THE pollution of the River Dhaleswari on Dhaka’s outskirts of Savar by way of the effluent — treated, half-treated or, even, untreated — having been discharged comes up once again as the tannery units in the industrial estate there gear up to process a huge volume of rawhide of sacrificial animals, the highest at a time in a year, after Eid-u-Azha, when more than 10 million animals are reported to have been slaughtered. Not all of the rawhide would, perhaps, be processed at the place, but being the largest hub of tanneries, the leather estate will account for the largest share of rawhide processing, entailing a huge amount of effluents that could do all the harm to the environment, especially the river. A photograph that New Age published on its front page on June 12 shows the effluents being discharged into the narrowed-down river polluting the water. The tannery relocation project began in 2003 on a High Court order in 2001 to relocate the units that had done business at Hazaribagh since the 1960s to save the moribund Buriganga. Many units started moving out to Savar in 2017 and by June 2021, about a hundred and fifty units are reported to have relocated their operation to the Savar estate, with some components, including the central effluent treatment plant, not having been properly functional.

The problem of the central effluent treatment plant and the business-as-usual approach of the tanners who moved out there started polluting the River Dhaleswari. The tanneries have largely been relocated, but so has been the pollution. It was the Buriganga that was being polluted with the effluents earlier. And, now it is the Dhaleswari that is being polluted, with public agencies noticeably not doing anything to save not only the river but also other segments of the environment. The photographs that newspapers publish off and on show how odious the pollution of the environment at Savar has been. The tanners at Hazaribagh polluted the Buriganga and the environment for about half a century. It has now been a little more than half a decade, the same tanners are now polluting the Dhaleswari and the environment. If the tanneries are allowed to continue polluting the environment at Savar, public health at the place might also be in severe jeopardy. The unhindered pollution of the environment in the end contaminates underground water and pollutants seeped into by the trees would find their way to humans. The issues left unattended would only mean a relocation of pollution along with the relocation of the tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar, beating the purpose of the relocation. No immediate steps from the government in this regard would make it not only a waste of time but also make the investments in the relocation of the tanneries meaningless.

The government must, therefore, look into the issues and take early steps to stop pollution of the Dhaleswari and its surroundings.