Massive waste of water in RMG sector

Bangladesh is the second largest player in the global apparels industry after China targeting USD 50 billion in exports by 2021. But that success comes at a huge environmental cost. The garments industry (RMG) uses a mammoth 1,500 billion litres of water to dye and wash the cotton and clothes made by the sector and this is the subject of an International Finance Corporation (IFC) study. We are fast depleting precious groundwater that Dhaka WASA supplies to industry at the throwaway price of Tk 0.0326 per litre. As we bask in the glory of our export success, our water tables are turning dry which opens up the prospect of earth caving in and dragging down structures made above ground.

What the Partnership for Cleaner Textile (PaCT) programme has shown is that 200 factories could save USD 16million a year just by reducing water consumption. We could be looking at a 25 percent reduction (nearly 400 billion litres per year) if changes are made industry wide  in water consumption, which automatically leads to less energy use and chemicals. This technology obviously works and the government should undertake its own study to see what cost savings can be made on energy, water and chemical usage. Armed with such knowledge, a fund can be set up to give loans to factories at a concession rate and make it mandatory for the industry to become compliant within a stipulated time frame. Once the financing scheme is worked out, it will make sense for factory owners to retrofit and we can make "efficiency" a key component of the way we produce our goods.