Shipping minister Shajahan Khan has admitted that the government has not been able to stop Dhaka City Corporation and the Water Supply and Sewerage
Authority from dumping the city’s solid and liquid wastes into the rivers.
Expressing particular concern over the dumping by these authorities into the Buriganga, Save the Environment Movement joint general secretary Syed Monowar Hossain told New Age that the decision of a taskforce set up by the government to save the country’s rivers has simply not been implemented due to political inefficiency and corruption.
‘Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority had agreed to seal WASA’s 138 sewerage outlets through which the city’s wastes are dumped into Buriganga, but there is no alternative plan about where to deposit those wastes, if they do that,’ Monowar said.
‘Many factories have yet to set up effluent treatment plants which they should immediately do or else the city’s rivers will pollute due to industrial effluents which pose a threat to biodiversity,’ he added.
Chief Waste Management Officer of DCC South told New Age that every day around 5-10 tonnes of wastes collected from the city’s streets by the DCC cleaners are dumped in the Demra landfill.
According to the chief officer, the collected wastes have never been disposed of into the river Buriganga.
Asked about the proper cleaning of industrial wastes, he said that all the industries near the Buriganga, are illegally constructed and the owners do not pay regular tax and hence the DCC is not bound to clean the wastes of these businesses.
‘Those who live near the Buriganga dispose of their household wastes on the street as there are no waste collection bins or containers due to the narrow lanes, but the waste collection trucks collect the disposed material at a specific time every day,’ he said.
He told New Age that BIWTA had promised the DCC South to give spaces in order to place dustbins or containers as the streets of Sadarghat and Badamtali are very narrow, but that the BIWTA chairman has not done anything and he was not meeting DCC officials even though they have tried to meet him repeatedly, he added.
The local people said that every afternoon DCC South cleaners collect the wastes but they do not do it properly and as a result the bank of Buriganga is full of rubbish polluting the river.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andalan secretary general Abdul Matin said that according to the report of Institute of Water Modeling 2008, financed by World Bank, around 60 per cent of pollution is caused by industries and 30 per cent by DCC and WASA together.
‘Though WASA has a sewerage cleaning system at Pagla in Narayanganj, the sewerage connection of the newly constructed buildings has illegally been connected by WASA staffs with the storm water line which falls into the Buriganga,’ he added.
He also said that only 10 per cent of the river pollution is the result of actions by the public which could be reduced through raising awareness amongst them.
WASA managing director Taqsem A Khan told New Age that around 70 per cent of the Buriganga pollution was caused by tanneries and indiscriminate industrial effluent.
He denied that there was any sewerage outlet connected to the Buriganga but admitted that whilst the connection of storm water drainage lines to the river should not be harmful, recently many sewerage lines of newly constructed buildings have been illegally connected to the WASA’s storm water drainage lines that polluted the Buriganga water.
‘WASA’s main sewerage line is connected to its treatment plant at Pagla in Narayanganj,’ he added.
The Managing director said that unfortunately WASA covered only 30 per cent of the city’s sewerage wastes.
According to RAJUK policy, every building should have a sewerage safety tank but many do not, he added.
‘We have given notice to them for not doing this but we failed to stop them,’ Taqseem said
‘But the decision of taskforce is to cut their sewerage lines and we will do that soon’, he added.
-With New Age input
