said, 鈥楾he waste has been left here for two days. The stench is unbearable.鈥�
In both Dhaka South City and Dhaka North City Corporations, stench from rotting animal blood was found to spread and hung heavy in the air at many places, including South Kafrul and Khilgaon Taltola areas on the same day.
On Monday, meanwhile, the DSCC declared the completion of its cleaning operation of the waste of sacrificial animals. The DNCC, however, announced it would continue the drive. By that afternoon, the DSCC said that it had removed 31,226 tonnes of waste, and the DNCC had cleared 20,889 tonnes.
This year, 1,66,754 animals were sacrificed in DSCC areas, while 4,66,080 animals were sacrificed in DNCC areas.
On Tuesday, most of the roads in Dhaka city, however, were found cleared of the waste of sacrificial animals.
Muslims usually sacrifice animals for up to three days starting from the day of Eid-ul-Azha.
On Saturday, the first day of Eid, both the DNCC and DSCC claimed to have removed all sacrificial animal waste within 8.5 hours, by around 10:30pm.
However, the following morning, several media outlets published reports with photos showing animal waste still piled up and scattered in different spots in Dhaka city.聽
In response to the media reports, the DNCC issued a statement the same day, claiming that the animal waste shown in the media reports came from the animals sacrificed on late Saturday night.
In the statement, it clarified that sanitation workers cleared the newly generated waste later on and temporarily stored it on roads and at Secondary Transfer Stations, before landfill transfer in the morning.
It also said that the clean-up operations would continue through Sunday and Monday, as residents generally continued sacrificial activities up till the third day of Eid, resulting in continuous waste generation.
For the operation, the DSCC deployed 12,853 cleaners, along with 207 dump trucks, 200 mini trucks and other cleaning equipment, and distributed 1.4 lakh biodegradable bags, 40 tonnes of bleaching powder and 222 gallons of disinfectant across its 75 wards.
Similarly, the DNCC deployed nearly 10,000 cleaners, 224 dump trucks, 381 pickup vans and 24 payloader vehicles, and distributed among its clears 12.5 lakh polythene bags, 2,500 sacks of bleaching powder and 4,000 cans of disinfectant.