No step yet to reduce pollution

One of the canals emptying highly toxic effluents into the Buriganga River, the dying lifeline of the city. PHOTO: Syed Zakir Hossain

The government is yet to adopt any firm policy to reduce pollution arising from tanneries, pharmaceuticals, chemical and dyeing factories releasing highly toxic untreated wastes every day contaminating land, air and water.

Millions of gallons of untreated wastes from around 7,000 industries are polluting all the four rivers, canals and low-lying areas around the city posing major environmental threat.

Environmentalists warn that the extremely polluted waters might trigger an epidemic anytime during dry winter season, when the river waters are stagnant.

According to a survey jointly performed by Department of Environment (DoE) and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), more than 7,000 factories are located along the rivers and canals in Dhaka.

These industries, excluding the Hazaribagh tanneries, discharge more than 60 million litres of toxic wastes per day into our waters, land and air. The Hazaribagh tanneries add to the massive pollution by pumping an additional 7.7 million litres of highly toxic liquid wastes directly into the nearby canals and the river Buriganga. Tanneries also dump 135 tonnes of solid wastes into the river per day. Factories in Tejgaon industrial area drain wastes into the Begunbari canal that winds its way into Norai canal and the river Balu.

According to experts the most polluting industries in the city are tanneries textile, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. The four clusters, where most factories are situated, are Savar, Gazipur, Dhaka-Chittagong Highway and in Dhaka-Narshingdi Highway.

"Last year DoE conducted a drive in Tejgaon industrial area against polluting factories. But the influential industrialists rushed to the Ministry of Environment and requested concerned officials to stop the drive and promised to comply with the law. But they did not do anything yet," said a high official of DoE seeking anonymity.

There is a severe shortage of manpower to handle the overall situation. At present the total manpower of DoE is 244. In Dhaka division there are only 3 inspectors, 5 junior and senior chemists to monitor the industries.

According to Environment Conservation Rule 1997, every industry should have in-house Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) otherwise they would not get environmental clearance from the DoE. For an industry to obtain electricity and gas connections to their premises the environmental clearance is mandatory.

A very few factories have the ETP but most of the industries are running without any regard for the environment. According to sources the defiant industrialists usually "plead poverty" to the authorities when the question of environment arises. A top official source quoted an industrialist and said, "They (the industrialists) would say that they are creating employment opportunities for a poor country like Bangladesh and also earning foreign currency so they deserve to be treated with more patience to install ETPs."

The DoE official however said that they are planning to send the offending industries two notices to comply with the existing laws very soon. "If they do not abide by the laws then we will disconnect the utility services. This step is under process," said the official.

In the absence of implementation of existing laws, Waste Concern is an NGO working in the city to introduce Environment Management System (EMS), in compliance with ISO 14000 mentioned in the government's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. Waste Concern officials believe that EMS could greatly help reduce industrial pollution.

EMS is a systematic approach to deal with environmental aspects of an organisation. It is a tool that enables an organisation of any size and type to control the impact of its activities, products or services on environment.

"EMS is a commitment to comply with relevant environment laws and regulations, to prevent pollution and its 'continual improvement'," said Iftekhar Enayetullah, director, Waste Concern adding that in the city up to 20 factories have adopted EMS.

But the government is very slow to introduce EMS. "We are first emphasising on capacity building under Bangladesh Environment Institution Support Project (BEISP) for environment related issues including EMS. Then we will introduce EMS to industry owners and also to the officials of the DoE since it is a brand new concept here," said a DoE official seeking anonymity.