With its only landfill having long overflowed, the Rajshahi City Corporation has been struggling with hundreds of tonnes of civic waste that it is dumping at different random locations, sparking serious health and environmental concerns.
The landfill, located in Nawdapara area, became operational in 2004 and has long surpassed its capacity, compelling the city authorities dispose of the daily waste along roadsides, farmland and even near educational institutions.
Concerned over the situation, experts have also stressed the city authorities should immediately introduce waste segregation methods and adopt updated recycling techniques and technologies in its waste management system.
According to its officials, the city now generates an estimated 400 tonnes of household and commercial waste every day, but roughly one-fourth of the waste goes uncollected.
The city corporation鈥檚 waste management workers first collect the waste from the households and dump them at its 19 secondary transfer stations and at various open locations from where they are taken to the Nawdapara landfill via trucks and tractors. City authorities said that as the landfill had run out of capacity, their staff left one-fourth of the daily garbage to rot in the open鈥攊n drains, waterbodies and other places.
Authorities said they were trying to establish a new landfill.
鈥極ur existing landfill at Nawdapara exceeded its capacity two or three years back. We have recently submitted a proposal to the ministry for permission to set up a new landfill,鈥� said Sheikh Md Mamun, chief conserver officer of Rajshahi City Corporation.
He said that it might took two or more years to make the new landfill operational as it involved approval from the ministry and other authorities as well as land accusations.
鈥榃e are now planning how we can dump the waste at the existing landfill,鈥� he added.
During a recent visit to Nawdapara landfill, heaps of unsegregated waste was found piled up along the Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj highway near the landfill.
Leachate from the landfill, spreading an unbearable stench, was seen seeping into nearby agricultural fields, while scavenging dogs, crows and flies swarmed the area, creating.
鈥榃e can鈥檛 open our windows anymore. It reeks unbearably. Mosquitoes and flies are everywhere,鈥� said Abdul Hadi, a resident of Uttar Nawdapara, adjacent to the landfill.
Professor Mahbubul Ahsan, principal of Rajshahi Residential College, said that the RCC cleaners were dumping waste along the Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj highway in front of his institution.
鈥榊esterday, they dumped waste, the carcass of a cow among it, right in front of the college gate,鈥� he said, adding that from afar, the college now looked like a garbage dump.
Health experts warn that unmanaged waste in urban and peri-urban spaces could trigger disease outbreaks, especially as monsoon rain begins to wash garbage into water bodies and residential areas.
鈥極pen dumping attracts vectors like flies and mosquitoes and increases the risk of cholera, dengue, skin infections and respiratory problems,鈥� said Sankar K Biswas, in-charge of the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital emergency department.
He added that medical waste, carcasses, and slaughterhouse waste were also being dumped without segregation, raising the risks of more dangerous infections.
Despite being a divisional city, Rajshahi has no system for waste segregation, composting, or recycling. All waste鈥攐rganic, plastic, hazardous and medical鈥攊s dumped in the same landfill.
Environmentalists see this as a failure of long-term planning and an indicator of systemic neglect.
Mizanur Rahman, a professor of geography and environmental science at Rajshahi University, in a study on the RCC waste management tested soil, surface water and industrial effluents from the Barnai drainage network, a system that carries the wastewater from the city to River Barnai.
The study found alarming levels of heavy metals鈥攝inc, lead, cadmium and chromium鈥攆ar above World Health Organisation safety limits.
鈥楥hildren playing near these fields where the waste is being dumped risk acute poisoning. Agricultural crops carry toxic residues into the food chain,鈥� he warns.
鈥極ur landfill sits atop permeable alluvium鈥攁ny rainfall accelerates leachate spread,鈥� said Abdulla Hill Baki, lead author of a 2024 study on RCC landfill suitability.
He urged the city authorities to commission a hydrogeological risk assessment before approving any new dumpsite.
Emdadul Hoque, a professor of mechanical engineering at Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, said that they in a study found that food and vegetable waste alone accounted for over 71 per cent of total municipal solid waste, which could be converted into energy through various waste-to-energy technologies.
He said that an estimated 159.40 MWh/day of electricity could be generated from the RCC鈥檚 358.19 tonnes of solid waste.
鈥楢nother promising method is anaerobic digestion, which uses microorganisms to break down organic waste and produce biogas. The energy potential from the anaerobic digestion process has been calculated as 3.85 MW. Cost analysis of the proposed plant has also been performed and the payback period has been estimated to be 4.9 years,鈥� he added.
The experts urged the RCC authorities to immediately construct a sanitary landfill, expand waste transfer infrastructure, and enforce waste segregation, while investing in composting, recycling and waste-to-energy solutions to prevent a looming public health and environmental disaster.