bdnews24.com, Cox’s Bazar :
Hotel authorities in Cox’s Bazar seem to have turned a blind eye to the threat they pose to environment.
Only seven of the 300 hotels and motels located in the town’s specified zone have environmental clearance and sewerage treatment plants (STP), according to the Department of Environment.
The rest have been dumping their waste into the sea or Bakkhali River, thus damaging aerial roots of mangrove plants causing substantial danger to their growth.
The authorities have served show cause notices to 20 of these hotels for not having any environmental clearance or STPs on Mar 8, said Sarder Shariful Islam, Assistant Director of Environment Department’s Cox’s Bazar office.
He added that these hotel authorities were asked to reply to the notices between Mar 21 and Apr 11 at the department’s office.
Almost 70 percent of the hotels were built before the government set up the environment department’s office in Cox’s Bazar. None of the hotels have any STP, Islam said.
Those hotels which got the clearance based on certain conditions were yet to establish STPs, he said.
Hotel Seagull, Ocean Paradise, Long Beach, Simon Beach Resort, Cox Today, Sea World and Royal Tulip Sea Pearl have the environmental and STP clearance.
Hotel Sea Palace has already applied for the clearance.
Notices were served to Sugandha Guest House, RM Guest House, Crescent Bay-Resort, Swapno Bilash Holiday, Sea Oyster, Aligarh Holiday Suits, Sakira Beach Resort, Sea F Resort, Blue Ocean Resort among others.
According to Islam a centralised STP needed to be set up in Cox’s Bazar after mapping its tributaries, canals and drains.
Md Gias Uddin, chairman of ‘Cox’s Bazar Society’, a social welfare organisation, said, the city’s hotels, including those located in Kolatali hotel-motel zone, are running without any STP and dump the human waste directly into the canals and drainage system. “This has threatened marine life largely and caused water clogging during the monsoon,” he said.
MN Karim, chairman of Ocean Paradise Limited, said, “An STP costs around Tk 100-120 million, which many of the hotel authorities cannot afford. The government should establish a centralised STP.”
Shariful Islam said that the department would not give the clearance if the hotels failed to establish STPs within the time frame, stipulated in the conditions.
Hotel-Motel-Guest House Owners Association’s General Secretary Abul Kashem Sikder said the hotel-motel zone started with two residential hotels in 1998, when the area was under Cox’s Bazar’s Jhilangjha Union.
Later, many hotels, motels and guest houses came up in the locality with the approval of relevant authority.
“The city did not have an office of the environment department at that time. The zone was incorporated into municipality area in 2010,” said Sikder.
He added that earlier it was not mandatory to get waste disposal and environmental clearance. Therefore, only the hotel authorities should not be blamed for the environmental degradation.
Hotel authorities in Cox’s Bazar seem to have turned a blind eye to the threat they pose to environment.
Only seven of the 300 hotels and motels located in the town’s specified zone have environmental clearance and sewerage treatment plants (STP), according to the Department of Environment.
The rest have been dumping their waste into the sea or Bakkhali River, thus damaging aerial roots of mangrove plants causing substantial danger to their growth.
The authorities have served show cause notices to 20 of these hotels for not having any environmental clearance or STPs on Mar 8, said Sarder Shariful Islam, Assistant Director of Environment Department’s Cox’s Bazar office.
He added that these hotel authorities were asked to reply to the notices between Mar 21 and Apr 11 at the department’s office.
Almost 70 percent of the hotels were built before the government set up the environment department’s office in Cox’s Bazar. None of the hotels have any STP, Islam said.
Those hotels which got the clearance based on certain conditions were yet to establish STPs, he said.
Hotel Seagull, Ocean Paradise, Long Beach, Simon Beach Resort, Cox Today, Sea World and Royal Tulip Sea Pearl have the environmental and STP clearance.
Hotel Sea Palace has already applied for the clearance.
Notices were served to Sugandha Guest House, RM Guest House, Crescent Bay-Resort, Swapno Bilash Holiday, Sea Oyster, Aligarh Holiday Suits, Sakira Beach Resort, Sea F Resort, Blue Ocean Resort among others.
According to Islam a centralised STP needed to be set up in Cox’s Bazar after mapping its tributaries, canals and drains.
Md Gias Uddin, chairman of ‘Cox’s Bazar Society’, a social welfare organisation, said, the city’s hotels, including those located in Kolatali hotel-motel zone, are running without any STP and dump the human waste directly into the canals and drainage system. “This has threatened marine life largely and caused water clogging during the monsoon,” he said.
MN Karim, chairman of Ocean Paradise Limited, said, “An STP costs around Tk 100-120 million, which many of the hotel authorities cannot afford. The government should establish a centralised STP.”
Shariful Islam said that the department would not give the clearance if the hotels failed to establish STPs within the time frame, stipulated in the conditions.
Hotel-Motel-Guest House Owners Association’s General Secretary Abul Kashem Sikder said the hotel-motel zone started with two residential hotels in 1998, when the area was under Cox’s Bazar’s Jhilangjha Union.
Later, many hotels, motels and guest houses came up in the locality with the approval of relevant authority.
“The city did not have an office of the environment department at that time. The zone was incorporated into municipality area in 2010,” said Sikder.
He added that earlier it was not mandatory to get waste disposal and environmental clearance. Therefore, only the hotel authorities should not be blamed for the environmental degradation.
