Burning tannery wastes to produce cheap poultry and fish feed is going on unabated by certain unscrupulous elements in a vast stretch of area on the flood control embankment from Rayerbazar to Lalbagh Fort Crossing. After collecting the discarded tannery wastes these elements burn them on the road side. They make small balls of poultry and fish feed from the ashes mixed with water from the stinky, dirty water from Buriganga.
A sack full of balls cost Taka 1200 to 1500. Buyers from the city’s Bangabazar poultry and fish feed market and poultry and fish farmers from Gazipur and Mymensingh collect the cheap feed.
The processing and marketing are going on uninterrupted despite a High Court order issued in July 26, 2010 prohibiting such practice.
It followed after scientists at the Bangladesh Council of Scientific Research (BCSIR) confirmed presence in eggs of lead and different other toxic chemicals, which were used for tanning raw hides but unfit for human consumption.
Besides, a strong smell from the thick smoke of burning these tannery wastes make life difficult for people living around the bund in densely populated residential areas like Lalbagh,
Nababganj, Kamrangirchar, Zigatola, Rayerbazar, Hazaribagh, Katasur, Mohammadpur and Dhanmondi.
The smell and smoke pose serious health hazards to humans, doctors have warned besides chromium, lead and other chemicals going to the food chain from chicken and fish.
Some 72 units of tannery wastes burning companies were cited in the HC order three years ago. Despite instructions to city police authorities no tangible results are visible thus far as these tannery waste burners are working along the bund and their billowing smokes testify to their defiance to law and public health. But who cares?
-With The Independent input
