Cleanliness is a virtue, yet Dhaka’s two city corporations have conspicuously failed to exercise this virtue. But to keep the city clean, the inhabitants of the city are as much responsible as the city corporations. Everyday city dwellers make the city dirty and unclean often in a most foul manner. Had they been a little conscious and did not throw unwanted objects, packets, polythene bags, pieces of paper, etc. on the roads and streets, office campuses or household courtyards, then Dhaka would have given us a much better look. This means that people in general here do not have necessary civic sense and education in cleanliness. It may sound harsh but true. That is why they need to be bombarded through media and campaign programmes so that they can change their
habits.
They must be made committed to keeping clean the environment where they live in. If necessary, like other cities, measures of punishment can be also be put in force. In making the city dirty, the rich and educated (the so-called educated of course), the poor and uneducated, all people are equally responsible. You can quite often notice from a running car empty plastic bottle is thrown out of window in the middle of a busy road.
The two city corporations in the past never took it seriously to collect and dispose off solid wastes of the city properly; their waste disposal system is so inept that for years Dhaka seems to give an impression that it is virtually sitting on dirt. Barring some posh areas in the capital, you can hardly find a place here where the dirt and dust will not bother you.
Even the areas that give a smart look should be credited to personal initiatives of some people. In all respects, rural areas are remaining behind the urban ones. But as far as cleanliness is concerned, villages seem to be well ahead than the cities and towns. Thanks God, in rural areas there are no city corporations and municipalities!
Even when the inhabitants of Dhaka are making it dirty day in and day out; if you ask, they would all tell you that it is their dream to live in a clean city with its solid and liquid wastes are properly disposed off and the footpaths are free for walking everywhere particularly in the busy intersections and marketplaces of the capital. And they would habitually point to the city corporations for keeping Dhaka unclean.
There are reasons. In the morning hours, when people come out of their homes to go to their workplaces, they are presented with very unwelcome scenarios everywhere. The roads and thoroughfares are still dirty with previous day’s dirt. Even at 10 in the morning, it is usually seen trucks overloaded with solid garbage moving through the roads with dirt falling on the streets. The foul smell and the ugly sights are not the things with which people want to start the day. There are places in the capital such as Taltala in Kafrul or at Green Road in the heart of the city one can spot overflowing metal dustbins any time of the day.
Before the last city corporation elections, when the mayoral candidates campaigned with brooms in their hands cleaning the streets, we, the city’s electorate, thought that it was a ‘déjà vu’ affair. Once elected into the office, they would forget what they had committed to us. And exactly that happened as the two city corporations still remain in their previous conditions. That is why we are very doubtful about the success of the South city mayor Sayeed Khokon’s declaration of year 2016 as the year of cleanliness for his area. But we welcome his programme. As far as cleanliness is concerned, his part of Dhaka is worse than the northern part. But we want to hope that this time around he would really mean business; it would not be just be a mere tall talk with the purpose of creating stunt only. According to the plan he has chalked out, he would create a secondary transfer system of garbage in every ward; set up 50 public toilets in 2016; create a hotline for receiving allegations from people and put in place a team tracker system to monitor the work of the cleaners; etcetera and etcetera.
While all these programmes look good enough, but the work for ‘everyday cleaning’, the city corporations’ regular duty, must be finished much earlier than ‘before 7’ as has been planned. In many cities of the world the cleaning effort starts just after the midnight. But raising public awareness to keep the city clean is very vital and therefore chalking out campaign programme including observance of the ‘White Shirt Day’ will bear value. This is a day for which city dwellers will be urged to wear white shirts as the colour white stands for cleanliness and holiness. We hope the mayor of the northern half of the city, Annisul Haq would also take up programmes to make it clean to prove that before the election sweeping through the streets and asking for votes are not all stunt. But one must give credit to Annisul Haq to clear the ‘truck terminal’ near the Farmgate level crossing.
Some days ago a group of Japanese put us to shame when they cleaned wastes at Dhanmondi by themselves even though this country is not theirs. Several days ago, the Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha himself came out of his court chamber and joined others with a broom in his hand to clean the Supreme Court premises. Lack of civic sense in people as well as the callousness of the city corporations has brought our capital to such an ugly pass.
Cleanliness is not only a virtue; it is, primarily, a civilisational virtue. According to a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (SM), cleanliness is an organ of faith. Huge crowds during Friday prayers in Dhaka’s mosques give us an impression that this is a city of believers only. Does this mean that they all do not have this organ of faith? One most important comparison point for which human beings are separate from the baser animals is that humans keep clean. But for now, it is better not to proceed where this piece of argument leads us to.
 
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