Dhaka’s waste-to-energy plant face backlash over air pollution

Dhaka North City Corporation and China Machinery Engineering Corporation are building a $467 million waste-to-energy plant near a landfill outside Bangladesh’s capital, designed to burn 3,000 metric tons of trash daily and generate 42.5 megawatts of power by 2028. Communities and schools less than a mile away say they already choke on smoke from unmanaged dump fires and fear what a full-time incinerator will add to the air.

An environmental impact assessment projects 74.8 metric tons of airborne fly ash daily, and outside analysis estimates nearly 40 metric tons of toxic substances annually, including dioxins and heavy metals. Bangladesh’s Department of Environment lowered the minimum incineration temperature required under its own air pollution rules, which activists say will produce more ash and pollution, not less.

A state minister called the facility indispensable for managing Dhaka’s garbage crisis; another minister insisted lower burn temperatures are fine because only household organic waste will go in, not e-waste or medical refuse. Residents and the Bangladesh Working Group on Ecology and Development want the project cancelled outright.

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