23 high-polluting tanneries to face music

Twenty-three tanneries that are causing high levels of pollution are set to be shut down, a parliamentary body said yesterday.

Meanwhile, utility services of seven tanneries have already been disconnected over environment pollution, stated the parliamentary standing committee on environment, forest and climate change  ministry at a meeting at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

All of these tanneries operate under Savar Tannery Estate, which comprises around 120 tanneries.

"Braving various obstacles, we were able to take action against Savar Tannery Estate, shutting down several tanneries," Saber Hossain Chowdhury, chief of the parliamentary watchdog, told reporters after the meeting.

"There will be no compromise on the issue of environmental pollution," he added.

In 2003, the government took an initiative to build the BSCIC Tannery Industrial Estate on 200 acres in Savar's Hemayetpur area, after moving all tanneries from the capital's Hazaribagh to prevent pollution and protect the Buriganga river.

According to Department of Environment data, the central effluent treatment plant of the estate has the capacity to treat around 25,000 cubic metres of liquid waste every day.

But the tanners generate around 40,000.

That means 15,000 cubic metres of untreated waste are now being dumped into the Dhaleshwari river.

The estate also does not have the facility to treat solid waste, including heavy metals and chromium, which is also dumped into the Dhaleshwari.

Around 1.60 lakh cubic metres of solid waste have been dumped into the river over the past three years.

In November, 2021, the environment ministry agreed to the watchdog's recommendation to shut down Savar Tannery Industrial Estate immediately, as the estate has been running without the environmental clearance for the last 10 years and lacks facilities to treat its liquid waste.

The Jatiya Sangsad body said the estate will be able to go into operation again only after getting clearance, which is subject to meeting all necessary requirements.

On August 23 that year, the parliamentary body recommended shutting down the estate due to widespread pollution of the local environment.

On September 9, DoE served a show-cause notice on BSCIC.

It asked BSCIC to respond to why the site should not be shut down as per the parliamentary standing committee's recommendation.

However, the JS body said they are not satisfied with the BSCIC's reply.

 Saber Chowdhury, also a ruling Awami League MP from Dhaka-9, yesterday said there are around 4,000 red-listed factories in the country, along with 3,000-4,000 illegal brick fields.

WOMEN'S AWARD FOR CONTRIBUTION TO ENVIRONMENT

Meanwhile, Saber said they have recommended an award for women on the occasion of International Women's Day from next year.

The award will be given to recognise their contribution in the environment sector, he said.

The ministry will formulate policies on how this will be done, Saber added.

TIGER SANCTUARY IN CTG HILLS

The parliamentary committee has recommended the creation of a Royal Bengal Tiger sanctuary in the hilly regions of Chattogram.

The committee asked to see if the ecosystem of the region is suitable for the Bengal tigers.

It was decided that the matter will be discussed in detail at the next meeting of the committee.

"Occasionally, the Royal Bengal Tiger enters our borders from Myanmar and India. As a result, it'll be a good thing if we could make the area suitable for their living," Saber said.

The meeting recommended discouraging the production of plastic by increasing tax on local raw materials and presenting a list of unauthorised establishments in forest department land in the next meeting of the committee.