Editorial
Water pollution is the least addressed issue
There should be a single empowered body to do it
It is a typical syndrome with civic, industry monitoring and environmental bodies that the firmness with which they take a decision would invariably taper off into a whimper as the dusts blown by newspaper reports would settle down. There are clear reasons for such shameless volte-face. First, the original decision when announced was more a reaction to pressure rather than a product of self-realisation. It carried no conviction, what was said was not meant.
The case in point is the listing out of 36 industrial plants as the main polluters of the Balu river and subsidiary canals as early as in 2003 by the environment cell of Dhaka WASA. After years of sitting on the finding, the ministries of industry, environment and forest in a meeting in April 2007 with business community leaders gave an ultimatum to the delinquent factories through them: Install effluent treatment plants (ETP) by October the same year or face disconnection of electricity, gas and water supplies. The threat has drawn a blank. Today, most of the 150 industrial plants in Tejgaon industrial area are operating without any ETP whatsoever. Human waste and industrial effluent are dumped in Begunbari canal polluting Balu river in the process, which is one of the major sources of water for Saidabad Water Treatment Plant, itself the principal source of treated safe water for the capital. While human waste is biodegradable, the dumped effluents reduce the oxygen level in the water bodies to a point where the survival of any creature is threatened.
Now, what can be done about the grave environmental danger? The first necessity is to do away with the multiplicity of agencies that disjointedly oversee the issue. We suggest a composite but compact and fully empowered taskforce comprising representatives from WASA, ministries of industry, forest, environment, DCC, and civil society members be immediately formed to address the task energetically and effectively without ado.
Included in the terms of reference of the taskforce should be the task of following up on the decisions for installation of Effluent Treatment Plants by industrial units and Common Effluent Treatment Plant at five points of Tejgaon industrial area.
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