Although it is mandatory for industries discharging effluent to install and use effluent treatment plants (ETP), most industrial units do not comply with the requirement. We also have laws like the Environment Conservation Act and Rules that make the ETP obligatory for factories, but the concerned authorities could never implement the rules showing various bottlenecks. A news report published in a national daily on Thursday said residents of Pagar Alerteg, adjacent to Tongi Industrial Zone of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), have long been suffering as the factory owners instead of setting up ETPs are releasing pitch-black effluent into open drains that eventually flows into the Turag river.
As reported, the residents of the nearby industrial areas have to move through knee-deep putrid water that is heavy with chemical substances to move to and from their houses during monsoon. The untreated waste also seeps into the ground floor of their buildings. And yet, neither the BSCIC authorities nor the Department of Environment (DoE) are taking any step to address the health and environmental hazards created by the industrial units. In Dhaka division, there are the highest numbers of 22 such offending industrial units, followed by Chattogram with 16 and Rajshahi six while four such units are in Khulna.
Green experts say the government must take immediate steps for making central effluent treatment plants (CETP) at all industrial estates and also called for installing a proper dumping place for tannery’s solid wastes. They think that the BSCIC does not have the authority to penalize factories without ETPs, so the owners have been shelving their plans to set up required plants. On the other hand, the DoE has long been saying that it does not have sufficient budget and manpower to monitor the industries properly. Thus industrial wastes and effluents have been continuously polluting rivers like Buriganga, Shitalakkha, Balu, Turag and Bangshi.
