When the tannery factories were finally moved from the middle of residential Dhaka to Savar, that came as somewhat of a reserved relief, knowing that without appropriate recycling and waste treatment mechanisms, the harm from the toxic waste will be only relatively mitigated, not eliminated.
The Dhaleshwari river next to the now relocated tannery factories is at risk of being polluted by dangerously poisonous chemical waste. In a recent operation, the Department of Environment (DoE) just shut down seven tanneries, showing effectiveness in enforcing the law, but also proving that the river and surrounding environment are at grave risk.
The DoE’s prompt action certainly deserves credit. It will be crucial for the authorities to continue to observe and uphold the law so that polluters pay a price for not adhering to environmental safety guidelines. However, this points to a larger issue that also needs addressing.
Penalizing polluters, while essential, is not the real solution. The same strictness with which the DoE magistrate aggressively shut down the factories should also be present for enforcing requirements relating to treatment requirements. One hopes that eventually, the DoE officials would not let the factories run in the first place without the necessary filtration system and chemical treatment facilities.
The government must also facilitate easy access to important equipment so that factories can deploy these systems without having to incur losses. Strict implementation of the law must be accompanied by necessary infrastructure support. We must ensure that it is feasible to obey the law, and then when the law is broken, no one gets away with doing so.
