Urban areas are a focal point of environmental problems. Their impacts extend over a wide range of spatial scales, i.e. the household, the place of work, the neighborhood, the city the wider region and ultimately the world. In the rapidly growing cities of the developing countries, urban solid waste management is currently regarded as one of the most immediate an serious problems faced by the city authorities. In the light of these challenges the project entitled "Integrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal Solid Waste in Least Developed Asian Countries" shortly termed as "WasteSafe" a 12 months feasibility study conducted at the Department of Civil Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, co-financed by the European Commission's Asia Pro Eco Program, has explored an integrated waste management concept based on storage and separation of waste at a source/family level, reuse and recycling, primary collection, on-site storage in an hygienic way, efficient collection and transportation, appropriate waste treatment and eventually, safe disposal of residual wastes. WasteSafe also critically identified the present status and constraints of MSW management of the study areas and proposed an approach to solve this problem putting priorities on some specific areas. It advocates the need of demonstration projects for the reality check of the employed approach for required refinement.

Then a three years research project, named as WasteSafe II, funded by the EU-Asia Pro Eco II Program was undertaken aiming to develop a safe and sustainable management of MSW in Bangladesh through the practical application and reality check of WasteSafe approach. In this project Khulna, the third largest city of Bangladesh is considered as the main case study area. WasteSafe II takes some initiatives to increase the level of MSW collection and public awareness.

Submit Your Paper Here

To address this most striking social and environmental issue Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET) has taken several initiatives in the past since 2002. In this footstep, several seminar, workshops and stakeholders’ dialogue were organized at the Department of Civil Engineering, KUET, Khulna and other cities of the country and finally WasteSafe 2009, the 1^st International Conference on Solid Waste Management was organized successfully in 9-10 Nov. 2009 at Khulna. It was jointly organized by Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh; Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany; University of Padova, Italy, International Waste Working Group (IWWG) and ORBIT Association. Technical papers were invited through website (www.wastesafe.info), poster and information bulletin from the academicians/ researchers/ professionals/ social activists working on solid waste management around the world well before the conference date. The success of WasteSafe 2009, encouraged the organizer to continue such activities in Bangladesh in every odd year in a particular time of the year. To materialize such attempt, the WasteSafe 2011, the 2^nd International Conference on Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries has arranged at Khulna, Bangladesh on 13-15 February 2011 to exchange the views and experiences at both the national and international levels and to understand the solid waste management concept, modern technologies, sustainability of the system as a whole.

Website Designed by S. M. Tariqul Islam