Home ›› 24 Jan 2022 ›› Editorial
The Buriganga River Festival was held just a few months ago, During that time, many discussed the pollution of Burigana and different measures that could be taken to save Buriganga from pollution in seminars and symposiams. However, it is not easy to reduce Buriganga’s pollution. A number of factors are involved here, such as economic complications and apparent lack of political will. Even then, people are hopeful about it. According to some experts, if we focus our efforts on saving Buriganga’s waters, we can make Dhaka a more livable city and reap the benefits from it. Five or six decades ago, the Thames was worse off than Buriganga is right now. If the British were able to change that, why can’t we?
Historical records claim that during the Mughal reign, Subedar Islam Khan used to arrange boat races in Buriganga around Eid, enjoying the competition by watching it in person. Why that famed Buriganga’s state is like this now? How Buriganga is getting polluted is not only on the experts’ minds, but has become the the concern of the common people as well. That is why the question arises: is there no way that we can restore Buriganga to its former pristine state? In this digital Bangladesh, there have been a multitude of changes and many new developments are happening from scratch. yet Buriganga remains neglected and the pollution is increasing. Can it not be stopped?
Local people are saying that the city corporation has been piling up garbage just beside Buriganga for a very long time. There is nothing in the way of waste refinement happening. A liner is supposed to be put under the garbage and covered well. The absence of liners and covers means that when the garbage there rots, it leaks toxic fluids into the river. This is one of the main causes of Buriganga’s pollution. Experts believe that along with solid waste, there is liquid waste that goes into the Buriganga. Even if WASA does not admit it, some experts also believe that, technically, it is the WASA’s liquid waste that drips into the water. Therefore, we can conclude that in the monsoon, the river’s water and WASA’s garbage waste mix together, leading to Buriganga getting polluted.
Surrounding the river, unlawfully, many small shops and buildings are being built. The people there and the waste generated daily from their houses and discarded items in their houses are polluting Burigana. A report from the High Court says that on the southern river bank, 52 factories established illegally are discharging their wastes into the water and causing pollution. Those factories do not have environmental exemption documents, nor do they have liquid waste refinement or ETP plants. There are some factories operating illegally on the north riverbank as well. According to media reports, in 2017 there were 27 such factories, and in 2020, 18 illegal factories were shut down.
During the early 1960s, the Hazaribag tannery was established. In 2003, the government formulated plans to relocate 154 tanneires in Hazaribag to a planned industrial town. This leather production city’s construction started on almost 199 acres of land besides the Dhalashwari river in Horindhara village, located in Hemayetpur, Savar. Even after so many years, not all the tanneries have been able to relocate. Nearby the river, there is also Mitford Hospital, along with other types of factories. All of this medical and factory waste contributes to the pollution of the Buriganga even more.
Due to Buriganga’s pollution, the surrounding environment, marine life, and people are all suffering. Keeping the damage to the environment and life in mind, we should start working on saving Buriganga from the verge of extinction. Buriganga’s water has virtually no oxygen content. It can be said that pollution has destroyed the entire ecological balance. However, there has been no noticeable research published on the effects of the pollution of Buriganga on humans, the environment, or aquatic life. Despite the frequency with which the issue of Buriganga is written about in newspapers and magazines, few seem to be particularly enthusiastic about the issue in reality.
In dry seasons, Buriganga’s polluted water also pollutes the surrounding soil there. Pollution has spread significantly in the surrounding areas by this point. This will cause the amount of fertile land and the growth of plants to be reduced. However, Buriganga has a positive aspect. In the rainy seasons, when the flow of water from India and China, enters the Buriganga, the waste there becomes re-generated and the waste leaves the river stream via the Bay of Bengal. Even though not all the waste goes away in this way, a large portion of it is eliminated. The waters of the Buriganga then become cleaner than usual. Maybe due to this “natural cleaning process”, Buriganga is not as heavily damaged ecologically as it might have been.
There are policies and laws in place to save the Buriganga. In December, 2019, the High Court placed an order to shut down the factories and buildings, on the riverbank of Buriganga, that do not have Buriganga environmental license/exemption/pass. The High Court also released a comprehensive mandate in 8th January, 2020 for the Department of Environment to make a notice on implementing the order. Dhaka WASA was told to completely shut down the drain and sewage lines connected to the Buriganga.
Despite the passage of the legislation, Buriganga could not be saved from pollution. The government is repeatedly making promises regarding saving Buriganga. However, in reality, it is not effective. Rather, the polluted water is heedlessly being used to bathe, wash clothes, and commercially wash laundry. Many also use the water there for household activities. Different animals, like cows and goats, are being washed there. Sailors and fishermen catch fish there. Polythene bags and plastic containers get cleaned. This is not right. Vegetables are grown in the nearby fields. These will probably be toxic due to the polluted soil and water around them. Research has shown that where the Buriganga stream drains into Meghna through Dhaleshwari, no Hilsha fish can be found in the water. The polluted water from the Buriganga might harm the abundant Hilsha fish swimming in Meghna’s waters. Research in this matter will probably give us the answer. In the future, we need to think about how much Buriganga’s pollution can negatively affect the Hilsha fish.
In this situation, the Department of Environment has complained that they oftentimes get stuck while carrying out their necessary duties. If the factory or organization responsible for causing pollution is influential, they will issue a writ. This has been going on for a long time; hence, pollution is not being prevented. Wasa’s waste goes directly into the Buriganga. The city corporation is aware of this. Whenever asked to do waste treatment, they say that they are working on it. They even claim to launch schemes and projects. But it does not happen in reality. They take too much time. And no substantial work has been done regarding waste treatment.
On the matter of pollution, the National River Conservation Commission has some observations. They seek permission from the government to work legally regarding Buriganga’s pollution and evict shops, stalls, and housing surrounding the riverbanks. They do not have the power to do this yet. This legal power is held by BIWTA, the City Corporation, and Dhaka Deputy Commissioner. Even if they are informed about these issues, they do not take any effective steps to solve them. Consistently, their lack of enthusiasm for tackling Buriganga’s pollution and a tendency to neglect the matter has been apparent. The National River Conservation Commission has appealed to the government for permission to hold the concerned authorities accountable for their inaction.
Sometimes there is work being done on Buriganga. For example, a project for the extension of navigability, etc. But those projects are not sufficient since they do not include the 3 Rs method. To prevent pollution, the 3 Rs method is inevitably important. Also, these projects are not implemented in a proper and effective manner. Everything is interconnected---one factor is related to another. Some might carry out dredging, but keep the soil right beside the river, which, after some time, mixes back into the river. This defeats the purpose of dredging in the first place and makes the process ineffective. Many organizations, including the Ministry of Land, the Bangladesh Water Development Board, the Ministry of Shipping, and local governments, are involved. They all need to work together as one unit and cooperate with each other. The city corporation should not throw waste away haphazardly and should adopt a more scientifically approved approach to waste management. Waste refinement plants for factories and tanneries must be developed. BIWTA should work to remove illegal landowners near the riverbank, and the District Administrator should work to uproot the bazaars and shop-stalls etc. from the riverbanks. If these steps are taken, it is possible to revive Buriganga to a large extent. This is why coordination and cooperation of all concerned authorities is necessary in this matter.
It is clear that there is a lack of proper planning and enthusiasm on the concerned authorities’ parts regarding combating Buriganga’s pollution. Experts are saying that even though many rivers in the world had previously been considered “ecologically dead”, they were able to be restored to their former states using advanced technology. We can also do the same. Now the onus is on the government to take action and be willing to work at the grassroots level.
The writer is a columnist. She can be contacted at shanu.mostafiz@gmail.com
