On Monday, six charred bodies were recovered from the Chawkbazar area of Old Dhaka -- the result of a fire that broke out in a plastic factory. Unfortunately, a quick look at the newspapers is enough to confirm the fact that this is not out of the ordinary.
Historically, Dhaka and other residential areas around the country have been in close vicinity with chemical warehouses and factories. This has given rise to numerous disasters to the point that the government has repeatedly pledged to remove chemical warehouses and factories out of residential areas, a pledge that has unfortunately not come to fruition yet.
Following the recent incident, there was again a pledge from the authorities to remove as many as 500 chemical warehouses and factories from Old Dhaka. Regardless, these are pledges we have heard many times for the better part of the last decade, and we are yet to see any action to match these promises.
Factories are seldom equipped to handle fires properly, constructed in a way that their mere existence is a violation of several safety codes. All of this is done in the name of profit as making a factory safe and sustainable has associated costs that the factory owners are not willing to bear. But when one looks at the human toll, it quickly becomes apparent that in order to make our society safe, this is one aspect of industry that can absolutely not be overlooked.
We have lost too many people to the hazards of fire. From a purely economic standpoint, incidents like this also diminish our global image and are harmful for factories in the long run.
There needs to be proper accountability. The government needs to go through with its promise of separating factories from residential areas. The industrial areas also have to be regularly checked and the authorities have to make sure that the factories and different warehouses are up to code.
We are working hard to change our image for the better. We cannot let our efforts be ruined by the misdeeds of the unscrupulous few. Bangladesh needs to take definitive measures to stop fire-related disasters, with immediate effect.