Interview: Environmental activist
Turag polluted by 296 sources, Lobondoho by 145
In Gazipur, alongside the rivers Brahmaputra, Shitalakkha, Turag, Bangshi, Balu, Banar, Gargara and Chilai, there are many marsh lands too. These rivers and marshes use to be teeming with fish, but now the numbers of local varieties of fish have dwindled due to industrial waste. Founder of Bangladesh Nodi Poribrajok Dol and chairman of the River Foundation, Muhammad Monir Hossain, talks about these issues in an interview with Prothom Alo.
How many points of pollution have you located in Gazipur?
Monir Hossain: According to my study, there are 19 rivers in Gazipur. These are Turag, Chilai, Lobondoho, Balu, Shitalakkha, Old Brahmaputra, Khiro, Paruli, Shuti, Banar, Nagda, Louhajong, Bangshi, Shaldaho, Shutia, Gollar, Naljuri, Konai and Tongi rivers. Actually there may be more. Of these, Turag, Lobondoho, Chilai and Bangshi are the most polluted. We detected around 296 sources of pollution of the river Turag, 145 in Lobondoho and 56 in Chilai. The points of pollution are sewerage outlets as well as effluence and waste from factories, marketplaces and households.
Why has it become so imperative to save the rivers?
Monir Hossain: Rivers are national resources. A river crisis means a national crisis. Everyone must join hands to overcome this crisis. Rivers, after all, are the life of a nation. The flow of river waters is intrinsically linked to our lives.
What steps must be taken to revive the rivers?
Monir Hossain: A flowing river, free of encroachment and pollution, is a healthy river. A river that does not have a current is not healthy river. In order to revive the water flow of a river, it must be freed of encroachment. In this regard, the river banks can be demarcated in accordance to the Ports Act 1908 and the Bangladesh Water Act 2013.
Why have rivers lost their normal flow?
Monir Hossain: Unplanned urbanisation, industrialisation, sand extraction and neglected river management hamper the normal flow of rivers. It will not be possible to maintain the flow of rivers unless the river banks and flood-prone areas are protected. If the river bank areas of the past 20 years are identified in the industrial areas, it will be seen that in many places the factories have encroached upon up till even 100 feet of the rivers. All we see now is a thin thread-like river, the width diminishing by the day.
The administration plays a vital role in saving rivers. You and I can point to the problematic areas, but it is the work of the administration to take punitive action against the offenders and implement the law accordingly
What can be done to prevent river pollution?
Monir Hossain: We are not saying that the mills and factories have to be shut down. We want environment-friendly and river-friendly industries. We are not against urbanisation, we want a fair city. Comparatively the people of the cities are more conscious than those of the villages, yet it is those conscious people that are craftily polluting the river.
Alongside the industries, it is the city corporations, municipalities and union parishads, the institutions responsible for waste management that are also responsible for river pollution. From the city corporation to the union parishads, a halt must be made to disposing all waste into the rivers and open spaces. Advanced scientific waste management must be devised. Just as setting up ETP in industries is a part of compliance, it must be made compulsory for these local government institutions to set up STP in the sewerage lines.
The administration plays a vital role in saving rivers. You and I can point to the problematic areas, but it is the work of the administration to take punitive action against the offenders and implement the law accordingly. We have a dozen or so laws to protect rivers, but the implementation is far from satisfactory. The administration can join hands with the river rights activists and the people who live by the rivers to create and campaign and mobilise public awareness. In doing so, the administration will get the support of the common people when implementing the law.
How would you assess the apparent impunity in the department of environment?
Monir Hossain: The main crisis faced by the department of environment is an insufficient workforce. The deputy director's office is extremely inadequate to deal with a huge industrial area as in Gazipur. It is essential to set up a director's office here. Once a director's office is set up, there will be three to four deputy directors, 10 to 12 assistant directors and double the number of inspectors. They will have their own enforcement and lab. Then perhaps they will shrug of that sense of impunity.