Fertiliser plant rains toxin on people

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A large amount of toxic ammonia, highly soluble in water and released from the country’s largest urea producing Jamuna Fertiliser Factory (JFF) at Tarakandi under Sharishabari upazila of Jamalpur district, has been wreaking havoc on the local environment causing debilitating illnesses among the residents of the area for the last 16 years.

The gas emitted by JFF has also been destroying the crops, livestock, poultry, and fishes of the area worth crores of taka every year.

The factory produces 1,700 tons of urea a day, for which it also produces ammonia as an input.

Factory sources said since the beginning of operation they have been producing an extra 300 tons of ammonia than required everyday, and that superfluous amount of toxic gas has been being released into the environment through the plant’s exhaust system on a daily basis since 1991, when the factory started its operation.

The factory authorities did nothing to stop the environmental disaster despite continued protests from thousands of affected local people over the years.

Crops, trees, poultry, livestock, and fishes in adjacent Kandarpara, Tarakandi, Charpara, and Dhuriarbhita villages have been dying due to the emission of the toxic gas from the factory. Croplands of the area have become arid due to the pollution of many years.

This correspondent recently visited Kandarpara village. As he entered the affected area, a heavy acrid smell of ammonia hit his nostrils making it very difficult to breathe and very soon his eyes also started to burn, making the visit quite injurious to personal health.

But the villagers have been living in this dangerous situation for 16 years now. Trees of the village have already died while the water of the ponds have become poisoned and discoloured.

Azizul Haque, 50, of Kandarpara said he had cultivated different kinds of fishes in his three ponds last year with loans from the local Krishi Bank, but the fishes worth about Tk 1 lakh died due to the ammonia mixed in the pond water.

“I went to the factory authorities including the managing director with the dead fishes in my hands but they paid no attention to my complaint and did nothing about the problem,” he said.

The farmers of the worst affected four villages are feeling helpless as yields of their boro crop on 200 acres of land contained no grain in them last season due to the effect of the large amount of ammonia in the environment, local residents said.

Razzak Ali, a landless farmer of Kandarpara village said during the last boro season he had cultivated boro rice on 35 bighas of land taking advance payment from buyers, but his entire yield of the crop turned out to be sterile.

“I invested Tk 36,000 for the cultivation but the entire yield of paddy was sterile due to the ammonia in the environment,” he said adding, “Now I don’t know how I’m going to repay.”

Not only Razzak, most of the farmers of the village including Tota Miah, Joinul Abedin, Shamsher Ali, Khanu Miah, Badal Miah, Abdul Aziz, Marfat Ali and Suruj Ali are also suffering from similar fates.

The hapless population who grow food items that probably end up on the dinner tables of many powerful people in the capital, have been left to suffer for the last 16 years while the local environment was being permeated by toxic ammonia emitted from the government run fertiliser factory infecting the population with diseases like asthma, bronchitis, blindness and different kinds of skin diseases.

Rina Begum, a housewife living in Kandarpara village, said her three minor children have been constantly suffering from diseases over the years.

Marfat Ali of the same village said three of his six brothers and their families already left the village due to the pollution.

“I will also leave the village as soon as possible with my wife and children,” he said.

Shamsher Ali of the village said, “I am only 40 but I can’t see clearly anymore, moreover my hair has already fallen due to the pollution.”

The local residents alleged that they held protest programmes like forming human chains, blockading the factory gate, submitting memorandums to the JFF authorities, etc, but the authorities seemed to keep getting away with not caring at all with impunity years after years.

The erstwhile lawmaker of the constituency Anwarul Kabir Talukder visited the villages in August 2006 and assured the residents that he would take necessary steps to remedy the situation but that remedy has yet to show up on the dismal horizon of those neglected food growers.

“We also complained to the joint forces at Sharishabari camp recently and urged them to save our lives and crops from the pollution, but they told us that it is a problem of the Jamuna Fertiliser Factory authorities, they have nothing to do about it,” said a frustrated villager.

The villagers repeatedly demanded that the authorities concerned build a waste treatment plant on the factory premises to stop the pollution of the environment and to put an end to the wanton destruction of their lives, but that seemed to fall on deaf ears only.

When contacted over the phone, Israt Shamim Chowdhury, general manager (administration) of JFF, admitted to The Daily Star that there is a full blown environmental disaster existing in the area due to the mindless release of toxic ammonia into the local environment from the government run largest urea factory of the country on a daily basis since 1991.

“The factory authorities will take necessary steps regarding the matter when the plant will be overhauled in October this year,” he said.

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