MEDIA report on Saturday said out of the 14 factories run by Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), 10 have no pollution control equipment in place, seven have no effluent treatment plants (ETP) and five have no environment clearance certificate. They are violating the basic environmental law. If one makes a search about factories run by other state-owned corporation, the number of violators appears to be huge and the reality is yet precarious in and around the areas such factories are running.
We are appalled by the government neglect to this vital public health issues arising out of air and water pollution from smoke and discharge of waste from mills and factories to water bodies. They are cause of skin and respiratory diseases and serious ailments such as cancer. Infants are worst victims. But surprisingly the Health Ministry is almost indifferent to this threat to public health while the Ministry of Environment is not equally serious to enforce environmental protection law to state-owned plants.
Statistics by Department of Environment (DoE) suggest it fined no less than 300 mills and factories last year, mostly private factories to the tune of Tk30 crore for polluting environment. But state-run factories were mostly ignored while they were destroying the biodiversity. Disclosure said only the Karnaphuli Paper Mills (KPM) at Kaptai discharge 7600 cubic meters of untreated toxic effluent into the river every day. It creates thick black foams that float in the river water. It spreads strong smell of chemicals harming public health and destroying fish and other plants. Water temperature is high and oxygen concentration is low in the area and such situation is prevailing at all places where paper mills or fertilizer plants are operating.
The DoE fined KPM around Tk 1.84 crore last year for failing to comply with Environmental Law. But what is surprising is that the Ministry of Environment exempted the fine and there is no doubt such act will not be helpful to secure compliance by other state-owned factories. What is at point is that why the same law should be discriminated and differently applied to private and public establishments.
We must say that the government claim of phenomenal development must be visible beyond tall talks and as far as environmental pollution is concerned there is no development at all. Brick kilns outside the city are destroying environment regularly and there are allegations that Environment Inspectors are facilitating it instead of protecting the environment. Factories are discharging waste at many places in the industrial belt raising question as to why DoE officials are failing to stop it. We must also say everyone must be treated equally — be it a government-owned factory or private-owned one.
