Bangladesh, Aug. 30 -- Bangladesh does not have the luxury of wasting money on electricity it cannot afford, nor does Dhaka have the luxury of treating waste management as an excuse for an expensive power project.

Yet the proposed 42MW waste-to-energy plant at Aminbazar appears to do precisely that.

The government plans to buy electricity from the Chinese company China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) at around Tk 25 a unit.

State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Mir Shahe Alamon Thursday said the project is expected to start generation within 18 months.

The proposal may sound attractive: turn Dhaka's mounting garbage into electricity.

But beneath that appealing slogan lies a far more troubli...