Modernise state-run fertiliser factories
Four state-run fertiliser factories are consuming a huge amount of natural gas to produce urea fertiliser at a much lower efficiency than their modern peers, according to a report published by this newspaper on November 25. They are a perfect example of how terribly inefficient many of our state-run factories have become, and how the authorities have appallingly turned a blind eye to them, despite these factories wasting away many of our precious resources.
The amount of gas these four factories are wasting in just nine days is enough to produce a day's electricity for the entire country, according to an estimate by the government's Power System Master Plan. In 2019, these four factories churned out 796,000 tonnes of granular urea using double the amount of gas—a key ingredient for manufacturing urea—that should be required for the task. On average, the four factories consume 43.72 million cubic feet (mcf) of gas to produce one tonne of urea, whereas the global standard is 25mcf, according to documents of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC).
The low efficiency of these factories has been attributed to old machinery with no overhaul in years, interruption in gas supply, and a lack of skilled workforce by government officials. According to experts, this has been an open secret for many years. Then why have the authorities not done anything about it? The wastage has already stressed the country's fast depleting natural gas reserve and incurred huge economic losses—as these factories have had to run on enormous government subsidies, the amount of which has also been increasing year after year. The authorities could have easily invested in better, more modern machinery for these factories and still saved taxpayers' money—as well as the country's precious gas—instead of endlessly providing them with such massive subsidies.
The fact that the authorities have failed to address these issues for decades shows an uncalled for apathy on their part, which is completely unacceptable. The concerned authorities must be made to answer for failing to modernise these factories, as well as for wasting so much of the country's limited gas reserves and public money. We call on the government to immediately take necessary steps to modernise these factories, to make sure that such wastefulness is stopped and to ensure that this message is sent loud and clear to all state-run factories and the people in charge of their operations.
Comments