SM Mizanur Rahman :
The government on Wednesday directed the industrialists to install ‘effluent treatment plants’ (ETP) in their respective industries immediately or face the music. “The industries with inactive ETP will also be shutdown,” Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan told it to journalists at his secretariat office in city yesterday. An inter-ministerial meeting was held at the shipping ministry to discuss how to protect the major rivers surrounding the capital Dhaka. Shajahan Khan chaired meeting.
Environment and Forest Minister Anwar Hossain Manju, Housing Minister Mosharraf Hossain, Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sherif, Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon and Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq attended the meeting.
According to the Environment Conservation Rule, 1997, every industry should have in-house ETP. Otherwise, they would not get environmental clearance from the department of environment (D0E), which is mandatory to obtain power and gas connections.
As the industry-generated liquid and solid waste and most of the human excreta directly go down the rivers through underground pipeline, pollution has polluted the Buriganga, the Shitalakkhya, the Turag and the Balu rivers and made it almost impossible to treat the water. Earlier on several occasions setting the deadlines, the government directed industrialists to install ETP, but most of them have defied the directive and the government also did not take action against any of the violators.
Shajahan Khan said, they have taken various initiatives including charging fine to industry owners to compel them to operate ETP.
“But all of our efforts went in vain. Many industries have ETB but these have remained inoperative. We have fined many industries for not operating or installing ETP. But they didn’t pay heed to the authority concerned instruction,” he said.
The Shipping Minister said the DoE penalised fined many industries and realised Tk 118 crore from the owners in the last few years.
“If the industries do not install the ETP within the given time, they will be fined first,” he said, cautioning if the fine does not initiate the implementation, they will be shut down.
He said the department of environment (DoE), has been asked to shutdown the industries, which ETP remain suspended.
“Over 60 per cent waters of the rivers are being polluted due to industries wastage,” he said.
When asked about the shifting of tannery from Hazaribagh to Savar, Shajahan Khan said the process is on but the tannery owners are not showing interest.
The Minister said tannery in city’s Hazaribagh area is pouring thousands of litres of untreated and highly toxic liquid waste into the Buriganga river every day, posing a serious risk to human and animal health.
“Installation of ETP at Savar is at final stage. It is expected that installation of ETP at Savar will be completed within a month,” he said.
He said the tannery has not been shifted yet. So, it is not possible to examine whether the ETP installed there are operative or inoperative.
“Many industrialists are constructing their business establishments at Savar, but they are not playing any role in shifting the tannery there,” he said.
On January 10, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu asked the tannery owners to shift their establishments within 72 hours from Hazaribagh to the Leather Industrial City at Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka.
As the government remained silent for years, the industrialists continued to pollute the rivers, canals and wetlands in and around the city to such an extent that surface water turned pitch black in several spots.
