Dhaleshwari to suffer Buriganga's fate

The Dhaleshwari river may suffer the same fate as the Buriganga if untreated waste from Savar tanneries continues to be discharged in the former, said speakers at a discussion in the capital yesterday.

They made the apprehension at a discussion titled “Rapid Assessment of Hazaribagh Tanneries” organised by South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (Sanem) at Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh's conference room in Banani.

The Dhaleshwari now faces a serious pollution threat as the Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) at Savar Tannery Industrial Estate is not being operated properly although the majority of the tanneries, relocated from Hazaribagh, have started discharging a large volume of effluent there, the speakers said.

CETPs are used for treating toxic waste spewed out by factories such as tanneries.

Presenting a keynote speech at the discussion, Dr Bazlul Khondker, chairman of Sanem, said quoting data collected between December 7, 2016 and April 9, 2017 by the Department of Environment (DoE), that all the effluent samples from the Savar tanneries analysed by the DoE have exceeded all safety parameters -- which is quite alarming.

Till the month of August this year, only 50 percent of electricity connections have been established for the CETP and it cannot operate to its full capacity until the remainder of its power is established, he said, adding that the installation of salt and solid waste treatment equipment at the CETP is still incomplete.

Although each factory at Savar is supposed to have two separate discharge pipes -- one for chromium or chrome waste and the other for all other liquid waste, the factory owners are not complying with the requirement. Rather, many of them are using a common pipe to discharge liquid waste to the CETP, Dr Bazlul alleged. 

During his study conducted in May and June, he found that 95 percent of the relocated workers were not provided with any compensation and 92 percent of them said that they are incurring losses in income and their standard of living deteriorated after they relocated to Savar. 

However, Abdul Quayum, former project director of the tannery relocation project, claimed that all the work related to the CETP has been finished and the installation work of a drainage system was going on at Savar.

Quayum, also a resident engineer of the Bureau of Research, Testing and Consultation (BRTC) at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), said before Eid-ul-Azha, they expect to activate four modules of the CETP.

Aside from it, they allocated nearly 200 acres of land for school, college and other facilities for tannery workers at the estate and they will submit a plan to the ministry concerned shortly, he added.

Dr Zaidi Sattar, chairman of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, said leather export from Bangladesh is currently US1.5 billion dollars, but the country has the potential to export US5 billion dollars.

Among others, Prof Abu Eusuf of development studies at Dhaka University and Dabaraj Dey, a research associate of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, addressed the discussion.