THE allegation of untreated water being released from the new tannery park at Savar on the outskirts of the capital into the nearby Dhaleshwari River is indeed worrying. Because of this, as New Age reported on Saturday quoting residents of Hemayetpur where Hazaribagh tanneries are being shifted, fish in the river dies, while those who used to take bathe in the river even four months ago cannot take a dip there. Allegation is there that solid wastes from tanneries are kept under the open sky, the bad smell of which forces villagers to avoid the roads around the park. Overall, the general secretary of Savar River and Environment Development Council may be right when he said that Savar is turning ‘into a Hazaribagh for the lack of proper waste management.’ It is important to note that, only 43 tanneries out of 155 have so far shifted to Savar. In other words, adverse impact on the environment and ecology of the area may become manifold once all the tanneries are shifted to the new location before any effective steps to address the allegations.Tanneries at Hazaribagh of the capital, set up in 1950s, have since been dumping tonnes of toxic wastes, solid and liquid, every day into the nearby River Buriganga, a life line for the city, causing a huge damage not only to the river but also the liveability of the area. In the face of growing protests from citizens and environmental campaigners, the government undertook the Savar tannery park project in 2003 to relocate the Hazaribagh tanneries to the area. However, mostly because of the owners’ noncompliance with repeated orders both from the court and government, coupled with government leniency towards the errant tanneries for mysterious reasons, most of the tanneries, as mentioned above, are yet to relocate to the Savar park. In any case, the government pledged to equip the tannery park with effective effluent treatment facilities at the start of the project. Besides, as per its claim, the effluent treatment plant set up there at a huge cost has already been ready for waste treatment. Regrettably, however, the ground realities do not match the government claims over the issue at least completely. In fact, the government immediately needs to look into the allegations at hand and take measures to effectively address them. It needs to realise that people demanded the immediate relocation of the Hazaribagh tanneries not for moving the problem from one place to another but for mitigating the hazards tanneries pose to public health and environment in particular. In short, the government has no room for continuing with its general apathy to environmental concerns involved with the operation of industries, including tanneries regarded as one of the most polluting industries across the world. Also, environmental activists need to raise voice over the issue as they did when it came to relocating tanneries from Hazaribagh.
