DoE orders factory shut for polluting Halda

Department of Environment (DoE) in Chittagong yesterday ordered to shut down a paper mill for emitting pollutants in the Halda river, the country's largest natural breeding ground for carps.

The DoE issued the order following a hearing at its office in the city. 

Sonjukta Das Gupta, assistant director of DoE, told The Daily Star that the factory, Mac Paper Mill in Bayezid area, had been in operation since 1995 without any effluent treatment plant (ETP) as well as any environmental clearance.

During the period, the DoE had fined the factory around TK 50 lakh and ordered it to remove the facility by February 2017, she said, adding, “Today in a hearing, the DoE ordered to shut down the factory for failing to comply with DoE's order… the order will remain in force until an ETP is set up and environmental clearance is obtained.”

The Halda is known to be a carp fish habitat. It is possibly the only river in this region where carps find its water, having special biochemical properties, suitable for releasing spawns. Manmade hazards however now threaten the natural habitat of these fish, say experts.