The role of haat-bazars (market places) as the hub of the rural economy is immense in achieving economic growth of the country. But some features of the rural markets create serious environmental pollution.
At least 10,756 haat-bazars operate in the countryside, according to the Ministry of Land. These are littered with animal, agricultural (fruits and vegetables), and other solid wastes. Due to absence of regulatory binding and treatment facilities, the untreated wastes are dumped to nearby places including rivers, canals and low lands. In many cases, these are piled up on open grounds. Obviously, these untreated wastes of haat-bazars are polluting water of nearby water flows, air with obnoxious particles and greenhouse gases, and soil with toxic and non-degradable elements. This unchecked pollution is causing health and other environmental damages all over the country.
To deal with this widespread pollution, we need to look into the nature of ownership and management of haat-bazars. Only the government can establish such markets and their ownership lies with it. Interestingly, the Ministry of Land (MoL) exercises rights and responsibilities as the owner of haat-bazars while the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (MoLGRD) looks after the operational management through different hierarchical committees. The temporary shops, collectively called 'Chandina Biti', are rented out annually under the jurisdiction of the MoL. On the other hand, in general, the Upazila Haat-Bazar Management Committee (HBMC) or similar one under MoLGRD is responsible for lease of rural market, revenue management and maintenance and development. The lessee called 'Ijarader' pays the lease money to the government before commencing lease tenure on the first day of the Bengali calendar, and subsequently collects tolls throughout the year as its income from sellers using the markets. The 'Ijarader' is responsible for operating the haat-bazar complying with the regulations, protecting the property from damages, and maintaining ordinary cleanliness. So, there is dual governance there.
ENVIRONMENT IS A PUBLIC ISSUE: Identifying the core reasons behind such unrestrained polluting practices of the Ijarader and the sellers and finding suitable solutions call for analysing the issue. Environment is a public issue. Since, benefits of haat-bazars can be enjoyed without direct payment, consumers tend to be free riders on others and are not ready to pay for the pollution they create. The polluters of haat-bazars ignore local people who suffer from pollution, and it continues undeterred.
For haat-bazars, property rights are clear in terms of ownership, rights to collect revenue and rights to use the marketplace but there is no precise directive in terms of waste management. The distinct feature of haat-bazars is that the government itself is the owner. So, while it usually acts as the third party, in case of haat-bazar, government intervention should require both polluters and the government to be acting complementarily. The government may follow command-and-control approach, which directly regulates the polluters by rules or standards, and/or market-based approach that includes pollution charges (taxes), subsidy, deposit refund system, and others. Setting standards and most of the market-based tools excepting subsidy seem impractical for the haat-bazar due to lack of technical capability and short-lived lease tenure. So, the government may follow combination of both approaches; i.e. arranging finance for treatment facilities since long-term investment is not justified for the lessee, and formulating rules requiring market operators to treat wastes.
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: Several disposal methods including open dumping, sanitary land-filling, incineration, and composting are being used across the world in solid waste management. These methods are reported to cause health hazards, fires and explosions, vegetation damage, unpleasant odours, landfill settlement, water pollution, air pollution and global warming. Adverse effects of the disposal methods and the recent concerns over energy security and climate change have prompted immense interest in producing energy from wastes. Anaerobic digestion of organic wastes is considered as a sustainable waste disposal method to produce renewable energy like biogas and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
As solid wastes of the haat-bazars mainly consist of wastes of slaughtered animals and agricultural wastes, biogas plant could be an appropriate option for managing wastes there. This simple and easy-to-manage technology does not require big investment or a large space. In addition, biogas plant offers a number of other benefits. Biogas, one of the most efficient forms of energy, can be used in cooking or lighting as conventional natural gas. The remaining stabilised solids of biogas plant can be used as fertiliser. Research shows that investment in household biogas plant is sufficiently profitable and it creates new jobs. Biogas plant reduces global warming directly by treating wastes, and indirectly by saving biomass used for cooking and electricity for heating and lighting purposes. It might have a demonstrative effect on common people in accepting the affordable technology against their dependence on conventional energy sources. So, biogas plant for haat-bazars could be one of the effective tools for the government to explore renewable energy sources, and to realise climate change commitments.
Effectiveness of biogas plant in waste management of haat-bazars can be substantiated by practical examples. Two biogas plants were installed in 2015 at the Dublagari haat and the Noymile haat of Shajahnapur Upazila of Bogra district with technical assistance and subsidy from the IMPACT project of the Department of Youth Development. The costs of biogas plants were borne from development and maintenance fund of haat-bazars. The responsibility of the operation of the biogas plants was vested with two nearby private orphanages (etim khana) in exchange of using biogas free of cost. They cook at least two meals for 25-30 children daily with the biogas produced from slaughtered animal wastes.
The government may come up with a policy that links bio-gas plants with public and private agencies working in renewable energy sector. Financed by these agencies, installing biogas plants at haat-bazars is unlikely to require any additional capital involvement of the government. A possible option could be providing credit with partial subsidy to the operators, who will repay the loan from their maintenance and development allocation. A grant could be provided to the haat-bazars with inadequate financial capacity. The responsibility of regular operation of biogas plants and waste management should go to the Ijarader, who may bear the operating expenses with the proceeds from selling biogas and organic fertiliser. Monitoring responsibilities should also be clearly assigned.
Biogas plants for haat-bazars can bring about a green energy revolution in Bangladesh. The government may undertake initiatives to this end to increase renewable energy production and to contribute to mitigation of climate change.
The writer is Senior Assistant Secretary (on Study Leave), Ministry of Public Administration and PhD Candidate, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
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