THE National River Conservation Commission chair having doubted whether the waste water released from the BSCIC Tannery Industrial Estate into the River Dhaleshwari at Savar is properly treated before discharge is a point to consider. What is further an issue of concern is that such a proposition entails a lot more effort on part of the commission to put in to protect the rivers. The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation has reportedly relocated about 140 tanneries from Hazaribagh in the city to the outskirts of Savar in five years. A central effluent treatment plant was set up at the Savar estate to treat waste water but the plant appears to have failed to check pollution because of structural incapacity to treat a huge volume of waste water. When the plant has the capacity to treat about 25,000 cubic metres of waste water every day, the tanneries produce about 32,000 cubic metres of waste water. It is in this context the river commission chair doubted a proper treatment of the industrial effluent. But the commission chief seems to forget that the commission has an important role to play in such a situation.
In February 2019, the High Court declared rivers to be ‘living entities’, rendering them as ‘juristic people’ having rights to be legally protected and appointed the National River Conservation Commission as the ‘legal guardian’ of rivers. The commission chair now says that the information on waste water treatment provided by BSCIC officials cannot be trusted as there is no laboratory on the estate premises to test the treated waste water for pollutants. This raises the question as to why the commission did not arrange for tests on its own. The commission had enough time to ask public agencies to run tests and to act on the results as required. A Bangladesh Tanners’ Association official, meanwhile, seeks to say that the Chinese contractor, responsible for the central effluent treatment plant, handed over an incomplete plant to the authorities, which has apparently caused some problems. There seem to be some loopholes in this as to why the estate authorities would accept an incomplete plant from the contractor. The overflow of tannery effluent and the incapacity of the plant to treat the excess amount of waste water also suggest serious planning flaws and there are no remedial measures in place to deal with them. The horde of problems at the tannery estate has been reported for a while now, but the authorities concerned are yet to take any effective measures. The sorry situation also makes it clear that the commission, as the guardian of rivers, has failed to carry out its mandate to check pollution and protect rivers.
While the government must, therefore, take immediate measures to ensure the proper treatment of tannery effluents at Savar to protect the environment, the commission must also pull out all the stops and carry out its mandated duty to protect rivers.
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Editor: Nurul Kabir , Published by the Chairman, Editorial Board ASM Shahidullah Khan on behalf of Media New Age Ltd. Hamid Plaza (4th floor), 300/5/A/1, Bir Uttam CR Datta Road, Hatirpool, Dhaka-1205. PABX: +8802-9632245-48. Fax: +8802-9632250, E-mail: [email protected]
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