Govt to finance ETP for tanneries

State Minister for Environment and Forests Hasan Mahmud said yesterday the government would finance the construction of the central effluent treatment plant (ETP) for the newly established tannery village in Savar.
“If construction of the ETP for the tannery industry remains halted due to a lack of finance, it will take five more years to relocate the worst contributor to river pollution,” said Mahmud at a luncheon meeting of the Dutch-Bangla Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.
The minister criticised the private commercial banks for their desire to take 4 percent as service charge to finance ETPs for other industries.
“The government allocated Tk 200 crore at 5 percent to install ETPs at private factories. But commercial banks are asking for 9 percent from entrepreneurs,” Mahmud said.
The rate is too high for entrepreneurs and it will jeopardise the objective of the fund, he said. Private banks should keep two percent service charge for themselves and give the funds at seven percent to entrepreneurs, he suggested.
Netherlands Ambassador to Bangladesh AJAJMG (Alphons) Hennekens and Chamber President Rakesh Mohan spoke on the occasion. Former Director to the Department of Environment Mohammad Reazuddin presented a keynote speech at the discussion styled 'Need for a new paradigm in policies and approaches to break the industry-water pollution nexus'.
The minister said the government will introduce water buses this year on the riverways of Dhaka to ease traffic congestion. He said a commuter takes 2 hours to commute from Sadarghat to Amin Bazar by road, which will take only 45 minutes by waterways.
He said the Awami League government, in its previous tenure, introduced the Dhaka city waterways and currently, about 10,000 tonnes of goods are transporting through the ways.
Mahmud told the meeting that the next parliament session may pass the 'Environment Court Law'. Once it is implemented, each district will get a dedicated magistrate to operate environment related cases.
He said the volume of environment related cases has increased manifold, which went beyond the capacity of the existing environment courts.
“In an example of the Chittagong division, the environment court received 82 cases in five years through 2001-2006, while the same division got about 52 environment cases in the last seven months," he added.
The ambassador said issues, like where and how the products are produced, the working environment and how labourers are treated, are getting more importance from consumers.
He suggested the government keep the environmental laws easy and flexible, so that those could be implemented easily.