Rivers dying because of unchecked industrialisation

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Unsupervised industrialisation is destroying the country’s rivers, and to turn the fatal tide there has to be an effective river protection authority with power to penalise industries if they contribute to river pollution, experts said yesterday.

The experts gave the opinion at an open discussion titled ‘Mitigation of Pollution of the River Buriganga and Its Peripheral Rivers Turag, Tongi Khal, Balu, Shitalakhya and Dhalewswari’, organised by the Committee for Mitigation of River Pollution under the auspices of the Office of Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka.

Keynote speaker Dr Kamal Abdul Naser, convener of the committee, said more than 3,000 units of industries for textiles, metals, chemicals, rubber, pharmaceuticals, cement, leather, pulp, paperboards, fertilizer, food processing, and petroleum refining in the city area are discharging the most polluted waste water into the rivers.

Those industrial units are discharging more than 1.3 million cubic metres of waste water into the rivers everyday compared to the daily discharge of .5 million cubic metre household waste water.

In a power-point presentation, some short-term, mid-term and long-term recommendations and work plans were suggested for turning the tide.

Major short-term recommendations include making effluent treatment plants (ETP) mandatory for all industries, banning establishment of brickfields within 200 metres of a river, establishing sewage treatment plants, identifying polluters, and having effective punitive measures against the polluters.

Mid-term recommendations include establishing central effluent treatment plants (CETP) in industrial areas including Tongi, Gazipur, Savar, Narayanganj and DEPZ areas. Increasing Wasa’s sewage coverage for up to 75 percent of the city, and bringing industrialists under a broader commitment for overall pollution control.

Long-term recommendations include Wasa’s sewage coverage for 100 percent of the city, implementation of Buriganga River flow projects, bringing all industrial units under CETP coverage, maintaining navigability of the Buriganga River.

The discussion also recommended that a river cleaning authority should be set up under the auspices of the Office of Chief Adviser.

River experts, environmental workers, and government officials concerned from different departments spoke at the open discussion.

Dr Rashidul Hasan, director general of the Department of Environment (DoE), said the government has to take strict decisions regarding what it wants to do about the polluting industrialists.

“If the government wishes to make a change, we really can make that happen,” he said.

Other officials from DoE said they had snapped gas and electricity supplies to polluter industries, but the utility agencies concerned re-connected those again.

Dr Ainun Nishat, country director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature — IUCN, said everybody actually knows what to be done to mitigate river pollution.

“What we need is to establish a a powerful body which can implement decisions to save the rivers,” he said.

Prof Muzaffer Ahmad urged the government to mark the areas of river banks which were encroached upon by dumping soil into the rivers, and to remove those parts of the banks to give back the rivers their original shapes and sizes.

Professor Nazrul Islam, chairman of University Grants Commission, said there are 38 river related government bodies. He suggested establishing one powerful body instead, to save the rivers.

Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed said only a few industrialists are polluting the rivers, adding, “Their days will end soon.”

Brig Gen Hakim of the Bangladesh Army suggested formation of a river engineering brigade in the army.

Nayeemul Islam Khan, editor of a vernacular daily the Amader Shomoy, said a movement dedicated to saving rivers needs to be formed.

Among others Dr Riazuddin, director (technical) of DoE, Engineer Abul Kashem of BIWTA, Reba Pal of Water Partnership Bangladesh, river navigability expert Commodore (retd) Shafiqur Rahman, and environmentalist Mihir Biswas also spoke.

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