The capital’s waterlogging problem cannot be resolved unless the citizens make conscious efforts to keep the city clean, said Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) mayor Annisul Haque yesterday. He was monitoring the newly added 'jet and sucker' machine, which has been imported from Germany to clean the city’s drainage and sewerage systems. “We've imported modern technology from abroad to keep the drainage and sewerage systems free of garbage. The reality is that no technology in the world can fix the drainage and sewerage problems unless the citizens become aware,” said Haque. “The city’s drainage system is unplanned. Moreover, the city-dwellers dump garbage in the drains and sewerage lines, making it difficult for corporation employees to clean them. There is a tank behind the sucker machine which loads waste with the help of an automatic machine. Some garbage has to brought to the machine by hand, as it is not possible for the machine to remove it by itself,” he added.
Bipon Kumar Saha, DNCC’s chief waste management officer, said, “City corporations in developed countries use this sucker machine to clean garbage. We've imported the jet and sucker machine, worth Tk. 10 crore, from Germany, in order to keep the city clean.” “We've appointed two companies to operate the machine over the next year. They will train the city corporation’s engineers and appoint a driver to man the sucker machine, which will be in service seven days a week,” he added.
Nurul Islam, chief consultant of Sohel Enterprise, the contractor for the sucker machine, said, “DNCC has begun deploying the machine in the country for the first time. We're providing training to engineers and employees so that the machine is correctly operated. The machine is manufactured by Kaizer, a leading German automobile company. This machine is able to remove garbage from a stretch of around 120m in 10 minutes.”  “We began working on an experimental basis in the city area. We’ll begin our final task from the beginning of next month,” said Nurul Islam.