Where stinking garbage greets school students

A horrible stench arose from garbage piled up beside two parked rickshaw vans and a drain overflowing with noxious liquid while two dogs rummaged for edibles and a man relieved himself in a space between a parked pickup truck and a wall, all within two or three feet of a blue steel gate.

Except for a signboard on top, there was no way of telling yesterday that this gate is a school's entrance.

Yet every day over 800 children enter through this gate and attend classes at Nawab Katra Government Primary School in the capital.

"It is a school but locals have been over the years using this place to dump garbage," said one of the locals, Sumaiya Akhtar. Unable to bear the situation, she admitted her son to another school, Chankharpul Primary School, around a hundred yards away.

"It is a matter of concern for his health as well," she said.

Another local, Md Ripon, said many parents do not want to enroll their children in the school for the filthy environment. "Sometimes it becomes unbearable for students to attend classes due to the stench as cleaners often do not take the garbage away," he said.

The school's headmaster, Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, said the situation worsens even after light showers as the entrance gets flooded due to poor drainage facilities. He said they raised the issue with the local authorities several times but to no avail.

"We have requested locals and hung a notice requesting to refrain from dumping garbage and parking vehicles here," he said.

In March last year, the school authority even filed a general diary with Bangshal Police Station as there was no local councillor at that time.

One year later, the school committee submitted a letter, received by ward 33 Secretary Azizur Rahman on March 13, seeking necessary steps. Ward Councillor Awal Hossain said he was unaware of the matter.

"Right now we are cleaning drains and our vehicles are busy in transporting garbage. Due to the shortage of transportation, there might have been a delay of two or three days in carrying the garbage away," he said.

He could not provide a satisfactory answer when asked why garbage was being dumped there.