Green activists on Saturday urged the government to realise Tk 2,409 crore as compensation from tannery owners of Hazaribagh area for polluting river and surrounding areas.
At a press conference, they said the cost of per cubic metre wastes treatment was Tk 50 and the tanneries were polluting the river from the year 1950, so the tanners should pay Tk 2,409 crore as compensation.
Save the Environment Movement organised the press conference ‘environmental impact assessment of Hazaribagh tanneries’ at Save the Environment Movement office in the capital.
Save the Environment Movement secretary Md Abdus Sobhan said tanneries of the Hazaribagh area daily discharge 22,000 cubic meters of untreated liquid wastes into the River Buriganga and yearly 80,300 cubic meters of liquid wastes.
He said tanneries daily generate 100 tonnes of solid wastes.
By throwing untreated wastes into Buriganga, the tanneries caused damage worth Tk 40,15,00,000 and they should pay the money, he said.
Abdus Sobhan said that the tannery wastes include chromium, lead, sulpheuric acid, hydrogen sulphyde, formic acid, bleach, dye, oil, heavy metal, animal flesh, fat etc.
According to Department of Environment, the Hazaribagh tanneries crossed their limit of pollution and the presence of dissolved oxygen in the Buriganga water was nearly 0mg a litre against the standards of 5mg/L for aquatic life in surface water in Bangladesh.
He said that in 2007 a contract was signed between the government and the Tanners’ Association which said the government would pay Tk 250
crore for relocating tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar.
The contract also said that the government would construct chemical effluent treatment plant and by 15 years instalment tanners would repay the construction cost, but later the Bangladesh Tanners’ Association demanded Tk 1,090 crore as compensation and said that the government should bear CETP construction cost, said Abdus Sobhan.
He said on May 14, 2013 at an inter-ministerial meeting, the government decided to pay Tk 1090 crore as compensation and said the tanners should bear the CETP construction cost worth Tk 828 crore.
-With New Age input
