The water quality of the Buriganga continues to be poor even though it has been almost five years since the tanneries from the capital’s Hazaribagh area were relocated to Hemayetpur of Savar. The shift of tennary estate to Hemayetpur has seen the Dhaleshwari river in dire state as it bears the brunt of the toxic substances emitted by rawhide processing. The grim scenario of both rivers was revealed in a study released on Tuesday. Undeniably, lack of enforcement of mandatory effluent treatment plants by the Department of Environment and dumping chemical waste into the rivers are responsible for turning the river water into tar.
Even though the tanneries are no longer near the Buriganga, pollution from rawhide processing and other factors continue to cause deterioration of its water quality. The tannery estate in Hemayetpur is upstream of the Dhaleshwari, and the resultant pollution in the river also streams into the Buriganga. In Hazaribagh, there are also dozens of micro-level rawhide processing units. Apart from this, the plying of thousands of vessels, presence of dyeing factories at Shyampur and sewerage is adversely affecting the water quality of the Buriganga, adding that the condition of the Dhaleshwari is far more devastating due to tannery waste. The pre-monsoon sample of the Dhaleshwari indicated substances coming from the tannery estate were four times higher than Buriganga. Last November, the parliamentary standing committee on the environment ministry recommended that the estate in Hemayetpur be shut down as it has been running without environmental clearance for the last 10 years and lacks the facilities to treat all its liquid waste.
The leather industry based on cheap labour, rawhide and low management cost for not setting up and running ETP, we ultimately are killing our rivers. The authority pledged many times to enforce mandatory ETP, but the businesses skipped those on several occasions. We actually make the city, city life, and future generation intoxication for nimble profit. We must reiterate “if rivers survive, we will survive” and protect the rivers by any means and every means.
