Post-Eid cleanup in Dhaka intensifies on day 2

A massive municipal logistics operation is underway across Bangladesh’s capital as authorities work quickly to clear tens of thousands of tonnes of waste generated during the Eid-ul-Adha celebrations.

The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) entered its second consecutive day of an intensive sanitation campaign on Friday, shifting its focus from primary sacrificial sites to the rapid clearance of temporary livestock markets and neighbourhood waste. The scale of the task highlights the annual environmental and logistical pressures faced by one of the world’s most densely populated megacities during major religious festivals.

By midnight on Eid day, municipal teams had already collected and transferred 14,814 tonnes of waste to the central Matuail landfill site. For the second day of operations, authorities set a further removal target of 11,776 tonnes, bringing the projected 48-hour total to over 26,000 tonnes of organic and marketplace debris.

Abdus Salam, the DSCC Administrator, inspected ongoing cleanup efforts at the Shahjahanpur Railway Colony temporary cattle market on Friday morning to assess the deployment. Speaking on the progress, Salam emphasised that coordinated efforts across transit, conservancy, and field management departments are critical to meeting strict neighbourhood clearance deadlines.

“Our teams are working continuously across all jurisdictions,” Salam stated, noting that the deployment aims to minimise public health risks and restore normal urban mobility as quickly as possible. “The objective remains to ensure a clean, sanitised environment for city residents within the shortest achievable timeframe.”

Managing the environmental aftermath of Eid-ul-Adha presents a complex challenge for Dhaka’s municipal infrastructure each year. The decomposition of organic waste in high tropical temperatures poses immediate sanitation risks if not managed swiftly. To counter this, the DSCC has scaled up its standard operations, deploying specialised machinery, heavy-duty transport vehicles, waste containers, and additional field personnel.

A centralised monitoring cell has been established to provide real-time oversight of the collection routes, mapping out high-congestion zones and temporary market locations that require immediate mechanical intervention. Officials from the Waste Management Department confirmed that field crews will remain active until the final remnants of temporary market structures and animal waste are fully cleared from public spaces.