Days of deadly fumes pass off at long last

A banner on the Lucas battery factory reads 'Thanks for cooperation for the last 50 years'. The unit that emitted deadly fumes, was shifted from West Nakhalpara on January 1.Photo: STAR

At long last, forty-six years after its founding, the Lucas battery factory at West Nakhalpara, has turned off its machines emitting deadly fumes in the area.
The factory, run by RahimAfrooz Bangladesh Ltd, was shut down on December 31, 2008.
For a long time the people of the area were living with pungent smell in the air and the grumbling noise of the generator.
After the relentless effort of the residents, finally the owner of the factory, founded in 1960, decided to shut down its cogs. The machine was formally switched off by Abdul Wadud, a senior resident of the area.
“Though we have been fighting with the factory authorities for a long time the end was quite amicable. They ended the whole matter in a cordial way,” he said.
Officials of the factory said that they had been trying their best to relocate the factory since they got notice from the Department of Environment (DoE).
“We were trying to relocate the factory since 2000 when the DoE gave us notice to do so. We also had a letter from the works ministry for buying plots. From 2005 we were trying to buy a plot and bought one at Ashulia next year. But when we started the construction we came to know that it was a disputed plot. We started looking again. Then we selected a plot in Jirani Bazar of Gazipur. The space was insufficient for relocating because we bought the plot for other purposes but in spite of that we are shifting the factory there because we have given our word to DoE,” said Sayeed Hassan, chief operating officer, RahimAfrooz Batteries Ltd.
Earlier the DoE set a deadline for shifting the factory by November last year. Locals submitted an application to the DoE in June 1995 to shift the factory following enactment of the Environment Conservation Act in February of the same year, giving a full account of the environmental hazards and public sufferings due to the presence of the factory in the area.
Following the application, DoE sent an inspection team to the area in July 1995, which found that the fume from the battery factory's furnace of liquid lead was directly mixing with the air.
DoE sent a letter to the managing director of RahimAfrooz Bangladesh Ltd on July 25, 1995 requesting them to use, if possible, a 'wet scrubber' for lead fumes and keep the noise pollution level under 45 decibels.
The letter did not mention any specific timeframe or any step the DoE would take in case the factory did not comply with the measures.
The locals submitted three more applications in October 1997, August 1998 and in May 2007 to the DoE requesting them to take steps to shift the factory but to no effect.
“Whatever has happened now we are all happy that the factory is shut down at last. All I can say is better late than never,” said an elderly resident of the area living there since 1959.