Tanneries told to reduce pollution in Bangladesh
In a bid to save the Karnaphuli and Halda rivers from serious pollution, the Bangladesh Government's Department of Environment (DoE) has asked the owners of tanneries in the Chittagong port city to set up waste re-cycling plants at their factory sites.
The tannery owners were asked to set up the re-cycling plants at their own expense, and introduce in-house monitoring activities to check levels of pollution. The owners also agreed to formulate an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) within next three months to effectively deal with environmental issues caused by the leather tanning industry.
Local environmentalists have expressed serious concerns, even staging a recent demonstration, about pollution in the river Karnaphuli due to the dumping of thousands of tons of chemical and waste in the river by more than 200 industries along the banks of the river.
