Iftekhar and Maqsood (at right, Iftekhar on the left) first met while completing their respective urban planning master's theses on Dhaka's waste management problems. They decided to collaborate on establishing a network of community-based composting plants.
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Shehzad Noorani/Developing Images
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Together they approached Dhaka's municipal body, the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), and other ministries, offering free help to establish the plants. Their offers fell on deaf ears. Most ministries were interested in large, high-cost mechanized projects that have failed in many other developing countries.
After listening to their ideas, an LGED official asked, "If community-based composting plants are such a great idea, why don't you do it yourselves?" Maqsood and Iftekhar rose to the challenge by forming an organization called Waste Concern.
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Beginning with their own neighborhood, they surveyed community residents to gauge reaction to an alternative door-to-door garbage collection system. The survey revealed residents' dissatisfaction with existing municipal services, and a willingness to pay for a better service.
Next, they searched for land for a community-based composting plant. Because the price of real estate in Dhaka City has soared during the past decade, they couldn't afford to lease land at market prices, and nobody was willing to risk providing land that would put a garbage dump in their backyard. They finally persuaded the Dhaka (North) Lions Club to provide access to a portion of their land that was vacant.
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Unless otherwise noted all photos © by Alasdair Macdonald
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