Description about title

1. Asian Institute of Technology
School of Environment, Resources and Development
Environmental Engineering and Management
Hazardous Waste Technology and
Management
(ED-78.23)
Submitted To: Dr. Dr. Wenchao Xue
Submitted By: M.Aktaruzzaman Hasan (ST 121343)
Assignment No. 1. Intersem 2020
________________________________________________________________________
Topic: Status of Hazardous Waste Management in Bangladesh
1. Introduction :
For hazardous waste definition we utilize the Bangladesh Country Fact Sheet, 2005 definition.
Here the national definition of hazardous waste is used in the context of transboundary
movements of such waste entering or existing in Bangladesh. According to this document:
Hazardous substance means the substance which by reason of its chemical or bio-chemical
properties is such that its manufacture, storage, discharge or unregulated transportation can be
responsible for the damage of environment.
Bangladesh regulates/controls additional waste as hazardous that is not included in ‘Art. 1 (I) a’
of the Basel Convention and would be controlled for the purpose of transboundary movements
pursuant to the ‘Art. 1 (I) b’. Definition of hazardous substance in the Bangladesh Environment
Conservation Act, 1995 covers all sorts of hazardous waste. The country fact sheet also states
“hazardous substance” means a Substance - the chemical or biochemical properties of which are
such that its manufacture, storage, discharge or unregulated transportation can be harmful to the
environment.
Industries in Bangladesh are the prime consumers of toxic and hazardous materials and they are
producers as well. Among them are steel, non-ferrous metals, fertilizer, pesticides, asbestos,
cement, toxic chemicals and leather. Many of them produce lots of hazardous wastes. They
discharge their wastewater untreated and the high biological and chemical contaminants degrade
the aquatic life in the nearby rivers. Ground water pollution is a strong possibility too. The
growth of industries in the country has generally been unplanned without keeping the issue of
environment protection in careful considerations. There are many industries in the residential
areas causing air and water pollution through smoke emission and dumping of untreated effluent.
Not only industries but also agricultural development exploits toxic and hazardous materials to
suit its purpose. Production of food grain and other crops has increased significantly since the
use of fertilizers and pesticides while quality of our land has. suffered due to indiscriminate use

2. of such chemicals. Farmers spraying pesticides and using fertilizers, in many cases, are suffering
from heart and skin diseases. Cows, goats and other domestic animals eating fertilizer-fed and
pesticide-affected grass are reported to be suffering from diseases. Fish population in the rivers
and other water bodies have drastically decreased due to water pollution by toxic and
hazardous chemicals including fertilizers and pesticides.
Until very recently, however, scant attention was paid to the damage to the environment and
ecology done by these industries. The absence of any legal framework for preservation of
environmental quality and lack of public awareness about the issues involved have allowed
companies to set up industries without any built-in safe-guards against pollution of the
environment.
2 . Existing Legislationon Waste Management of Bangladesh :
Schematic diagram for formulation of waste management policy.
The existing waste management policy neither includes any waste to energy recovery targets, nor
does it explain any recycling or reuse targets. Besides, there are no provisions for incentives for
waste minimization. Some synopsis of polies are as bellow:

3. The Dhaka Municipal Ordinance, 1983: The ordinance authorizes Dhaka City Corporation
(DCC) to take the responsibility of removal, collection and disposal of refuse, management of
latrines and urinals, control on dyeing and tanning skins, bricks, kilns, medical practice on
infectious diseases and direction towards house scavenging, cleaning drainage, cleansing of
streets etc. i. 78(1) The Corporation shall make adequate arrangement for removal of refuse from
all public streets, public latrines, drains and all buildings and land vested in the corporation and
for the collection and proper disposal of such refuse. The occupiers of all buildings
and lands within the corporation shall be responsible for removal of refuse from such buildings
and lands subject to the general control and supervision of the Corporation. The Corporation
may provide public-dustbin or other suitable receptacles at suitable places. The Corporation may,
by public notice, require that all refuse accumulating in any premises or land shall be deposited
by the owner or occupier of such premises of land in such dustbins or receptacles. all
refuse removed and collected by the staff of the Corporation or under their control and
supervision and all refuse deposited in the dustbins and other receptacles provided by the
Corporation.
The Environment Policy, 1992: The Environment Policy, 1992 intends to restrict disposal of
municipal, industrial or agricultural wastes in any water bodies like rivers, ponds and drains. It
also discourages open truck transportation during daytime collection of waste.
Urban Management Policy Statement, 1998: The policy considers the interest of providing
economic, efficient and reliable services; municipalities shall endeavor to contract out solid
waste disposal, public sanitation, drain cleaning and road maintenance.
The penal Code: It provides with six months imprisonment or fine to Taka 2000(BDT) or both
for causing public nuisance with respect to negligence about spread of life threatening
infectious disease, causing damage to climate, negligence about poisonous substances. It also
empowers a magistrate of jurisdiction to pass conditional order for removal of nuisance.
Environment Conservation Rule, 1997: According to Environment Conservation Rule, 1997,
landfill activity by industrial, household and commercial waste is categorized as
Red Category activity and therefore undertaking any landfill project must consider
environmental impact assessment and NO Objection Certificate (NOC) need to be obtained.
The Factory Act, 1965: The act address with cleanliness, disposal of wastes and polluted
liquids, air circulation and temperature control, control of dust, sand and smoke, artificial
ventilation, heavy traffic arrangement of sufficient light, drinking water, toilet, latrines etc.
within the mills and factories.
National Environmental Management Action Plan (NEMAP): The Ministry of Environment
and Forest (MoEF) has formulated this action plan. NEMAP has recommended for actions in the
areas of sanitation, solid waste management, water supply and environmental awareness etc.
Based on the findings and recommendations of NEMAP, the government has taken up projects
like community-based water supply and sanitation, community based solid waste management
and community based wastewater treatment (GoB, 1995).

4. National Policy for Water Supply and Sanitation 1998: The Ministry of Local Government
Rural Development & Cooperatives has prepared this policy. Special emphasis has been given
on participation of private sector and NGOs in water supply and sanitation in urban areas.
Local Level Legal Framework: There is no adequate legislation in the country to address the
growing problems of solid waste. The responsibility of removal and disposal of municipal solid
waste lies with the City Corporations and municipalities. The six City Corporation Ordinances
and Pourshava(small town municipality) Ordinance 1977 are the only local law that gives some
idea about disposal of municipal waste.
3. Hazardous waste ManagementPracticesin Bangladesh:
Before talk about hazardous waste management let’s see the picture of waste management of
Bangladesh. Waste management system in Bangladesh is not well organized. The figure
illustrates the existing waste management process in Bangladesh. There are three systems of
waste management in Bangladesh (DOE, 2004).
One is the `Formal System‟, where municipalities/city corporations are responsible for Solid
Waste Management (SWM).
”Formal system‟ is based on the conventional system of collection-transportation-disposal of
waste carried out by the local authorities. In this system the concept of recycling is absent,
`Community Initiative‟ that is based on primary solid waste collection by CBOs and NGOs.
Finally, `Informal System‟ represented by the large informal labor force involved in the solid
waste recycling trade chain. Partnership between these three systems is needed to promote
effective solid waste management system in the country.
Figure-01 :- waste managementprocess inBangladesh (DOE, 2004).
The linear diagram of waste collection of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is stated bellow:

5. Figure -02- The linear diagram of waste collection of DCC
The principal polluting, agent of our riverine water are those industrial units which have been
established on the river banks. These industries simultaneously use river water for water sources,
and as transmitting media of different industrial waste, without treatment. Different types of
chemicals are used by these industries of which some are very toxic and hazardous, and make
major contribution to the pollution of water quality. The other riverine water pollution is caused
by indiscriminate use of pesticides and insecticides, after independence use of insecticides and
pesticides in the agricultural fields have increased manifold, As all chemical pesticides arc
pollutant, only judicious use by the farmers could minimize its toxic effects. Indiscriminate use
of insecticides and pesticides has been posing grave threat to aquatic life of our riverine water.
In Bangladesh hazardous waste appear by two industries
a) Agriculture industry.
b) Industrial hazardous waste .
Agriculture Industry - Rapid growth of population in Bangladesh demands more food, Hence,
the country has to adopt modern agricultural processes to meet this need a long time ago. This
type of agriculture is called "industrial agriculture" in which high inputs in the form chemical
fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation are used to harvest higher yields. Unfortunately, the residues
of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water have great impact on the environment.
Industrial hazardous waste –

6. Table-01 – shows the manufacture industries increment of use of chemical
Table-02 – Increment of industries with time
Although Bangladesh is predominantly an agricultural country but a large number of large scale
industries based on both indigenous and imported raw materials have
been set up. Many of these industries use toxic and hazardous materials to serve their

7. Purposes serious environmental impacts occurs as these industries discharge the effluent without
treatment containing hazardous wastes.
Industries are the prime users of toxic and hazardous chemicals. These chemicals produce
considerable amount of waste hazardous in nature after use. They are imported by industrial
units, traders and government agencies under different trade names. The main features of the
present practices involving hazardous materials and generated wastes are summarized below:-
- More than 5000 MT of different types of pesticides are used annually in Bangladesh. All
these chemicals have different degrees of toxicity. It is known that numerous pesticide
products are formulated by .local unauthorized companies. These chemicals pose hazard
during storage and use. The residues of these chemicals arc washed out into the water
bodies causing pollution and damage to the ecosystem.
- Mercury chloride is used in the torch cell industry which is quite large. This and other
highly toxic chemicals are handled by workers, in most cases, without safety precautions
.
- In the textile, dyeing arid printing industry about 3000 MT per year of dyeing chemicals
arc used. A fraction of these chemicals contain heavy metallic compounds which arc
toxic and have persistency in the environment. The industry also uses alkali, chlorine and
toxic organic matter.
4. Waste Management in Bangladesh (Technology )

9. Urban remediation in Bangladesh
At a glance, the scenario involving toxic and hazardous materials in Bangladesh is far from
promising. As the country is not industrialized yet and modern agricultural policies are limited,
quantity and type of hazardous chemicals used and hazardous wastes generated arc limited too.
But as most of the end users are often poor or ignorant about the ill effects of these substances,
they do expose themselves and the environment to. the damaging effects of these chemicals.
Moreover due to various reasons and needs the use of hazardous chemicals are increasing in the
country. DDT is still being used and there is even a plant to produce DDT, though right now it is
not in operation. Organochlorine pesticides are still widely used in the country and a
good number locally banned ones are being smuggled into the country. Untreated
industrial wastes of hazardous nature arc being dumped indiscriminately into the
water bodies from tanneries and other industries. Moreover there is a growing threat
of illegal import or dumping of toxic wastes into the country or its territorial waters.
Generators of toxic wastes arc in some cases unaware about its hazards. The management does
not train the workmen properly in handling such substances either because of ignorance or
because of callous attitude towards the safety of the workers.
Highly toxic and dangerous chemicals have to be transported through populated area as the roads
mostly run through cities. The chemicals are transported through densely populated areas
without any safety code. Perhaps the transporters are not even aware of the danger in case of
accidents. Large plastic drums full of toxic chemicals have been found to be transported through
the city streets on vans without using safety signals for other users of the road.

10. 5. The critical issues with respectto hazardous waste management in
Bangladeshand Recommendations
Bangladesh is a densely populated Country. So, Chemical and other hazardous substance are
stored in in public area, thus the above incident happened.
Another issue is Environmental condition of the working place in the tannery industry is very
important for maintaining good health of the tannery workers. The environmental conditions of
the workplace in the tannery industry. Among 22 tanneries, 20 were poorly ventilated and 200
workers were suffering from different diseases, 183 (91.5%) workers were working in this poor
ventilated environment. These unhealthy activities of the tanneries were responsible for
environmental pollution and health problems of the tannery workers and residents in the industry
area.
Capacity for risk assessment is one of the basic elements for the sound management
of hazardous chemicals. Two particular problems have been identified, particularly.
for regulatory bodies in developing countries: lack of sufficient scientific information for the
assessment of risks; and lack of resources for the assessment of chemicals for which. data exist.
The capacity in Bangladesh for such assessments at present is very limited. These problems will
become more significant in Bangladesh as its industrialization proceeds, Existence of
laboratories is a vital requirement for the monitoring and control of toxic and hazardous
materials. However, whether naturally-occurring or man-made, toxic and hazardous materials are
either organic or inorganic in nature.
All of the participants such as government, DOE,industries and public related to the sound management
of toxic and hazardous materials should play active roles to achieve this goal. It is unlikely to completely
get rid of the hazardous wastes generated,but it is possible to reduce the pollution caused by them to a
minimum. The following measures are recommended bearing this in mind.
i) A full-scale scientific survey should be undertaken to prepare an inventory of the
toxic and hazardous materials (radioactive materials must be included) and hazardous
wastes in Bangladesh. It should identify the industries or processes using those
chemicals and! or those generating such wastes, determine their characteristics and

11. the quantities of hazardous chemicals used and or the hazardous wastes generated,
and identify critically polluting industries or those that are a potential risk to the
community.
ii) Effluent standards should be laid down under ECA 1995 (Environment Conservation Act) for
Identified hazardous industries and enforced. This may reduce by 80 percent the amount of
hazardous wastes released as liquid effluent from units as tanneries, metal plating, paints,
pharmaceuticals and varnish manufacture.
iii) The new legislation should cover all Issues that have been exempted In
Environment Conservation Rules '97.
iv) Emergency preparedness and response systems should be made obligatory.
v) There is an urgent need to develop technical skills for risk assessment and management of
toxic and hazardous chemicals and hazardous wastes.
References :
1. ADB (Asian Development Bank) (2004). Reforming Dhaka City Management. Report of Asian Cities in
the 21th Century, V-03, ADB, Dhaka.
2. Kazi N.M. (1998). Waste Management in Dhaka City. Souvenir from 5th June ‘World Environment
Day’.Department of Environment, Dhaka, 5th June.
3. ESDO (2001). A study ofESDO. Environment and Social Development Organization, see in the
website of ESDO, www.esdo.org.
4. Waste Concern (2016). Waste Concern is a non-profit organization and it is famous for waste
Management program in Bangladesh. See the detail in the web site of Waste Concern
www.wasteconcern.org.