They collect sugarcane residue from dirty pool
Sell per sack of item for Tk 220 to 250 as substitute for firewood
Hard-pressed, these women collect waste materials, mostly sugarcane residues, from this awfully dirty pond beside Mohimaganj Sugar Mills in Gaibandha district and dry them to sell as fuel for domestic purposes. Photo: STAR
Over 150 ultra-poor women are engaged in collecting sugarcane residues from pitch black water of a dirty pool that contains waste materials from Mohimaganj Sugar Mills in the district. They do the repulsive and unhygienic job to support their families as the material, used as fuel for domestic purpose, earns them some money. Everyday these women are found collecting floating wastes from the pool containing pitch black liquid where garbage, dirty water, waste molasses and burnt out lube oil from the factory are let flow. While passers-by moving along the road beside the dirty and stinking pool often cover their nose in disgust these poor women continue searching sugarcane residue there. After straining out floating wastes from the dirty pool, they collect it in baskets and put on the ground for drying in the sun. Thus making the sugarcane residue ready for using as fuel in domestic hearth, they sell a sack of the item for Tk 220 to 250 in the local market. It makes good substitute of firewood for domestic purposes. "We collect sugarcane waste from this dirty pool everyday. We know this is harmful for health, but we have hardly any alternative source of earning," said Jamila Begum of Sreepati village in Gobindaganj upazila. Many of the waste material collectors often suffer from fever and intestinal diseases due to working for long in the dirty pool, but they do it only for earning livelihood, said Sajeda Bewa, an elderly woman of Mohimaganj. The earning source is a seasonal one as they get enough sugarcane residues only when the mill remains operational for a couple of months during the sugarcane crushing period, said Aklima Khatun of Mohimaganj Bazar.
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