What began as a protest over unpaid wages turned into a public nightmare in Dhaka’s Natun Bazar on Monday, when cleaners dumped household waste across the busy Pragati Sarani, triggering hours of severe traffic congestion and choking the area with an unbearable stench.
It was around noon when passersby first noticed piles of rotting garbage rapidly spreading across the main road. The waste, collected from nearby homes, quickly blocked a key artery linking Badda and Kuril, bringing traffic to a grinding halt.
Commuters trapped in vehicles sweltered under the midday sun. Pedestrians, some covering their faces with scarves and handkerchiefs, struggled to make their way through the reeking mess. Schoolchildren, officegoers, and elderly patients alike were seen navigating narrow, garbage-free patches on foot, holding their breath and hopping over soggy trash.
“I was trying to get to the hospital with my mother,” said Rahima Begum, who stood stranded for over an hour with her elderly parent. “The ambulance driver finally told us it was faster to walk. But look at this! How can anyone walk through this filth?”
Sanitation workers say the protest was their last resort. Kamrul, one of the workers involved, told Jago News over the phone that they have not been paid by their contractor for three months. “We collect this waste every day, working in the filth. But when we don’t get paid, what are we supposed to do? If they promise our salary today, we’ll clear this up ourselves,” he said.
The workers are employed through a private contractor affiliated with the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), and not directly by the city itself. This murky arrangement, it appears, has left them vulnerable – stuck between the city’s waste management needs and the contractor’s payroll delays.
While DNCC’s Deputy Chief Waste Management Officer Mofizur Rahman Bhuiyan initially denied the protest, claiming a mechanical failure during overnight garbage collection, a senior DNCC official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the disruption was in fact a protest. “Yes, the cleaners are demanding their unpaid wages,” he said. “But the dues are with their contractor, not with the DNCC. We are investigating who failed to pay them and why.”
But to those caught in the chaos, such technicalities offer little comfort.
“Why should we suffer because someone didn’t pay them?” said Ataur Rahman, a rickshaw-puller who lost several hours of income. “This is a road, not a dump yard!”
As dusk approached, the waste still lay strewn across the road, continuing to fuel anger, frustration, and health concerns in the densely populated area. For now, both the stench and the standoff remain – until someone takes responsibility.