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Tanneries posing threat to public health

Relocation of factories being delayed

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Relocation of tanneries at Hazaribagh in the city is being delayed again and again, posing a serious threat to public health and the environment, experts at a seminar said yesterday
Students Association of Buet's Urban And Regional Planning (U R P) Department organised the seminar on the second day of the three-day Planning Week on Planning for Inclusive Urban Development' at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).
"The tanneries release 100 tons of untreated solid wastes everyday and it is entering die human food cycle in the form of poultry feed. ' said Dr Tariq Bin Yousuf, project director of Dhaka City (Corporation'sClean Dhaka Project.
Relocation of tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar has remained stalled due to bargain and disagreement between the government and the factory owners, he said. Hall a million people in the tannery' neighbourhood are living in hazardous conditions, said Avit Kumar Bhowmik, a URP student, citing his study on Hazanbagh tannery and its relocation issue.
Toxic effluents released from the tannery factories here are carcinogenic and 90 percent of workers die before the ageol 50. he said in his presentation.
A total of 300 harmful chemicals are dumped in the river Buriganga and surrounding areas, according to the findings presented at the seminar.
While untreated liquid wastes pollute Buriganga. solid wastes harm the surrounding environment. Toxic wastes sip into surrounding croplands and underground water level.
I he first tannery- at Hazanbagh was set up in 1947 followed by a boom of the industry by the end of 1960s. Of the total 270 tannery factories in the country, 240 are located at Hazanbagh. according to the findings.
Relocation was first set in October
2003 but was delayed until 2006. It has been again delayed until December 2010. said the student.
Another student Kazi Nusrat Jahan gave a presentation on 'Cyclone hazard assessment in coastal areas of Bangladesh'.
One tenth of the world's cyclones occur in Bangladesh, she said.
A total of 120 cyclones took place during the period from 1877 to 2007 and a total of 5,43,067 people died in cyclones in the coastal areas in the period from 1904 to 2003, according to her study.
Giasuddin Ahmed Choudhury, executive director of the Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services, and Dr Mahmudul Islam, senior project expert of Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme, the Disaster Management Bureau, also spoke.
Billal Hossain, director of the Department of Environment, chaired the session.