In the Khilgaon neighborhood of the city, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today officially opened the largest sewage treatment plant (STP) in all of South Asia.
At a ceremony held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center here this morning, the country’s premier officially inaugurated the Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant, the nation’s first of its sort.
Sheikh Hasina also set the cornerstone for the Pagla Sewage Treatment Plant’s extension and restoration at the same event, which will be funded by the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and have the capacity to process 200 million tonnes of sewage.
“I formally announced nauguration of the Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant and reconstruction and expansion of the Pagla Sewage Treatment Plant,” she said.
The Dasherkandi plant has a capacity of treating five million tonnes of sewage per day, which is 20 to 25 percent of the total sewage in the capital.
The plant is anticipated to be crucial in protecting the capital’s neighboring rivers from pollution.
At a cost of Tk 3,482.42 crore, the China-funded project was carried out on an area of land measuring roughly 62.2 acres. The government fund provided Tk 1,106.42 crore of the overall cost, the Wasa fund Tk 10 crore, and the Export-Import Bank of China provided Tk 2,366 crore as project assistance.
The government has a master plan to construct four additional sewage treatment plants, one in each of the communities of Pagla, Uttara, Rayerbazar, and Mirpur, to treat all of Dhaka’s sewage by the year 2030, of which 90% will be transported through pipeline and the remaining 10% collected from individual homes.
By creating a stronger waste management system throughout the nation by 2030, the plant contributes to the achievement of SDG Goal 6.
The establishment of an effective waste management system in the nation is credited to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The Khilgaon Police Station’s Dasherkandi Treatment Plant, which is close to Aftabnagar, will handle the sewage treatment for a number of capital city neighborhoods, including Gulshan (part), Banani, Tejgaon, Niketon, Maghbazar, Malibagh, Aftabnagar, Badda, Kalabagan, Panthapath, Dhanmondi (part), and Hatirjheel.
Speaking at the event were the Local Government, Rural Development, and Cooperatives Minister Md Tazul Islam, Local Government Division Secretary Muhammad Ibrahim, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen, and Managing Director (MD) Taqsem A Khan of the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA).
A sludge drying-burning system for the project has a processing capacity of roughly 500 tonnes per day. The building project began on August 1, 2017.
Chengdu Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of PowerChina, planned and built the project, which was given to WASA along with a one-year maintenance and operations contract.
The Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant was built as part of WASA’s master plan, which was adopted in 2013 and calls for the construction of five treatment facilities to stop river pollution near Dhaka.
The project calls for the construction of a waste lifting station at Pragati Sarani, a five-kilometer trunk sewer line from Rampura to Aftabnagar and Dasherkandi plant, and the primary treatment facility at Dasherkandi.
At the event, three different film documentaries about the Pagla Sewage Treatment Plant, Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant, and Dhaka WASA were screened.
