Human Rights Watch (HRW) said relocation of tanneries from city's Hazaribagh to Savar is not enough for compliant production unless Bangladesh gets serious about enforcement of laws on child labour and occupational and environmental health dangers in the industry.
"Even if the government moves all the tanneries out of Hazaribagh, child labour and occupational and environmental health dangers in the industry will not go away unless Bangladesh gets serious about enforcement of laws," the New York-based rights watchdog said in a dispatch published on Sunday ahead of a hearing by the Bangladesh's High Court.
On April 22 this year, the High Court summoned Industries Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan for defying its orders to shift the tanneries from the capital's Hazaribagh.
The industries secretary was asked to appear before the court on May 19 to explain as to why the tanneries are yet to be relocated to Savar from the city.
HRW said, "Tomorrow, there is a rare chance for accountability for the massive health problems caused by Bangladesh's toxic tanneries."
In the article published on its website, the rights watchdog said the country's High Court summoned the secretary of the ministry of industries to explain that the ministry's failure to relocate 150 or so leather tanneries out of Hazaribagh, a heavily populated residential neighbourhood of the capital, said a media release issued by HRW.
It stated, "Residents of Hazaribagh slums complain of illnesses such as fevers, skin diseases, respiratory problems, and diarrhoea caused by the extreme tannery pollution of air, water and soil."
However, the HC in the meantime set a new date for the hearing.
"The industries secretary will have to appear before the court on June 16 according to a rescheduled date," Savar Tannery Estate Project Director Sirajul Haider told the FE on Monday.
The HRW said the High Court is entirely justified in demanding the government to explain why the relocation process has dragged on for so long.
Fourteen years after the court ruled that the government had to ensure the tanneries installed adequate means to treat their waste, the ministry has only delivered a string of broken promises: the Dhaka Tannery Estate, a relocation site 20 km west of Dhaka, was initially supposed to be ready in December 2005.
The ministry missed the deadlines of December 2006, June 2010, June 2012 and even December 2013. It will almost certainly miss its current deadline of June 2015, the release said.
Welcoming the High Court's move to summons the industries secretary, the HRW in a rare move suggested, "The court should take the opportunity to ask the secretary some basic questions tomorrow about lack of labour and environmental inspections. It should also summon officials from Department of Environment and the Ministry of Labour and clearly direct them to enforce their laws in Hazaribagh."
"Both agencies continue to treat Hazaribagh as a regulation-free zone, although laws demand fines or closure for tanneries that are dumping untreated effluent into water sources, or that repeatedly violate Bangladesh labour laws. Moving the tanneries from Hazaribagh is long overdue, but unless laws are finally enforced this step will do little to help affected communities or tannery workers.''
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