Sakib B. Amin, Ph.D. and Asif Azam Khan :
We have all witnessed how the textile and apparel sector for Bangladesh has flourished with exports to the foreign countries. According to World Bank (2009), the country is the second largest exporter of RMG. The country has retained its position by holding on to its 5% share of the global clothing export. The “Made in Bangladesh” tags have spread all over the world. BGMEA statistics show that the RMG sector is holding up to 81.71% of the total exports made by the country, creating almost 4 million workers (80% of which are women) in growing 4296 factories. But in its journey to reach its intended value of $50 billion by 2021, the sector should not forget one of the most valuable assets of the country, which are the rivers. The textile and apparel industries generate huge volume of water-based waste containing various chemicals used in dyeing, printing and various chemical processes. This effluent created in these processes is well beyond the national standard and are highly harmful for the environment (especially, dyeing causes intense coloring of water). The Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) is designed to treat these generated wastes or effluent. So, it is very important to understand the fact that the treatment process by the ETP does not only reduce the damage done to the environment, but also results in other benefits for the industry. These benefits include improvement of public image, greater acknowledgement from the foreign buyers and compliancy with the environmental laws. There are remarkable cases where treating the ETP as an integral part of their industrial process has earned the industry remarkable reduction in operational costs of various form.
As rivers like the Buriganga, Shitalakkha, Balu, Turag and Bangshi are continuously being affected by the textile industries, the tanneries of the Hazaribagh and the factories in Keranigonj continue to discharge huge amount of wastes to the river and degrading it every day. The challenge of the industry lies in coping with these untreated wastewater through maintaining parameters like, pH, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and sometimes, heavy metals and color of effluent. In meeting such challenges and in setting up the ETP, there are some approaches, which already proved to be beneficial.
Under the Environmental Conservation Rules 1997, industrial projects are classified into four categories based on environmental impact and location (Green, Orange A, Orange B and Red). The fabric dyeing and chemical industry in Bangladesh falls under Red. The Act and Environmental Rules (1997) also states that, it is mandatory for textile industries to setup an ETP to treat the waste before it is released to the environment. The few basic tips just before setting up the ETP is to select the appropriate place, knowing that the ETP should not be set up close to the wells or reservoirs of drinking water, wetlands or water discharge zones. Secondly, choosing a design efficient treatment plant, which is done by choosing a wasted place or idle place to save land? This could be land which is idle and not being used for any industrial process. And a third step could be by choosing an appropriate water treatment technology. Studying the effluent type, characteristic and volume can help adopting the ideal technology needed for treatment, such as, whether to use Electrolysis, Bioreactor, Ion Exchange, Thermal Hydrolysis or Chemical Treatment. Ion Exchange is one of the best water treatment technologies and is used to treat contaminated water with dissolved impurities. Studying and characterizing the volume includes, monitoring the level of pollutants at certain places for eg: effluent entering and leaving the facility, characterizing the effluent through analysis in terms of temperature, pH and concentration of effluent, collecting existing information eg: ETP manual and laboratory analysis record, surveying the effluent stream and implementing a regular monitoring regime.
The three typical types of ETP are the biological Treatment plant, physico-chemical treatment, and the combined physico-chemical and biological treatment. The combined physico-chemical and biological treatment is the most commonly used one in the textile and RMG sector. Although different studies revealed that, the biological treatment plant is the most efficient in keeping parameters well within the national standards, we need to keep in mind that the biological treatment does require high initial investment and larger land requirement more than the other two types and lacks in treating the effluent colour. The combined physico chemical and biological treatment on the other hand holds really high running costs, when it comes to the chemical and energy consumption. The industry needs to learn that, the sooner they start managing the effluents in the already existing combined physico and biological treatment plants and the chemical plants, the better off they will be in terms of cost reduction, environmental compliancy, public image, and attract more international buyers.
There are quite a few practices and initiatives through which the ETP can be effectively operated. One such practice is by encouraging outsourcing of the effluent treatment requirements. The country has not yet seen such an initiative and there are most likely no companies specialized in this effluent management sector, but there is a scope for interested entrepreneurs or even the government to encourage such specialized companies to get created. The benefits from this would result as; it helps in adjusting the investment costs for the ETP, use of fully trained and experienced staff in this sector, greater assurance in tackling changing environmental laws and requirements, security of long-term operation. Example of such a practice can be found in the United Kingdom, where companies contracted out their ETP requirements and enjoyed fair reduction in yearly costs.
Another example of efficient and beneficial operation of ETP has been set by few companies in Bangladesh, with their chemical ETPs. Among these few companies some of them were interviewed. The Managers and supervisors of these companies both shared excellent and up-to-date knowledge of their chemical ETP. They specifically mentioned that identifying the effluent characteristics, keeping routine data and it is worth noting that after introducing jar testing on a routine basis helped control the dose rate for coagulant/ flocculant and have helped in maintaining the value of the parameters well within the national standards. Jar testing is basically, the addition of chemicals to sample of effluents to determine the optimum type of dosing and mixing conditions to achieve strong floc formation. This is a good example of a team approach, where almost everyone concerned with the production process starting from operators, supervisors, engineers and managers are aware of the environmental responsibilities and should know that managing the effluent can bring them tremendous benefits. The companies are also highly motivated and working on using the treated water from the ETP for use in their rest rooms to reduce costs and usage of water in flushing. An estimated cost of only Tk 8 lakh would be used in such a setup, which would prove highly beneficial for the company in the long run. These few companies no longer look at the ETP as just a treatment process but also a significant part of their production process. Incase of machineries and equipment used at the ETP, there can be installation of variable- frequency drives which helps in controlling the speed of an electric motor, there can be use of energy efficient motors, upgrading heating, cooling, ventilation systems, and of course energy efficient lighting system.
Setting up a diversion unit with the existing ETP can also turn very beneficial in operating an ETP as it is used to control the unwarned or risky incidents such as: unexpected peaks, in strength, flow or Ph, unexpected spillages etc. This could be controlled automatically for example through an on-line Ph monitor or manually through an operator. It can also be used in returning of effluent trickle to the effluent at a suitable point for ETP, re-using the contents of the tank in the manufacturing process etc. Reviewing of each chemical and biological process routinely and appropriately following the ETP monitoring and maintaining guideline would surely result in more efficient performance and reduced running costs.
Private- Public partnership can also play a significant role in setting up and even running ETP by creating local market for equipment and chemicals. In order to balance the variation in prices and diminish the uneven competition within the industry for establishing and maintaining the ETP, the private-public partnership can setup a market where owners of businesses can buy the machinery for ETP operation and installments. Cost of setting up the ETP varies greatly when the cost in European and other Asian countries are compared with the cost in Bangladesh. Therefore, a market place providing equipment at lower prices would surely help the companies in installing and maintaining ETPs. There could be initiatives such as a Green Project, an initiative by the government in saving water. Through the environmentalists this could be a project to explore, develop and manage sustainable use of the environmental resources and also raising awareness in using energy-saving lights and other eco-friendly machineries. The project would simultaneously monitor and lessen environmental hazards.
The Finance Minister, AMA Muhith in his budget speech for 2014-15, announced that the government has taken decision in imposing 1% ‘Environmental Protection Surcharge’/’green tax’ on ad-valorem basis, on all products polluting the environment which are manufactured in Bangladesh by industries. The initiative sounds promising, but it definitely needs to be backed by responsible actions from the National Board of Revenues (NBR), as they are still monitoring the names of the companies short listed for penalization. So far, the NBR has listed 760 industries out of the some thousand factories in Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna as the list keeps on changing, when the companies who install ETPs are taken out of the list. It has been observed that, a lot of factories only operate plants at the time just before inspection by the DoE and even bribe the inspection to generate biased reports. The government slowed down in the assessment after realizing the fact that, this might hurt the country’s international image. In an inter-ministerial meeting Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan has stated that industries who have not been running ETPs have already been fined Tk 118 crore and those who do not yet utilize them would be shut down. He also mentioned that initiatives have been taken to relocate tanneries to Savar but disagreements remain between the government and the tannery owners regarding the time of reallocation and compensation for the shifting. The Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) which was supposed to be ready by this time of the year at Savar for the tanneries has not also been completed, which creates more concerns in the decision of reallocation.
It can be said that, general people need to be more aware in preserving our environment. Of course, there needs to be more solid efforts made by the government but all these efforts if made by the government along with the private sector would only be fruitful for the country, if the industries themselves treat the ETP as an integral part of their operation through team approach, understanding the effluent characteristics and take other feasible initiatives. Setting up of a CETP, choosing the right type of ETP is important, but maintenance and routine monitoring of the existing ones is equally significant for the entire textile and apparel industry. At this point it is important for both the big and small scale companies to realize how decisive the environment is; especially the rivers are of the country. Choosing the correct ETP for the industry becomes far easier, only if the industry is able to understand the effluent characteristic and have proper knowledge regarding the ETP operations. Such initiatives in operating the ETPs by the already existing companies set up an example for the new companies and even draw more government attention in increasing its effort towards the sector.
