Dhaka landfill waste practices: addressing urban pollution and health hazards

Abstract

Two Dhaka, Bangladesh, landfills are explored to understand how management practices impact environmental quality and public health in the surrounding areas. A combination of research methods is used, such as geospatial buffer zone analysis, semi-structured observation checklist and qualitative interviews, to gain an understanding of the waste transportation, leachate percolation, and adverse health and environmental effects. A multi-ring buffer zone and ground truth method were applied through ArcMap for the spatial distribution of landfill-adjacent environmental features. Qualitative interviews were conducted with landfill officials and nearby residents. Findings reveal that landfills are situated very close to residential areas, water bodies and agricultural lands, exposing them to various health and environmental hazards. Improper solid waste management practices of the landfills cause adverse environmental effects by leachate percolation, waste incineration and vector breeding. Adjacent dwellers suffer from bronchial diseases, pneumonia, diarrhoea, itching problems, headache and appetite loss. The existing solid waste management system requires managerial and technical modifications to reduce the associated environmental pollution and health hazards. PRACTICE RELEVANCEWaste management practices impact directly on environmental and public health. Dhaka's existing waste management practices can become better organised to address these concerns. Source waste reduction must be implemented to ensure the reduction of disposed waste at landfills. Administrative capacity of landfills requires

Industrial Water Demand and Wastewater Generation: Challenges for Bangladesh’s Water Industry

“…68 A recent observation from the nearby villages of the Amin Bazar landfill revealed that the surrounding surface waterbodies have become unsuitable for fish cultivation, forcing the farmers and fishermen in these areas to switch livelihoods. 69 The treated Rajbandh landfill leachate contains high concentrations of trace metals and other toxic substances and is unsuitable to be discharged into inland waters. 44 Thus, improving the existing leachate treatment units and establishing new units and are essential, considering the shortcomings of the current treatments.…”

Open Landfill Site and Threat to the Proximity Resident’s: Addressing Perceived Consequences of Unscientific Solid Waste Dumping Using GIS Techniques

“…During the tour, the researcher engaged the inhabitants in an unstructured interview to establish the nature of the land ll's impact on the neighborhood. However, according to the previous studies, people residing within the proximity of 500m -2 km from the land ll sites are severely affected (De and Debnath 2016;Ganesan 2017;Urme et al 2021;Singh et al 2021). As a result, two techniques, namely purposive and criteria sampling procedures, were used to collect the data for the present study.…”

“…Subsequently, the nal interviews were done using a semi-structured questionnaire (includes both open and close-ended questions), which allowed respondents to express a wide range of opinions on how the dumpsite has impacted their lives. Besides, quantitative techniques like site observation, focus group discussion, and note on perceptions were also adopted to understand better their real-life scenarios and adjustments near the land ll sites (De and Debnath 2016;Weldeyohanis 2020;Urme et al 2021;Etea et al 2021). However, all these data were collected with the help of some enumerators after proper instruction and preparation.…”

“…Open land ll areas are susceptible to the incubation and multiplication of ies, mosquitoes, rodents, and cockroaches; as a result, it becomes a source of pollution (Singh et al 2021); breeding of such insects are common around the land ll, which consequences in spreading of vector-borne diseases causing threat to the nearby residents (Urme et al 2021). Besides, the problems due to ies, mosquitoes, and rodents have been studied for many years (Dhillon & Challet 1985;Howard 2001;Lole 2005), but there has been a scarcity of work related to the perceived impact of such insects using GIS technology.…”

The Harm and Countermeasures of Automobile Exhaust Pollution Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning

“…Although some catalytic and purification equipment is usually installed in motor vehicles, sulfur dioxide usually accumulates on its surface, which makes the use of catalytic equipment inconvenient [6][7]. With the rapid development of industrial desulfurization technology, the sulfur dioxide produced by vehicle exhaust will be greatly reduced, but the pollution situation has not disappeared [8].…”