DoE fines 2 mills in in Ctg

The Department of Environment (DoE) in separate drives yesterday fined two textile mills more than Tk 50 lakh on charge of polluting the river Karnaphuli.
A DoE enforcement team led by its Director (Enforcement) Munir Chowdhury conducted the drives at Kalurghat heavy industrial area in collaboration with Chittagong Metropolitan Police.
During the drive the team found Sanji Textile Limited, a sister concern of Well Group, discharging its effluent in the river. The company is owned by Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) Chairman and Awami League leader Abdus Salam.
Though the mill possessed an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) it was not being used, sources in the team said.
The DoE team tested the water in presence of the mill authority and found the quantity of liquid oxygen to be 3.0 mg/l against the Environment Protection Act standard of 4mg/l and the Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) 3340 mg/l against 2100 mg/l. The Ph level of the water was found to be 9.68.
The team fined Sanji Textile Tk 22.84 lakh. The DoE had earlier warned the mill regarding the pollution, Munir Chowdhury told The Daily Star.
The DoE team later conducted a similar drive at nearby Shah Amanat Textile Mill, owned by another leading business venture SA Group, and also found them discharging poisonous waste into Karnaphuli. The team found that the mill had been running without any ETP and did not posses a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the DoE.
The mill was fined Tk 28 lakh and shut down temporarily on charge of polluting the environment. The DoE team also directed the authority to install an ETP immediately.
Sanji Textile Ltd authorities have already paid the full amount of the fine while Shah Amanat has paid only Tk 20 lakh.