THE saga of relocating tannery factories from Hazaribagh to Savar’s new tannery city sees no end. Started from more than one decade ago delay in building the basic infrastructure lost the vital time when the River Buriganga became partly dead with tannery waste from congested factories on the riverbank. It appears that factory owners are now exploiting the move as a last minute ploy to extract financial benefits from the government in the name of financing construction of new factory buildings and cost recovery of the shifting. Since the government is not agreeing they are also delaying. We believe that the government must be harsh now to secure the transfer without further delay.
In the latest move the High Court has asked the factory owners -154 in all to quickly shift and count for a daily fine of Tk 50,000 until they have moved out to Savar tannery city. Earlier the Industry Minister had issued a 72-hour ultimatum on factory owners to take out their factories to Savar or else face closure. He also warned them that their plots at Savar Industrial City would also be cancelled. But they sustained the warning while trying to realize financial benefits around it.
We know that the European Union (EU), as the biggest market of Bangladesh leather products is bringing severe pressure on the government to secure immediate shift of the factories to save Buriganga River. Their warning also includes a ban on export of leather and leather goods to European market. Under such pressure physical the relocation process started in 2014 but it remained stalled so far. The latest government deadline expired on April 10 and we believe that the court action this time will be able to secure the transfer.
In our view the government has given enough time and if the court action also faces deadline, the government must think of more practical measures like closure of factories to secure owners compliance. Tannery factory owners are rich people earning handsome foreign exchange annually from exporting semi-processed and processed leather goods. But they may have been inspired by the easy bank loans and grabbing of such loans by vested interest people who have made most state-owned banks almost empty. When money has become so easy; they are trying their way, it is not unusual.
But what is most unacceptable is that tanneries are dumping around 21,000 cubic metres of poisonous untreated waste into the Buriganga River on a daily basis. As per environmental scientists the disposal of untreated chemical waste into the river and its feeder canals is not only destroying them but also causing severe health problem including skin disease, respiratory problem and cancer. We must say please tannery owners you must move out quickly.
