Stop the effluence, save the rivers

Three of the major rivers that skirt Dhaka city have been polluted beyond description resulting in severe damages to the fauna of the area in particular. The dry season brings about the biggest damage since the run off through the Buriganga, Turag and the Balu is greatly reduced at this time causing severe stagnation, and the problem is further aggravated by the dumping of the thousand of cubic meters of lethal industrial wastes. While the environment is being damaged beyond redemption the people are also being deprived from a rich source of protein, fish.

One is at a loss to understand why these tanneries are not being shifted to a more suitable place away from the major habitat, where the industrial wastes could be managed efficiently? In spite of the plan that is more than a decade old and in spite of the concerns raised by the environmentalists to prevent pollution of the rivers, no action is palpable. The PM was heard several times talking about the matter but that was all; people of the area continue to suffer.

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It is difficult to rationalise the inordinate delay and the insensitivity in handling a matter of such serious environmental concern. One is given to understand that the main obstacle to shifting of the errant industries is acquisition of land or more exactly the process of acquisition that has become a veritable mega corruption enterprise.

It is time the government move fast before it is more than fish that ended up dead in these rivers.