Canadian Journal on Environmental, Construction and Civil Engineering Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2012

52

Feasibility study for using the water ways to transport

of solid waste of Dhaka city and waste transport

route preparation using GIS for DCC solid waste

management Islam. M.S, Pervin .L and Muyeed A.A.

Abstract — This paper presents an overview of the current

solid waste transfer system in Dhaka City and provides an

effective solution to overcome the present and future

challenges in transporting waste. Optimal route including

road network and water ways integrated with Geographic

Information System (GIS) is critically assessed to determine

the minimum distance efficient collection paths for

transporting the solid wastes to the existing landfill sites.

Introduction of waste transfer station near the river side and

use of surrounding river route makes the proposed transport

system more effective for waste hauling of Dhaka City

Corporation (DCC). Waste dumping at the transfer stations

decreases the haul time of the collection trucks 0.1h, 0.7h,

0.8h, 1 h per trip respectively for different DCC zones. From

hydrographic survey data and field survey it is evident that the

navigation facility of the river Buriganga is sufficient for

waste transport using available water barge1.

Key Words — GIS, Water ways, Road Network, Sounding depth,

Landfill Site.

I. INTRODUCTION

In present day’s problems regarding with the waste

management have become one of the top concerning issues,

basically in developing country like Bangladesh because of its

rapid and imbalanced urbanization and industrialization.

Dhaka (latitude 23.77N, longitude 90.38E) is the capital and

the most populous city in Bangladesh. At the present time, it

generates about 3500 – 4000 [9] tons of solid waste per day,

the per capita generation being 0.5 kg/day. DCC Ordinance1 is

the basic law regarding street/drain cleaning, waste collection

and transportation. According to Section 78 of the Ordinance,

DCC is responsible for secondary waste collection to remove

waste from its dustbins/containers, and transport the waste to

final disposal sites. Residents are responsible for bringing their

waste to DCC’s waste collection points where

dustbins/containers are located. Because of limited space, the

siting and construction of new solid waste management

(SWM) facility is a big challenge in Dhaka. The major sources

of municipal solid wastes in Dhaka are domestic, streets,

1 This work was supported by the International Training Network-BUET

(ITN-BUET).

market places, commercial establishments, clinics and

hospitals. The generation of solid waste would be around

8,478 tons/day by the year 2020 [1], [3] which will be a major

challenge for DCC to manage this huge amount with its

existing system. The whole city corporation area comprises 90

wards which are divided into ten zones and DCC maintains

zone wise solid waste collection and transport with its limited

number of trucks. In 2002, DCC introduced an approval

system of NGOs/CBOs/private organization for providing

door-to-door waste collection services in all wards. DCC has

given approvals to 47 NGOs/CBOs, however, not all of them

have started their activities yet. Conservancy department of

DCC is responsible for transporting the solid waste from the

City Corporation dustbin/container to the final disposal site.

There are 343 units of vehicles of DCC allocated for collection

and transportation services [6].The vehicles are placed at three

garages: Saidabad, Zone 7 and Zone 8 offices. In addition to

DCC vehicles, the four service providers operate 19 to 27 units

of 5-ton open trucks in eight wards. Environmental Grant Aid

program (EGAP) provided 100 collection vehicles to Waste

Management Department of Dhaka City Corporation. Out of

these vehicles, DCC is using 29 compactors and 16 arm roll

vehicles quite effectively. On 12 January 2011, one 3 ton

capacity container carrier ran by CNG started its operation [2]

(TABLE I).

TABLE I: WARD WISE NEW COLLECTION VEHICLE

Type Ward Numbers

Arm Rolls 7, 19, 23, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 52, 70,

71, 78

Compactors

2, 5, 12, 19, 22, 33, 36, 38, 41, 43, 44, 45, 49,

50, 52, 53, 57, 63, 76

Total number of waste storage facilities is 1,098 units, which

include 341 units of dustbins, 346 units of containers, 402

Temporary collection Points, 7 Trailor Container and 2 units

of 12 m3 containers as summarized in Table II. The storage

capacity of DCC’s dustbins in Zone 9 and Zone 10 is small

since the private service providers are engaged in collection

and transportation services in the two Zones.

Canadian Journal on Environmental, Construction and Civil Engineering Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2012

53

TABLE II: ZONE-WISE EXISTING DUSTBINS AND WASTE CONTAINERS OF DCC

Zone

Dustbin

Container

Temporary

collection

Points (TCP)

Trailor

Container

Illegal

dumping

Total

Zone1 51 29 91 0 0 171

Zone2 91 62 26 0 0 179

Zone3 73 20 45 0 0 138

Zone4 29 77 57 1 0 164

Zone5 41 63 51 0 0 155

Zone6 40 33 62 2 0 137

Zone7 10 16 22 1 0 49

Zone8 3 46 46 3 0 98

Zone9 3 0 2 0 2 7

Total 341 346 402 7 2 1098

DCC has constructed Matuail extension and Amin Bazar

Baliapur as sanitary landfill site. It dumps the waste in above

mentioned landfill sites using the road network only.

According to the clean Dhaka master plan yearly target

collection rate and the waste amount are proposed as shown in

TABLE III.

TABLE III: TARGETS OF WASTE DISPOSAL IN MASTER PLAN

OF DCC

Target for 2015 (t/d)

Collection/ transport 3,054

Final disposal 3,032

Recycling 672

Unidentified disposal 920

The management issue of generated solid waste is not only

multifaceted with its increasing quantities but also with its

inadequate management system [10]. In this study, Geographic

Information System (GIS), a good decision support tool for

waste management planning were used to define the possible

option for efficient solid waste management. The more the

layers in terms of information, the more will be better decision

analysis [7]. Urban solid waste management practices require

collection of decisive information which is for taking

corrective measures as well as for proper planning to ensure

sustainability [8]. Because of huge traffic pressure and long

haul distance of disposal site from some zones road network

based waste transfer system is not sufficient for efficient

management of waste. To collect and transport the solid waste

effectively according to the target new collection and transport

route have to design. In Shanghai 6,000 tones/day waste was

carried by canal barge per day at 2004 [5]. So there is a

possibility to use river for waste transport in Dhaka City since

it almost encircled by the river Burigonga and Turag.

I. METHODOLOGY

The methodology includes the collection of information about

the waste management situations in Dhaka city and preparing a

database about the waste situations of the case study area. This

study includes a discussion and a critical analysis of the new

and old route. On the basis of the present situation analysis, the

data availability of the case study area and the study analysis,

the framing of guidelines for the work to be proposed in

dealing with waste management planning for the DCC was

carried out. By this method some guidelines for the route

preparation was organized which would be the baseline for the

proposed routes and transfer stations. Finally the GIS route

was implemented on Dhaka city’s case study area data for the

analysis and the results will suggest some modification in the

existing system which is expected to reduce the waste

management workload to a certain extent. The over all

methodology is described in the flow diagram in Figure1:

Fig. 1: Flow diagram of Methodology

This study is based on secondary collected data DCC, BIWTA

and Water development board office and performed filed

survey with the conservancy officers of different zones, truck

drivers, water barge driver, and employee of local agency

offices located near aminbazzar landing station to collect

information on the present situation. Collected maps from

Canadian Journal on Environmental, Construction and Civil Engineering Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2012

54

DCC and BIWTA office were digitized using Arc GIS 9.1 to

build GIS database. Other collected data was also incorporated

in the data base file. Map of different zones collected from

DCC was in JPEG format image which was imported in Arc

GIS and georeferenced.

III. FEASIBILITY FOR THE USE OF EXITING WATER WAY

ROUTE IN RIVER BURIGANGA

Dhaka city is almost encircled by the river Buriganga and

Turag. At present Bangladesh Inland Water Transport

Authority (BIWTA) maintains a water way route around

Dhaka. In recent time BIWTA is running a water bus for

public transport from Gabtoli to Shadarghat. BIWTA has 4

landing station site officially on Burigangaa and Turag River.

They are Wise Ghat landing station, Swarighat landing station,

Kholamura landing station and the last Gabtali landing station.

Those sites are usually use for public transportation from

Gabtali to Shadarghat. Gabtali site is also loading unloading

place of construction materials such as river sand, bricks,

sylhet sand and other materials. Field survey shows that there

are around 200 local agency offices who import sand, bricks,

sylhet sand and other materials. They use the Meghna –

Buriganga water ways route to transport their materials. There

is some cement company such as chatak who also uses this

route to transport their product. Usually big and small water

barges are used to transport in this route. A locally made water

barge is usually 50 feet long and 23 feet in width. The goods

containing compartment is 7.5 feet in depth and can carry

4275 cubic feet of sand per trip. Carrying capacity of water

barge and truck is shown in TABLE IV .Total distance from

Shadargagat to Gabtoli is 16 km and a barge take 30 min to

travel the distance. Minimum water depth from sadarghat to

kamrangir char and amin bazaar to ramchandrapur is 8 before

dragging [4]. So it is possible to transport solid waste using

water barges with small modification.

TABLE IV: CAPACITY COMPARISON OF BARGE AND TRUCK

Transport vehicle Water Barge Container

Carrier

Open truck

Capacity 121 tons

(one trip)

9 tons

(3 trips) 4.5 tons

(1.5 trips)

IV. PROPOSED NEW TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM FOR

DHAKA CITY

DCC uses road network for the transport of waste to disposal

site. Conservancy department of DCC has no scientific and

engineering principle based on solid waste management

planning approach. Conservancy department has no solid

waste management specialist (Engineering background).

Present distribution of labor, transport in different areas has no

database demand and conservancy department does not

maintain any data base for generation of waste, transport and

labor requirement. There is no cleanliness standard. Town

planning department is yet to allocate any space for storage of

waste bin, placing of container. Presently transport fleet of

City Corporation is collecting 43% waste by open truck [6].

Open truck collection system needs average 3-5 hr for loading

and unloading the waste to and from the trucks. So disposal by

open truck yield very low efficiency. Although DCC has

introduced Arm Rolls and Compactor trucks into its transport

fleet, these are only covering 31 out of 90 wards. To meet the

present and future demand DCC need to increase its collection

vehicles.

The proposed system includes the use of both water ways and

road network at same time. Some transfer station near the river

side need to construct considering the coverage of different

zones. The collection trucks will collect waste by following the

existing route inside the zone and after collection of waste it

will go the nearest transfer station depending upon the zones.

A water barge will collect the waste from the transfer stations

and dispose to the landing station near the landfill site. Finally

a covered van will collect the waste from the landing station

and dispose to landfill site.

Route Preparation Using GIS:

In this research Network Analyst tool was used to prepare the

route for new waste transfer system. Using ArcCatalog

network datasets were prepared from the shape file of Dhaka

city road networks. The best route was determined for the

order of locations as specified in this case using Network

Analyst tool.

V. RESULTS

At present DCC truck drivers doesn’t follow any particular

route when they transport the waste from different zones to the

land fill/ disposal sites. For a particular zone there some

particular collection routes through which the collection

vehicles travels to collect waste from the dustbins, temporary

collection points, containers but after collection waste there is

no predefined route which the collection truck travels to

disposal site. Field survey was performed with the truck

drivers to know the exact situation. According to the survey

they use different route in different times depending upon the

jam and road situation. So it is very difficult to determine the

haul distance in existing waste transport system. Because of

this condition in this case the shortest haul distance from

different zone boundary to the Matuail land fill site was

determine using the developed network analysis database in

ArcMap. Field survey was also done for the water ways route

and the required transfer station to develop the new waste

transfer system using the river Buriganga. After numerous

surveys some location was identified to build the transfer

stations. Considering the land availability transfer stations near

river side of zone 6, 1 and near aminbazzar landing station was

identified using GPS to design new route. Since zone1 and

zone2 is close to the matuail land fill site, only the waste from

the zone3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 has been considered to bring at the

transfer station1( Figure 3) . The haul distance from the

considered zone boundary to the transfer station1 was

Canadian Journal on Environmental, Construction and Civil Engineering Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2012

55

determined using the developed network data set. The shortest

route in existing transport system and in new system is shown

in fig. From the analysis it is clear the haul distance for zone3,

zone6, zone7 and zone8 decreases significant amount in

proposed system. As haul time mostly depends upon the haul

distance, the haul time of collection vehicle will also reduce

significant amount. The exact amount of haul time reduction

was not possible due to lack of haul constants since DCC truck

drivers doesn’t follow particular route. An approximate haul

constant was determined using the field survey data with the

truck divers. The survey data is presented in TABLE V. The

haul distance and time shown in TABLE VI and TABLE VII.

Figure 2 represents the graph for determination of haul

constants

TABLE V: HAUL DISTANCE AND HAUL TIME OF DIFFERENT

ZONES

DCC Zone

Average Round Trip

Distance (km) according to

DCC transport

department

Average haul time

according to the

survey with drivers

Zone1 14 0.66

Zone7 42 3

Zone8 44 3.5

Zone 10 60 2.5

y = 0.0482x + 0.4865

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Round-trip haul distance, Km/trip

Tra

vel

tim

e, h

/tri

p

Fig. 2: Travel time vs round-trip distance graph

TABLE VI: HAUL DISTANCE OF SELECTED ZONES

Zone

Haul distance in

Existing system

( km)

Haul distance in

Transfer station

system(km)

% Reduction

of haul

distance

Zone 3 12.2 10.5 13.8

Zone 5 10.0 8.0 20

Zone 6 18.8 4.3 77.0

Zone 7 25 9.3 62.7

Zone 8 31.8 11.9 62.5

TABLE VII: HAUL TIME OF SELECTED ZONES

Zone

Haul Constant,

b

Haul Constant,

a

Haul time Reduction

(hour) in new system

Zone 3 0.0482 0.4865 0.1

Zone 5 0.0482 0.4865 0.58

Zone 6 0.0482 0.4865 0.7

Zone 7 0.0482 0.4865 0.8

Zone 8 0.0482 0.4865 1.0

From route analysis it’s clear that the haul time for the

collection vehicles in road network is reducing which will

increase the waste collection efficiency for existing number of

vehicles. The vehicles may finish more trip than the present

number in new proposed system. The route map is shown in

Figure 3.

Fig. 3: Map of the proposed system

Water Ways Route Preparation:

The river map collected from the Hydrographic division of

BIWTA office was ammonia printed form in A3 paper. It has

the sounding depth as well as the actual river width during the

hydrographic survey. There was five A3 sheet covering the

route from Shadorghat to Amin bazzar. The maps were

scanned in JPEG format. The raster image was importuned in

ArcMap and georeferenced. Finally water ways route was

prepared from the georeferenced raster data set by batch

vectorization method (Figure 4).

Canadian Journal on Environmental, Construction and Civil Engineering Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2012

56

Fig. 4: Water ways route for solid waste transfer

From the route query the following route summary presented

in TABLE VIII and TABLE IX. TABLE VIII: WATER WAYS ROUTE SUMMARY

Route Name

Route Length (Km)

Gabtoli to Salmosi 5

Salmosi to Swarighat 9

Swarighat to Sadaghat 2

Total length 16

TABLE IX: ROAD NETWORK ROUTE LENGTH FOR BALIAPUR

SITE

Route Name

Route Length (Km)

Amin Bazar Landing station

to Baliapur site

4.4

Since DCC uses both Matuail and Balipur landfill site there is

two options in the new system. The existing collection vehicles

of zone 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 will collect waste in the existing collection

route and will dispose the waste to the transfer station1. The

water barge will collect the waste from transfer station1 and

unload to the transfer station near amin bazzar landing station.

Finally a covered van will collect the waste and dispose in the

Baliapur Landfill site. The second option is the water barge

will collect the waste from transfer station1 and then unloads

at transfer station2. A covered van will collect the waste form

the transfer station2 and transport to the disposal site in

Matuail. Since Matuail landfill site can take care of 59% of the

total collected waste (1700 ton/day) of Dhaka City

Corporation (DCC) per day, this amount will be transferred by

the water barge from transfer station1 to 2. The remaining

waste will be transferred by the water barge form transfer

station1 to 3.

V. CONCLUSION

The water ways route presented in this study is efficient for

waste transfer using water barges in the available navigation

facility. Incorporation of the transfer stations increases waste

collection efficiency of existing collection trucks situation.

Recycling and sorting of waste material can be possible in the

proposed transfer station. More details study is required for the

final construction of transfer stations near river side. The use

of Water ways will reduce the pressure on the road traffic

system. In Bangladesh Inland Water Transport (IWT) is a

major mode for the transport of goods and people. IWT is

important for the poor as well as for the competitiveness and

growth of the economy as it is the cheapest mode of transport

compared to road or rail [11]. IWT costs are below the road

and rail tariffs above, confirming that IWT is the cheapest

mode of transport [11]. So waste transportation in the

proposed system may be a comparatively cheap option and it

will reduce the problem of pollution by the open truck mostly

used by DCC. Grab cranes may be used to off-load the

incoming waste from barges and fill up site trucks. More

details study is required for actual economic analysis

considering the transfer station establishment cost, route

operational cost etc which was not possible in the research for

some limitation in the project.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors are thanks full to ITN-BUET for funding the

research project.

REFERENCES

[1] Bangladesh Center for Advance Studies (BCAS), “Refuse Quantity

Assessment of Dhaka City Corporation for Waste to Electrical Energy

Project”, Final Project Report funded by the World Bank and Power

Cell, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Government of the

People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1998.

[2] Clean Dhaka Newsletter, Waste management department, Dhaka City

Corporation, 14th issue, February, 2011.

Web: www.dhakacity.org/cleandhaka

[3] Hai. F. I. and Ali. M., “A Study on Solid Waste Management System of

Dhaka City Corporation: Effect of Composting and Landfill Location”,

UAP Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 1,

2005

[4] Hydrographic Survey Division (HSD) of Bangladesh Inland Water

Transport Authority (BIWTA), Hydrographic survey Maps with

sounding depth of different station sheet no. NEED B2006

784 , sheet no.

NEED A

2006

851

to NEED D

2009

851

, 2011.

[5] Hong Kong Waste Management Association (HKWMA), Report on

“Technical Visit to Waste Management Facilities in Shanghai, China

(15 to 19 February 2004)”, Editor: Ir Lam Cheuk Fung, Chairman,

HKWMA (2003/04), P.12-19, 2004

[6] Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Final Report on “The

Study on the Solid Waste Management in Dhaka City”, 2005

Canadian Journal on Environmental, Construction and Civil Engineering Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2012

57

[7] Ogra, A, “Logistic Management and Spatial Planning for Solid Waste

Management Systems using Geographical Information System”, Map

Asia 2003, India, 2003.

[8] Ramachandra, T. V., Saira, V. K, “Exploring Possibilities of Achieving

Sustainability in Solid Waste Management”, Indian Journal

Environmental Health, 45 (4):255-64, October 2003.

[9] Rahman, S., Rahman, S.H, “Application of GIS Techniques in Urban

Solid Waste Management in a Part of Dhaka City: Mohammadpur

Thana”, Journal of Sustainable Development and Environmental

Protection, Vol.1 No.2, 2011.

[10] Tinmaz, E., Demir, I, “Research on solid waste management systems:

To improve existing situation in Corlu Town of Turkey”, Science

Direct, Volume 26, Issue 3, Pages 307-314, 2006.

[11] World Bank, People’s Republic of Bangladesh “Revival of Inland Water

Transport: Options and Strategies”. Report No. 38009, 2007.

BIOGRAPHIES

Md. Saiful Islam received his B.Sc. (Civil) at

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

(BUET), Dhaka. His professional experience covers

graduate level teaching and research in renowned

universities of Bangladesh. At present he is working as

Lecturer in Civil Engg. Dept. of Ahsanullah University

of Science and Technology, Dhaka-1208.

Lia Pervin received his B.Sc.(WRE) at Bangladesh

University of Engineering and Technology (BUET),

Dhaka. Her professional experience covers graduate level

teaching and research in renowned universities of

Bangladesh. Presently she is working as Lecturer in the

Dept. Water Resources Engg. of BUET.

Abdullah Al-Muyeed received his B.Sc.(Civil) and

M.Sc.(Civil nad Environmental) Eng at Bangladesh

University of Engineering and Technology (BUET),

Dhaka and his Ph.D form the University of Tokyo,

Japan. His professional experience covers graduate and

postgraduate level teaching and research in renowned

universities of Bangladesh. At present he is associate professor in Civil Engg.

Dept. of Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka-1208. He

has more than 30 technical papers in National and International Journal and

Conference Procedding. He is also author of the book “Solid and Hazardous

Waste Management” published by ITN-BUET.