River Polluters: Fine not enough, jail them too

River polluters should be not only fined but also punished with jail terms, recommends the National River Conservation Commission.

The recommendation has been incorporated in the draft amendment to National River Conservation Commission Act, 2013, NRCC Chairman Muzibur Rahman Howlader said yesterday, while unveiling the commission’s annual report.

He also said river grabbing is regarded as a criminal offence, but polluters get away only by paying fines.  “They are the owners of major industries, and we need to make sure that they are sent to jail for polluting the rivers.

“We all should show zero tolerance against discharge of waste into the rivers.”

While issuing a rule, the High Court on January 29 had also recommended considering river pollution as a criminal offence and handing tougher punishment to the offenders.

The HC came up with the rule in response to a petition seeking declaration that the Turag is a living entity.

The river commission’s annual report was launched at a press conference at its office in the capital yesterday.

Speaking there, the NRCC chief said there were 49,162 river encroachers across the country.

In its report, the commission said it surveyed 47 canals in Dhaka over the last one year and found all of them illegally encroached upon.  Eleven of the waterbodies were grabbed to build high-rises.

It said Bhatara, Dumni-Kathaldiya and Jowar Sahara-Kathaldiya canals were filled up with sand by a real estate company. 

The water flow of Dholai Khal canal was being blocked by a culvert in Gendaria, while untreated sewage was being discharged directly into the Kalyanpur, Hazaribagh and Kalunagar canals.

The commission also said it carried out surveys on five rivers -- the Balu, the Dhaleshwari, the Madhumati, the Arial Kha, and the Kumar -- and compiled its findings in the report. It would eventually survey a total of 48 rivers across the country.

The report said the Water Development Board was yet to identify all the floodplains in the country, and because of this, land was being illegally handed over for the construction of factories and power plants.

Besides, the commission should be empowered to carry out drives to remove illegal structures from grabbed parts of rivers and to run mobile courts under it, the report said.

BALU

The list of Balu’s occupiers is full of names.

For example, a major food manufacturer set up a garments factory by grabbing the river in the capital’s Gulshan area. Many other structures also encroach on the river there, while in Demra, the river is being filled up illegally, says the report.

In Tongi’s Pagar area, the river is being occupied by four garments factories, a chemical factory, an LED bulb-making factory and a steel factory. In Rupganj, three residential projects and a brick field encroach upon the river.

In Nagri union of Gazipur, the Balu river is occupied at five places by poultry farms, saw mills, and even the boundary wall of a government training centre.

Effluents are pumped into the river in Tongi and Rupganj by occupiers. In the capital’s Rampura, a sewage pipe empties out directly into the river, the report stated.

In Gazipur’s Kaliganj, the colour of the river has changed due to unabated dumping of waste by locals.

“The colour of the water is not normal, it emits stench and there is no presence of fish or aquatic biodiversity,” the report noted.

DHALESHWARI

Factories located at 10 places around the Dhaleshwari directly discharge solid wastes into the river. The areas are in Manikganj’s Shingair and Dhaka’s Dhamrai upazilas.

The level of pollution in the Dhaleshwari and the Balu is so high that people using the water were contracting different skin and gastrointestinal diseases, the report said.

Encroachers of Dhaleshwari are plenty as well. In Talebpur union of Madaripur’s Shibchar, a steel mill was built by grabbing the river.

Brick yards in Bayra and Dholla unions of Shingair encroach upon over a thousand decimals of the river, the report said.

MADHUMATI

Discharge from a furnace-oil based power plant was polluting the Madhumati river in Gopalganj’s Haridashpur. The power plant is also illegally occupying the river there, the report said.

In Narail’s Kalia upazila, 28 brick kilns dump their effluents in the river.

Meanwhile, during the dry months, the pollution in the rivers causes the water salinity to rise, preventing locals from being able to use the water.

The Madhumati is occupied at 38 places. “The district commission is building a market at the source of Pachuria canal, and this is happening right under the nose of Gopalganj’s administration and police,” the report said.

It added that when there should be a bridge, a section of the river has filled up to build a road, cutting off the river’s connections to its Baor. Similarly, the river’s links with its tributaries and distributaries have been cut at 34 places.

The river is illegally occupied by a barrack for law enforcers in Boultoli union in Gopalganj Sadar upazila. In Jolirpar union, much of the river is taken up by rice mills, the report said.

ARIAL KHA

A government textile institute was set up in Madaripur sadar upazila by illegally occupying land in the middle of the Arial Kha, the survey found.

A government body also encroached on the river to build a maritime institute.

Within the municipality area, the river is also grabbed by saw mills and people’s homes.

In Shibchar upazila of the district, a local government authority built a bridge in such a way that a portion of the river had to be filled up, the report said, adding that the river was grabbed in areas in Madaripur sadar, Shibchar and Kalkini upazilas by 10 brick kilns.

Arial Kha’s tributary Beel Padma is occupied by structures, including a water treatment plant, a home of a local mayor, and offices of law enforcers, and fire service, the report added.