- Title: Living along a 'dead' river in Bangladesh
- Date: 20th April 2023
- Summary: DHAKA, BANGLADESH (RECENT – MARCH 2023) (REUTERS) WASTE COMING OUT OF CANAL AND INTO BURIGANGA RIVER TRASH FLOATING IN RIVER WASTE FLOWING INTO RIVER / TRASH FLOATING IN RIVER VARIOUS OF CHILDREN PLAYING IN BURIGANGA RIVER NEXT TO TRASH ON RIVERBANK YOUNG BOY PULLING CORD OUT OF RIVER NEXT TO FLOATING TRASH WATER FLOWING WITH PIECES OF TRASH ALONG BANK WATER FLOWING INTO BURIGANGA, BOATS AT RIVERSIDE VARIOUS OF MEN BATHING IN BURIGANGA (SOUNDBITE) (Bengali) 39-YEAR-OLD DAY LABOURER, MOHAMMAD MOHIN UDDIN, “I work as a daily laborer. I load and unload goods into the ferries at the Sadarghat Terminal. I don’t have any place to live or bathe. That’s why I take bathe in this river.†THROUGH LANDFILL IN URBAN PART OF DHAKA PEOPLE WALKING ON BRIDGE OVER LANDFILL VARIOUS OF BOATS ON BURIGANGA RIVER VARIOUS OF 47-YEAR-OLD BOATMAN, MOHAMMAD JAHID, EATING WITH OTHER FELLOW BOATMEN (SOUNDBITE) (Bengali) 47-YEAR-OLD BOATMAN, MOHAMMAD JAHID, SAYING: "That time the water was clean, we could eat, bathe in it... Now it's mid-March and the water has become dark. This time of the year about 80% of us face trouble with our eyes. Our eyes become red, swollen, and we can’t see properly." MAN BATHING COW IN BURIGANGA RIVER WITH SMOKESTACKS FROM FACTORY IN BACKGROUND MEN STANDING AS THEIR COWS SOAK IN BURIGANGA RIVER WITH SMOKESTACKS FROM FACTORY IN BACKGROUND VARIOUS OF WILD BOARS SCAVENGING AROUND TRASH AT BANKS OF BURIGANGA VARIOUS OF FOAM FROM INDUSTRIAL WASTE FLOWING INTO BURIGANGA VARIOUS OF 70-YEAR-OLD FOOD VENDOR, NURUL ISLAM, PREPARING CHICKPEA STEW (SOUNDBITE) (Bengali) 70-YEAR-OLD FOOD VENDOR, NURUL ISLAM, SAYING: "This is the place of birth of my father and myself. About 20 to 30 years back this river water was good. I used to catch all different kinds of fish. Now the river has become polluted due to discharge from urban and factory waste. Now there are no fish in the river." JEANS INSIDE MACHINE AT JEANS FACTORY WORKERS WORKING NEXT TO MACHINES AT JEANS FACTORY WORKER SPRAYING JEANS IN MACHINE WITH CHEMICALS WORKERS THROWING PROCESSED JEANS ONTO GROUND RESIDUE AND CHEMICALS FROM JEANS ON GROUND WORKER PILING JEANS AT FACTORY DISCHARGE FROM JEANS FACTORY GOING INTO BURIGANGA RIVER / BOATS ON RIVER BOATS ON BURIGANGA RIVER (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHAIRMAN OF RIVER AND DELTA RESEARCH CENTER, MOHAMMAD AZAZ, SAYING: "All the solid waste from the industries, from the hot bazaars, as well as from the households, there is not a single waste dumping chain that is available or provided by the city (government) corporations. So that means all these riverbank communities, they are discharging their solid waste to this river. So solid waste and plastic pollution is happening on the river, the Buriganga." INDUSTRIAL WASTE FROM JEANS FACTORY FLOWING INTO BURIGANGA RIVER / PEOPLE DISEMBARKING FROM BOATS ON RIVERBANK (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHAIRMAN OF RIVER AND DELTA RESEARCH CENTER, MOHAMMAD AZAZ, SAYING: "But what is the solution here? What we've found, there is a water treatment plant right run by the WASA (Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority), and it is very much near and very much closed to Buriganga. Still now, Buriganga is suffering from these 250 water sewers network. But if these sewers networks should be channelised, to this water treatment plant, which is situated in Bakla (village), at least Buriganga could have been relieved from these continuous sewage pollution from these 250 sources." CHILD CLIMBING UP HILL OVERLOOKING BANK OF BURIGANGA AT SUNSET
- Embargoed: 4th May 2023 03:10
- Keywords: Buriganga river bangladesh dhaka earth day environment pollution
- Location: DHAKA, BANGLADESH
- City: DHAKA, BANGLADESH
- Country: Bangladesh
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Pollution,Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA001551617042023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Two decades ago Mohammad Jahid, 47, came to earn his living as a boatman in the Buriganga river, which flows by the southwest of Dhaka and was once the lifeline of the Bangladeshi capital.
"That time the water was clean, we could eat, bathe in it... Now it's mid-March and the water has become dark. This time of the year about 80% of us (boatmen) face trouble with our eyes. Our eyes become red, swollen, and we can’t see properly," said Mohammad Jahid, just after finishing his evening meal.
Now the river has hardly any fish to be found and the waters remain murky due to pollution from rampant dumping of industrial and human waste. For many day labourers across the city, they have no choice but to bathe in the Buriganga's polluted waters.
Nurul Islam owns a small food cart just on the banks of the Buriganga. Several decades ago, he relied on fishing to make ends meet. In recent years, he has been forced to abandon his former profession and open up a food cart to make ends meet, as the fish in the Buriganga are almost nowhere to be found these days.
"This is the place of birth of my father and myself. About 20 to 30 years back this river water was good. I used to catch all different kinds of fish. Now the river has become polluted due to discharge from urban and factory waste. Now there are no fish in the river," the 70-year-old said, in between serving up a bowl of chickpea stew to a customer.
The Buriganga, or the 'Old Ganges', is so polluted that its water appears pitch black, except during the monsoon months, and emits a foul stench through the year.
The South Asian country of 140 million people, with about 23 million living in Dhaka, has about 220 small and large rivers and a large chunk of the population directly or indirectly depend on rivers for a living and for transportation.
Bangladesh is the world's second-biggest garment exporter after China but locals and environment protection activists allege that the booming industry is also a major contributor to the ecological decline of the river. Untreated sewage, byproducts of fabric dyeing and other chemical waste from mills and factories located close to the river and in its upstream flow daily into the Buriganga. Polythene and plastic have also piled up on the river bed, making it shallow and forcing the river to change its course.
"There is not a single waste dumping chain that is available or provided by the city (government) corporations. So that means all these riverbank communities, they are discharging their solid waste to this river," said Mohammad Azaz, Chairman of River and Delta Research Center.
Bangladesh enacted a law in 1995 making it compulsory for all industrial units to use effluent treatment plants in a bid to save rivers from pollution, but industry owners often flout the rule.
In 1995 Bangladesh made it compulsory for all industrial units to use effluent treatment plants so as to keep pollution out of its rivers, but industries often flout the rule.
While the government makes regular checks to ensure the rules are being followed, it lacks the staff for "round-the-clock" monitoring, said environment official Mohammad Masud Hasan Patwari. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has said all textile factories had effluent treatment plants for wastewater.
Pollution in the river water during the dry season was well above standard levels, a recent survey by the River and Delta Research Center showed, identifying industrial sewage as the main culprit.
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