Drive on with discharge sources still active

Removal of each kilogram of Buriganga garbage costs Tk 833
The ongoing cleansing drive in the River Buriganga might prove costly for taxpayers as the authorities failed to shut down active polluting sources which are still discharging 25,000 tonnes of untreated wastes and 40,000 tonnes of toxic chemicals into the river every day, reports NewAge.
Moreover, extraction of each kilogram of garbage from the riverbed would cost Tk 833 but that would not give any guarantee of a pollution-free river as the amount of garbage to be extracted daily over a year and a half is far lower than the amount of discharge.
The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority began its much-vaunted Buriganga cleansing drive in the past week to clear around 300 tonnes of garbage from the riverbed at a total cost of Tk 24.9 crore.
The drive has been taken for the first time in many years to restore the moribund river, popularly known as the lifeline of Dhaka, the country’s capital.
The cleansing drive being implemented with public fund would not yield the desired success as more than 25,000 tonnes of untreated wastes and 40,000 tonnes of toxic chemicals are dumped into the river everyday, experts said.
Even the BITWA expressed doubt about the success of the drive, saying that hundreds of active polluting sources should be plugged immediately to cleanse the river.
In its project brief, it identified garbage dumping into the river by Dhaka, Keraniganj and Tongi cleansing authorities, the tannery industry at Hazaribagh and its release of untreated toxic wastes and thousands of trade establishments including dyeing factories along the 3km stretch of the Buriganga as the main impediments.
Besides, the BIWTA blamed rampant encroachment on both the banks of the river blocked normal flow of water.
The BIWTA chairman, Abdul Malek Miah, said that the government must coordinate activities of the local government, health, water resources and shipping ministries with the DCC and WASA to keep the river clean. Otherwise the drive will be a futile exercise, he added.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan’s president Professor Muzaffer Ahmed termed the ongoing cleansing drive a scattered effort. He told New Age that successes of the drive would be very negligible.
Muzaffer observed that lack of coordination among seven ministries and bodies caused the delay in relocation of the tanneries from Hazaribagh to some place outside the capital in keeping with a High Court deadline of February 28.
The prospect for relocating the tanneries now seem uncertain while the industry and commerce ministries have already asked the finance ministry to seek extension of time for relocation from the High Court.
WASA, the city’s sewerage authority, on its part has not taken any project to treat wastes while there is no action to stop innumerable factories and business establishments releasing toxic effluents into the river, Muzaffer said.
Giving an example from India, which is implementing the Ganges cleansing project with World Bank assistance of $1 billion, Muzaffer said their present attempt has been well planned after a previous attempt that had failed in 1989.
Ahmed pointed out that the government in Bangladesh was still approaching to the problem of Buriganga pollution in a piecemeal way. ‘It lacks the capacity and political will to give full focus on the problem which could cost the taxpayers dearly,’ he added.