Setting up ETPs quickly
Saturday, 20 October 2007
IT is so very important to take up on emergency basis the works at different levels so that the discharge of pollutants in the rivers can be immediately and appropriately controlled. Recent newspaper reports indicated that the authorities were pushing the polluters, specially the operators of textile mills, to set up and operate effluent treatment plants (ETPs). The establishment of a central ETP for the purpose was also under consideration. But the realities at the field level indicate that hardly any progress was achieved to these ends.
Therefore, the greatest need is to do whatever should be done at the fastest within a short time-bound plan. This is expressly because public health is already under a severe stress from this score and could be affected on a bigger scale in the city even in the near future from not taking decisive actions in time. If too much time is wasted in considering different alternatives or in allowing the offenders to do what they should have done long ago, then that would mean exposing the health of the people to great risks. Thus, either the central ETP plan for the textile industries should be adopted and implemented at the soonest or individual ones must be set up similarly as quickly. There must not be any dithering in these matters.
The interim government must realise that no other government would work like it in terms of enthusiasm and resolve, to ensure that the industries acquire ETPs and actually run them. Thus, the government should try real hard to oblige the industry owners to set up and run ETPs well ahead of the end of its tenure. The Department of the Environment ( DOE ) lacks legal powers to step up the pressure on industries to set up and run ETPs. This legal void must be filled at the soonest. Government should also consider mobilising a special fund from which industries can borrow at nominal rates for the establishment of ETPs. The banks should be encouraged to draw up such borrowing schemes to help the industries to spend on ETPs.
Ghulam Mohammad
DOHS, Dhaka
Therefore, the greatest need is to do whatever should be done at the fastest within a short time-bound plan. This is expressly because public health is already under a severe stress from this score and could be affected on a bigger scale in the city even in the near future from not taking decisive actions in time. If too much time is wasted in considering different alternatives or in allowing the offenders to do what they should have done long ago, then that would mean exposing the health of the people to great risks. Thus, either the central ETP plan for the textile industries should be adopted and implemented at the soonest or individual ones must be set up similarly as quickly. There must not be any dithering in these matters.
The interim government must realise that no other government would work like it in terms of enthusiasm and resolve, to ensure that the industries acquire ETPs and actually run them. Thus, the government should try real hard to oblige the industry owners to set up and run ETPs well ahead of the end of its tenure. The Department of the Environment ( DOE ) lacks legal powers to step up the pressure on industries to set up and run ETPs. This legal void must be filled at the soonest. Government should also consider mobilising a special fund from which industries can borrow at nominal rates for the establishment of ETPs. The banks should be encouraged to draw up such borrowing schemes to help the industries to spend on ETPs.
Ghulam Mohammad
DOHS, Dhaka