RESEARCH REPORT ON:

SERVICES OF DHAKA CITY CORPORATION (DCC)& RELATED PROBLEMS:

CITIZENS PERSPECTIVE OF SOME SELECTED WARDSIN MOHAMMADPUR
AREA

FACULTY OF ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED SOCIOLOGY
ASA UNIVERSITYBANGLADESH
URBAN SOCIOLOGY
SOC 412
SUBMITTED BY:
Rasel Patuary, 12-3-20-0044
Yeanur Hossain Khan, 12-3-20-0004
Umme Salma, 12-3-20-0009
Antora Saha, 12-3-20-0015
Khing Khing May, 12-3-20-0036
Uday Kumar Shill, 12-3-20-0025
Ekhinong Marma, 12-3-20-0037
Sohaly Akter, 12-3-20-0031
Shamsad Jahan , 12-1-20-0034
A.K Asaduzzaman 12-1-20-0023
SUBITTED TO:
Mr. Sayeedul Haq
Course Instructor

Table of Content:
Research

topic:

Introduction,

Objectives

of

Methodology,

Literature review,

Results

discussion,

and

the

study,

Socio-

economic and demographic information,

Waste

management,

Mosquito

control service, Certification service,

Conclusion,

Recommendations,

References,

RESEARCH TOPIC:
SERVICES OF DHAKA CITY CORPORATION (DCC) & RELATED PROBLEMS:
CITIZENS PERSPECTIVE OF SOME SELECTED WARDS IN MOHAMMADPUR
AREA.

INTRODUCTION:
Dhaka city is the home of more than five million and is one of the most
densely populated cities of the world. Dhaka City Corporation is
responsible for providing various services to its citizen with its limited
resources. This Report presents the findings from a research study on the
basis of focus group discussion of the residents of six wards 41, 42, 44,
45, 46 and 47 (part) in Mohammadpur area. The study was initiated in
May 2015; the survey was carried out in August 2015. Citizen Report
Card is one of the new methods to measure the performance of civic
services provided by urban government. Like waste management,
mosquito control, certification service, street lighting, disaster and hazard
management etc. But the study limited its scope to waste management,
mosquito control and certification service offered by DCC. These three are
the most visible services of DCC. The quality of these services (especially
first two) even has strong influence on the election campaign of ward
commissioners and mayor. The study concluded that citizen of Dhaka
ranked the certification service as fair while waste management &

mosquito control service was identified as poor. The paper ended with a
discussion on possible improvement of quality of services.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The broad goal of the study was to assess the contribution of the Dhaka
City Corporation in improving the quality of civic life of the citizens living
inside the Corporation area. To achieve this broad goal the specific
objectives of the Study were to,
v Measure the level of awareness and satisfaction of the citizens
about the services provided by the DCC.
v Measure the quality of services delivered by the corporation
authority. Identify the problems in acquiring essential services.

METHODOLOGY:
Since this study is mainly about the perceptions of the citizens on the
quality of services provided by the city corporation, they were considered
to be the main source of information. So, the research data had to be
obtained through a field survey by the method of focus group discussion.
However, due to the limitations of budget and shortage of time we did not
allow a sample larger than 8 people. A five-stage sampling design was
followed to obtain the sampled 40 people.
v Stage-1, the businessmen were our first sample index. We selected
8 respondents in this stage. All of they are small business owner
like stationary shop owners, tea seller, hotel and restaurant owners
etc.
v Stage-2, the service holders were our second sample index. Within
the selected wards a systematic random sample of 8 respondents
were selected. Some of they are govt service holder, rests are
private service holder.
v Stage-3, the housewives were our third sample index.
v Stage-4, the day laborers were our fourth sample index. Within the
selected wards a systematic random sample of 8 respondents were
selected. All of they are rickshaw pullers, construction labors etc.
v Stage-5, the students were our fifth sample index. We select 8
ASAUB students as our respondents.
The questionnaire used for the field survey and it was designed to focus
only on the key issues. The collected data were analyzed both
qualitatively and quantitatively. In measuring the performance of service
TUGI (The Urban Governance Initiative) index was used. The index
developed by The Urban Governance Initiative is a ratio index. The index
is a percentage ratio of total points given by the respondent divided by
maximum score possible. In the point system, five is awarded for the best

while for the worst, one is awarded and intermediate scores are four,
three and two for good, fair and poor respectively. Following
mathematical expression shows how the TUGI index is determined:

Where Ii is the scale value of service and n is the total number of

respondents.
According to TUGI index, there are five classes of services. If the value
falls below 35% then it is considered very poor but it is considered to be
very good if the value is over 85% (Table 1).
Table 1: TUGI index interpretation
Value
Indicator
85% -100%
Very Good.
65% to 84%
Good.
50% to 64%
Fair.
35% to 49%
Poor.
Below 35%
Very Poor.
We will process, verified and analyzed our research data manually by
doing tally and some math.

LITERATURE REVIEW:
Amin (2000) cited examples of number of third world cities where urban
waste has been turned into resources by proper management of recycling
projects. Despite of large scale involvement of private sector,
management of solid waste is still a crucial challenge for Dhaka City
Corporation. There is limited reliable information related to quantity of
wastes generated in Dhaka. It is estimated that on average 3000 M tons
of waste is generated in Dhaka everyday (The Sustainable Development
Networking Program, 2005). More than 50 % of the total waste amount is
organic and biodegradable (The Sustainable Development Networking
Program, 2005). One of the major environmental problems of
neighborhoods of Dhaka was solid waste disposal system (Bartone, 1990;
Enayetullah, 1995). Failure of DCC due to resource constrains left no
option to the residents other than taking local initiatives to arrange for
house to house collection of waste. This strategy got momentum and by
2003 about 100 communities have begun this participatory program in
Dhaka City. This approach contributed for 20% increase of coverage of
garbage collection. In addition to improve environment, it has also
created 400 jobs (Yousuf, 2000). Willingness of local residents to pay for
house to house garbage collection and voluntary services of some local
residents are the two major aspects related to the success of the
program. Dhaka City Corporation is responsible for collecting and

managing waste from dustbin to sanitary landfill. Recently DCC privatizes

this work in some of the selected wards. But the study wards are not
included in such program. However, it is the responsibility of the
households to put their waste in the dustbins. According to DCC charter,
there should a dustbin in reasonable distance for household. In most part
of Dhaka City, community base organizations collect garbage from the
household. As citizens have to pay for this, lower income group either
litter the waste or put the waste themselves in the dustbin.
One of the widely criticized services of DCC is mosquito control (Hossain,
2002; Hossain, Wagatsuma et al., 2004; Alam, 2005; Staff Reporter,
2008). Almost in every summer there is outbreak of dengue fever in the
city. Mosquito is the career of dengue virus. Thus mosquito control is a
vital service for citizen.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

About 40 peoples were surveyed to assess the performance of DCC in
providing services on waste, mosquito control and certification. Socioeconomic data was collected through questionnaire survey for better
analysis of the scenario.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION:

One of the hypotheses of the research was that socio-economic status of
a respondent has important implication on the way he measured the
services. Age, occupation, income and education level of the respondents
were collected for testing this hypothesis.
The majority of respondents are middle aged male. As Table 2 suggests,
almost two third of the respondents were between the age of 30 to 49,
thus the most active, responsible and sensible age group.
Table 2: Age Group
Age group (in years)

Frequency

Percentage

Below 20 years Old

02

05%

20 to 29 years Old

06

15%

30 to 39 years Old

16

40%

40 to 49 years Old

12

30%

Over 50 years Old

04

10%

Total

40

100%

Table 3: Income Distribution

Income Distribution (in TK)

Frequency

Percentage

Below 10,000 TK

04

15.29%

10,000 to 20,000

06

23.08%

20,000 to 30,000

12

46.16%

Over 30,000 TK

04

15.29%

Total
26
100%
Though majority of the population of Bangladesh lives below poverty line
(i.e. daily income below one US$ or roughly 70 Bangladeshi Taka, BDT), in
Dhakas case it is not true (Hossain, 2006). However, about 50% (46.16%)
of the city population earns 20,000 to 30,000 BDT per month according to
the survey.
Table 3 shows the income group characteristics of each ward. However,
14 respondents (Housewives and Students) refused to disclose their
earning and most of the time, they said they dependent on their
guardians.
On the other hand, all respondents divulge their education status. About
60% of the respondents are HSC, Degree and above educated. (Table 4)
Table 4: Educational Level
EDUCATION LEVEL
Cannot read and write
Can only read and write
Primary
SSC
HSC
Degree and Above
Total

Frequency
02
04
04
06
12
12
40

Percent
05%
10%
10%
15%
30%
30%
100%

WASTE MANAGEMENT:
Management of waste is a costly and vexing problem for most of the local
authorities of developing countries. The problems are identified as by this
research project, 1. Service coverage is low;
2. Resources are insufficient;
3. Uncontrolled dumping is widespread, with resulting environmental
problems.
Nobody thinks that drains were cleaned daily or weekly. Most of them
(about 70%) said that the drains are irregularly cleaned or never been
cleaned by DCC (Table 5). People claim that they have to pay to the DCC
sweeper some time as high 3,000 BDT to clean the drains in the locality.
In most cases they appoint labor to clean the drains.

For the dustbins, the situation is better compared with cleaning of the
drains. About two thirds of respondents (65%) agree that dustbins are
cleaned daily or weekly. A little about 10% of respondents claim that
dustbins are not cleaned at all by DCC (Table 5). These respondents live a
little away from the main roads of the ward.
Table 5: Waste Management
Dustbin
Drain
Frequency
Percent
Frequency
Percent
Never
04
10%
08
20%
Daily
13
32.5%
0
0%
Weekly
13
32.5%
0
0%
Monthly
0
0%
04
10%
Irregularly
08
20%
20
50%
Dont know
02
05%
08
20%
Total
40
100%
40
100%
Tabl
waste
e
manag
ement
Word No.
6: TGUI Index
TUGI Index
of TUGI Index
Interpretation
41
30%
Very Poor
42

45%

Poor

44

42%

Poor

45

40%

Poor

46

35%

Fair

47

80%

Fair

Overall

45.33%

Poor

The principle objective of the research was to produce an index on the

quality of services offered to the citizen. The TUGI index values differ
considerably among the wards. In one ward it is as high as 80% (i.e. very
good) but in another ward it is as low as 42% (i.e. poor). The value is low
where there are complain of regular cleaning of drains and dustbins. But
overall TUGI index value for waste management is overall
45.33% i.e. poor. (Table 6)

MOSQUITO CONTROL SERVICE:

DCC is not performing duty is vindicated by the respondents when more

than 50% of the respondent answered that mosquito control activity run
in their locality either irregular or entirely absent in last year. About 5% of
the respondents claim that they paid money to DCC staffs for carrying out
mosquito control activity. Even when they reported to carry out mosquito
control activity, in most of the cases there was no response. Ward offices
blame this to DCC zonal offices for not carrying out their duty, while DCC
clarify this allegation as unavailability of funds and lengthy bureaucratic
procedure to obtain mosquito control materials. TUGI index clearly depict
the poor performance of DCC regarding mosquito control. With the
exception of ward no 41 have TUGI value below 35% i.e. very poor. The
overall index value is 37.5% which is little above very poor category
(Table 6).
Table 7: TUGI Index of mosquito control
Word No.
41

TUGI Index
30%

TUGI Index Interpretation

Very Poor

42

45%

Poor

44

42%

poor

45

40%

Poor

46

60%

Fair

47

50%

Fair

Overall

37.5%

Poor

CERTIFICATION SERVICE:
One of the major tasks of ward offices of Dhaka City Corporation is to
provide different certificate that is needed by the citizens for different
purpose. Birth and nationality certificate are two of the most sought after
certificate

by

the

citizens.

Beside

these,

DCC

through

ward

commissioners office also provide death certificate, succession certificate

and marriage certificate. Of the 40 respondents 24 have collected some
kind of those certificates. But not everybody applied and collected
certificates from ward offices. Though the certification service is either
free of cost or charge a very nominal fee, but one third of the

respondents claim that they had to pay for this service. However, it is
still rated as one of the better services offered by DCC by the users (Table
7). Even in the worst case scenario the TUGI index is over 50% (i.e. fair)
and the best case scenario the value is 80%% (i.e. very good).
Table 8: TGUI Index of certification services
Word No.

TUGI Index

TUGI Index Interpretation

41

55%

Fair

42

65%

Good

44

50%

Fair

45

60%

Fair

46

53%

Fair

47

70%

Good

Overall

58%

Fair

CONCLUSION:
The result shows that the citizens of Dhaka consider certification service
offered by DCC as fair and the waste management & mosquito control
service is poor. However, there is enough scope for improvement in these
services. It is important to notice that though Dhaka has been denoted as
the second dirtiest city in the world (Luck, 2008) but her residents
identified the municipal services offered to them as fair. Their perception
is certainly influenced by the overall socio-economic context of the
country. It is the prime responsibility of municipalities to ensure a healthy
and clean city. If compared at global scale the failure of DCC is
unquestionable but at local level with the active participation of people,
the city is still surviving and struggling for a better future.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
In this study, an attempt was made to draw a picture of the quality of the
Dhaka City Corporations public services and the level of the citizens
satisfaction. In the research paper, many problems facing the existing
services of Dhaka city area have emerged. The sincerity of the concerned
authorities in containing the problems of the major services provided
under DCC management is doubtful and unsatisfactory. It seemed that
much of the popularity of the DCC services have been reduced due to
this. We feel that the concerned authorities would take these suggestions

of the city dwellers seriously and with due importance and in the interest
of developing better service management system of the beautiful
historical city would take early necessary steps.
v The two city corporation mayor (north and south) will have to play
the role of a more dynamic, good administrator so as to ensure that
all the officers perform their individual responsibilities properly and
there is accountability.
v Most of the respondents informed that the quality of services has
decreased in the key areas such as mosquito control and garbage
disposal, particularly these two major services management
systems need to be redesigned.
v The technological and physical facilities of the service hubs should
be expanded and updated.
v Monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or yearly meeting can be held in
each ward at convenient location so that citizens can express their
valuable opinion or suggestions on the services delivered to them;
in this way citizens are likely to feel a sense of participation in the
local government development process and concern authoritys
accountability can be justifiable in this process.

REFERENCES:

BBS. (2001). Statistical Year Book of Bangladesh, Bangladesh

Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Dhaka, Bangladesh. DCC.(2004). The
Study on the Solid Waste Management in Dhaka City: Progress
Report, Clean Dhaka master Plan, DCC & JICA, March 2004.

DCC( 2007). Project for Strengthening of Solid Waste Management

in Dhaka City: Progress Report, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC). The
Peoples Republic of Bangladesh & Japan International Cooperation
Agency, 1October 2007.

Klundert, A. and Anschutz, J. (1999). Integrated Sustainable Waste

Management: the selection of appropriate technologies and the
design of sustainable systems is not (only) a technical issue,

CEDARE/IETC

Inter-Regional

Workshop

on

Technologies

for

Sustainable Waste Management, Alexandria, Egypt, 13-15 July

1999.

 Alam, H. (2005). Mosquito menace on as DCC fails. New Age. Dhaka.

Amin, A. T. M. N. (2000). Transforming Waste into Resources as a
Basis of Building New Urban Comunity: An Overview of Regional
Experience. Community Base Solid Waste Management: The Asian
Experience. A. M. Sinha and I. Eneyetullah. Dhaka, Waste Concern.
Siddiquee I., Sylhet growing as a modern urban centre, 15th
anniversary special of the dailystar, Dhaka, 10 February 2006.

 Dialogue paper on How we are in the city, Democracywatch at CIRDAP

auditorium, Dhaka, 29 June 2000.