Poribesh Bachao Andolon (Poba) on Saturday urged the government to collect Tk24.09bn as a compensation from tanneries based at Hazaribagh area of the city for polluting the environment.
They blamed the tanners as one of the major reasons behind the Buriganga River’s pollution, which has turned it into a dead river.
The amount of liquefied oxygen in Buriganga River is zero whereas it is a must to have at least 6Mg per litre. A 2008 Environment Directorate survey found that, the Biochemical Oxygen Demand and Chemical Oxygen Demand is higher in the Hazaribagh industrial area than the other seven industrial areas around the city.
According to Poba, the tanneries are tipping 22,000 cubic meter of unrefined tannery wastes daily into the river and at the same time produce around 100 tonnes of solid wastes.
According to Environment Conservation Act 1995, the government has the provisions to do assessment of environmental losses in order to collect compensation.
The speakers at yesterday’s programme claimed that the tanneries in Hazaribagh causes Tk401.5m of environmental losses annually. They are tipping liquid wastes into the Buriganga since the 1950s, and, should be held accountable to compensate TK24.09bn for the environmental degradation.
In addition, Poba urged setting up Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) at tanneries to treat the toxic wastes, which is a must according to Environment Conservation Act 1995.
The speakers said, it is the tannery owners’ responsibility to set up CETP as the government is providing place for it.
They urged the government to collect the compensation and force the owners to set up CETP while the compensation will be paid to the government in a 15-year long instalment.
Tannery wastes include chromium, lead, sulphuric acid, hydrogen sulphide, formic acid, bleach, dye, oil, hard materials in processing leather, lime, animal meat, liquefied hair, fat and many other chemicals which pose countless threats to water, air and soil.
Poba secretary and former additional director general of Environment Directorate engineer Md Abdus Sobhan presented the keynote speech. Executive committee member of Poba, AKM Serajul Islam, engineer Dina Khadija, Pronob Kumar Sarkar, Green Mind Society president Amir Hasan, Modern Club president Abul Hasnat and NASF general secretary GM Rustom Khan were also present at the programme.
