Dhaleshwari: The near-death of a river

Infographic: TBS

The tannery industry has long been a problem child as the third largest export earner industry was one of the biggest polluters of Buriganga. Therefore, to save Buriganga, Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) took up a project in 2003 to build the Tannery Industrial Estate to relocate all tanneries from Hazaribagh in Dhaka city to Hemayetpur in Savar.

Finally, in 2017, all the Hazaribagh tanneries were shifted to Savar to save Buriganga. Still, the tannery industry has almost killed the Dhaleshwari and is now killing the Kaliganga, a tributary that flows from the Jamuna to the Dhaleshwari.

The primary issue lies with the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CEPT). According to experts, it was neither appropriately designed nor is it being operated correctly.

The central effluent treatment plant (CETP) was supposed to be set up within two years, but it took more than seven years to complete. The refining capacity of the CETP covers only half of the waste generated by the tanneries during the peak season. Therefore, the waste is discarded before it is fully treated in the CETP.

"When the plant was designed, things like solid waste management, chrome separation, and salt treatment were not considered," said Sharif Jamil, General Secretary, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa). He is of the opinion that the authorities can not free Dhaleshwari with the treatment plant currently in place.

When the tannery industrial estate was first proposed, only 155 factories were given allocation; now, there are more than 230 factories at the estate. The capacity of the CETP is 25,000 cubic metres. After the Eid-ul-Adha and three months onwards, the amount of waste becomes 40,000 cubic metres. But the estate doesn't only produce liquid waste; it generates around 64,000 tonnes of solid early. There is no solid waste management system at all. The retention time for the waste in the treatment plant is 24 hours, but the tanners remove it from the module after 12 hours.

Estate officials allege that the CETP overflows because the tanners use an excessive quantity of water. Generally, 30 tonnes of water is needed for tanning a tonne of rawhide, but tanners use 50 to 60 tonnes. As a result, the capacity exceeds further spreading pollution. 

Even a few years back, villagers from nearby villages would use water from the Dhaleshwari for daily activities, such as doing dishes, washing clothes and bathing in the river. Fishermen's livelihood depended on the fish they used to catch. But those days are gone as the colour of the water has turned pitch black and red, and it stinks.

"Dhaleshwari used to be one of the most beautiful rivers in the country. The whole ecology and biodiversity of Dhaleshwari have collapsed due to the tanneries," said Mohammad Azaz, Chairman, River and Delta Research Centre (RDRC).

In 2019, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) identified 256 illegal structures and carried out operations to evict them. After the evacuation of more than half a hundred structures in the operation, the operation was stopped due to a lack of water on the river bank.

In 2020, the environment department fined eight tanneries at the Savar tannery estate Tk21 lakh for polluting the environment. The same year, the department slapped BSCIC with a fine of over Tk6 crore for polluting the river. Last March, it closed down the operation of seven tanneries for polluting the River Dhaleshwari by discharging untreated liquid effluents into it. 

The parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on 23 August last year recommended shutting down the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate in Hemayetpur owing to a lack of adequate facilities to treat all the waste generated by the tanners.

Sheikh Rokon, Founding Secretary General of Riverine People said that the pollution of Dhaleshwari does not affect just Dhaleshwari but we should also talk about how this pollutes Kaliganga, a river closely connected with Dhaleshwari. 

Experts agree that a detailed roadmap is the only way out of this precarious situation. "We need a comprehensive plan for effluent management," said Sharif Jamil, adding, "Not only for the leather industry; but also other small and medium industries connected to it. There have been no decisions made about them."