Waste treatment on a high priority
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Mahbubul Haq
ENVIRONMENTAL degradation of the city does call for taking steps on a high priority basis. The participants at a recent seminar on the environment of Dhaka city was organised by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), were unanimous on their point. But they stressed the significance of effluent treatment particularly in the areas of industrial and medical wastes.
The giving of notices to environment polluters have been going in a namesake manner under previous governments with the result that the slack allowed the environmental degradation to reach its current state. The present government has been decisive about armtwisting the polluters into going for clean-up actions as they should. Thus, notices were served afresh on industries in and around Dhaka to set up effluent treatment facilities within three months failing which they would face the prospect of a close down. The polluting industries did take the warning relatively seriously but many of them are still foot dragging thinking perhaps they can escape compliance on this or that plea like in the past. The present government can indeed make a difference this time by stepping all the way into the pedal like they have been rightly doing in other areas. The polluters who are yet to show any sign of acquiring waste treatment facilities should be very sternly warned again that they should not rest thinking more time would be given or consideration be shown to them and that they would have to face shut down of their enterprises absolutely if they fail to do what is expected of them by due date. Only such hard measure will create the motivation on these polluters who have made veritable poisons of river waters that flow past Dhaka and degraded lands awfully for human settlement in many places like Savar, Gazipur and Keraniganj as well as some densely populated parts of the main city. This has happened from untreated discharge of their toxic effluents into lands nearby that seeped underground polluting both underground water reserves and layers of soils. So, these polluters deserve no more consideration. They must be rightly pressurized into doing what they were obligated to do long ago.
The same kind of firmness must be applied in dealing with pollution from medical sources. There are numerous clinics, hospitals, diagnostic centres, etc., in the city which hardly possess any proper system for the disposal of their hazardous wastes. Infected bandages, discs with abandoned culture of germs and other hazardous medical garbage are now thrown into open road without a care for the passers by who could be infected with serious diseases from breathing even the air around such medical garbage. The standard disposal medium for such garbage requires the medical establishments to set up incinerators and burn them. Only a handful of medical institutions in Dhaka presently have incinerators. Therefore, it is only imperative that these should be served with notices as well to have incinerators within a short time-frame with the warning that non compliance could result in ordering their closure.
The JICA is presently working on an overall modern waste disposal system for the city to include all kinds of waste matters. This plan also will have to be facilitated by the government with greater enthusiasm than was shown in the past.
ENVIRONMENTAL degradation of the city does call for taking steps on a high priority basis. The participants at a recent seminar on the environment of Dhaka city was organised by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), were unanimous on their point. But they stressed the significance of effluent treatment particularly in the areas of industrial and medical wastes.
The giving of notices to environment polluters have been going in a namesake manner under previous governments with the result that the slack allowed the environmental degradation to reach its current state. The present government has been decisive about armtwisting the polluters into going for clean-up actions as they should. Thus, notices were served afresh on industries in and around Dhaka to set up effluent treatment facilities within three months failing which they would face the prospect of a close down. The polluting industries did take the warning relatively seriously but many of them are still foot dragging thinking perhaps they can escape compliance on this or that plea like in the past. The present government can indeed make a difference this time by stepping all the way into the pedal like they have been rightly doing in other areas. The polluters who are yet to show any sign of acquiring waste treatment facilities should be very sternly warned again that they should not rest thinking more time would be given or consideration be shown to them and that they would have to face shut down of their enterprises absolutely if they fail to do what is expected of them by due date. Only such hard measure will create the motivation on these polluters who have made veritable poisons of river waters that flow past Dhaka and degraded lands awfully for human settlement in many places like Savar, Gazipur and Keraniganj as well as some densely populated parts of the main city. This has happened from untreated discharge of their toxic effluents into lands nearby that seeped underground polluting both underground water reserves and layers of soils. So, these polluters deserve no more consideration. They must be rightly pressurized into doing what they were obligated to do long ago.
The same kind of firmness must be applied in dealing with pollution from medical sources. There are numerous clinics, hospitals, diagnostic centres, etc., in the city which hardly possess any proper system for the disposal of their hazardous wastes. Infected bandages, discs with abandoned culture of germs and other hazardous medical garbage are now thrown into open road without a care for the passers by who could be infected with serious diseases from breathing even the air around such medical garbage. The standard disposal medium for such garbage requires the medical establishments to set up incinerators and burn them. Only a handful of medical institutions in Dhaka presently have incinerators. Therefore, it is only imperative that these should be served with notices as well to have incinerators within a short time-frame with the warning that non compliance could result in ordering their closure.
The JICA is presently working on an overall modern waste disposal system for the city to include all kinds of waste matters. This plan also will have to be facilitated by the government with greater enthusiasm than was shown in the past.