World Water Day today
At least 1,659 industrial units in a recent count have been found discharging untreated wastewater into canals, rivers and other open waterbodies, aggravating the condition of the already heavily polluted waterbodies.
According to the Department of Environment, all these polluting factories are situated in and around Dhaka city and in different districts under the Dhaka division.
Pollution of waterbodies concentrate in the Dhaka division, experts said, adding that substantial information and data on water pollution outside this division is not much available so far.
Green activists allege that pollution of river water particularly intensifies around Dhaka city as the authorities have miserably failed to stop older sources of pollution, while new more sources have been added to the old ones.
The rivers around Dhaka city are so extremely polluted people of the riverbanks can neither use the water for meeting their daily necessities nor can the aquatic lives survive there.
Amid the reality, Bangladesh is set to celebrate World Water Day 2025 today.
Regarding the source of water pollution, Waterkeepers Bangladesh coordinator Sharif Jamil said that industrial waste and domestic waste are the main sources of pollution of the country鈥檚 rivers and other open waterbodies.
The Department of Environment officials recently said that they served final notice to the 1,659 errant industrial units they had listed releasing wastewater in the open waterbodies.
All these units would be shut down if they failed to stop the pollution, said DoE officials.
As for the causes of pollution, the officials said that while some factories did not have effluent treatment plants, some others did not run their ETPs regularly mainly to save money.
鈥楳any factories pollute water even after having ETPs to save cost,鈥� said DoE director general Md Kamruzzaman, adding that they would take tougher punitive actions against them.
DoE statistics show that of the water polluting factories, 128 are located under the Dhaka metropolitan area and the rest 1,531 are in Dhaka division.
Of them, 499 factories are in Dhaka district, 380 in Narayanganj, 519 are in Gazipur, 129 are in Narshingdi, one each in Tangail and Gopalganj districts.
DoE officials said that they had particularly identified textiles, washing and dyeing, and pharmaceuticals factory units and hospitals and clinics to lack ETPs.
Enamul Haque Shimul, director of Mita Fabrics Limited at Rupganj upazila in Narayanganj, said that like many other factories they also received the DoE notice.
鈥榃e have an effluent treatment plant at the factory and no-objection certificate also. But the DoE, even it finds small anomalies, it serves notices. It鈥檚 a regular thing,鈥� he said.
Municipal solid waste and sewage waste are two other major sources of river pollution, green activists said.
They allege that river pollution has worsened over the years as the authorities have failed to take effective measures to curb it although they are very much aware of the situation.
A study conducted conducted in December 2024 by the DoE and the River and Delta Research Centre, a private research institution, using satellite imagery and field surveys has identified the extent of pollution in the Buriganga, Turag, Shitalakkhya and Balu rivers that surround the Dhaka city.
The study report, published in January this year, identified 1,024 pollution points, mainly linked to industrial waste discharge, municipal waste dumping, sewerage outlets, connecting canals and solid waste dumping stations.
In 2020, the number of identified pollution points was 608, the report mentioned.
In 2022, however, the National River Conservation Commission identified 693 pollution sources.
According to the DoE and River and Delta Research Centre study, 102 industrial waste release points discharge untreated pollutants into the rivers, while 75 municipal sewerage lines and 216 private sewerage outlets contribute to the contamination.
The study also highlights 38 sluice gates and 62 service canals acting as pollutant conduits. Additionally, 144 large waste dump stations and 297 smaller dumping points have been identified as major contributors to indiscriminate waste disposal. Also 12 dockyards along with 46 factory units and 36 kitchen markets have also been cited as key pollution sources.
Environmentalist Syeda Rizwana Hasan, also adviser for the ministry of environment, forest and climate change to the interim government, said that inaction of government agencies over the years resulted in the intense pollution of the rivers surrounding the capital.
The interim government undertook initiatives to stop the rampant pollution, she said, adding that revival of the city canals was part of the plan.
In the first phase, 19 canals were targeted for restoration, protection from pollution and encroachment, Rizwana said.
鈥楾he government is preparing an action plan to restore the Buriganga and other rivers with the Asian Development Bank support. Over time, the rivers will regenerate,鈥� she further said.
The DoE and River and Delta Research Centre study identified 525 pollution sources in the Buriganga, 97 in the Turag, 173 in the Shitalakkhya, and 33 in the Balu River.
Although the government relocated the heavily polluting tannery industry from Hazaribagh to Harindhara in Savar in 2017, the pollution level now remains higher than it was in 2010.
The relocation project, which aimed to free the Buriganga from pollution, cost Tk 1,078.71 crore.
Under the Buriganga revival project, the Bangladesh Water Development Board has so far spent over Tk 1,100 crore since 2010, but all the initiatives have borne hardly any fruit.
Sharif Jamil alleges that the government鈥檚 piecemeal measures have been marred by corruption failed to bring any tangible results.
According to the DoE鈥檚 latest 2024 Surface and Ground Water Quality Report, the water quality in Dhaka鈥檚 rivers remained 鈥榓larming鈥� for 11 months of the year, except for July, the peak monsoon period.
The DoE monitors water pollution at 102 points across 29 rivers and three lakes nationwide.
The report has also found dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, and chemical oxygen demand levels at critically low level, sometimes dropping to 0.0 milligrams per litre, far below the acceptable levels for most of the year.
Joshadhan Pramanik, founder and coordinator of the Project for Ensuring Food and Shelter for Birds in Banpara, Natore, alleges that the entire drainage networks in the country discharge sewerage and other waste into rivers, posing severe public health risks.
He said that since 2017, he has been urging the authorities to stop connecting sewer lines to rivers, but his appeals have been ignored outright.
In November 2023, the Local Government Division instructed city corporations and water supply and sewerage authorities to cut off drainage connections to rivers, but no effective actions came so far.
River experts while saying that the number of pollution sources and their intensity of pollution increased over the years, identified public agencies, including Dhaka WASA, as among the top polluters of the rivers.
Sharif Jamil stressed a comprehensive approach to address pollution.
鈥楾he government must ensure that no public agency pollutes the water and that industrial units comply with environmental regulations,鈥� he said.
