The water sector in Bangladesh is being managed by a number of government organisations. With the increasing importance of green growth, water security, climate change and many other global issues, managing water sector in a sustainable manner has become a foremost priority. For businesses and stakeholders, the distribution of responsibilities and overall structure of governance is not very clear from outside while some government organisations and departments have overlapping responsibilities.
The Textile Sustainability Platform (TSP), a public-private dialogue platform, aiming to strengthen environmental sustainability and resource use efficiency in the textile sector of Bangladesh and supported by Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) decided to map roles and responsibilities of the government institutions related to the water sector. The study conducted by BUILD focuses on water overuse and water pollution.
Textile and RMG, a US$ 26 billion industry, account for more than 84 per cent of export earnings and 30 per cent of industrial sector GDP of Bangladesh. 85 per cent of the four million-plus workers in the RMG industry are women. The Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has set the target of US$ 50 billion export of RMG by 2021. This may go up to US$ 66 billion by 2030.
In tandem with economic growth, the demand for water is increasing. The wet processing stage of the RMG industry - comprising the washing, dyeing and finishing (WDF) activities -uses up the largest volume of water, accounting for around 85 per cent of water used and discharged. There are about 719 wet processing units operating in Bangladesh. According to a market segmentation study carried out by PaCT, 78.3 per cent WDF factories in Bangladesh have source of water possessed by them, 17.4 per cent use groundwater and 4.3 per cent get water from the DWASA. Dhaka's water supply sources 87.72 per cent from groundwater pumping. Switching to increased surface water use is hampered by discharge of sewage and industrial waste in surface water sources.
Seventy per cent of the WDF factories are in the greater Dhaka region. These factories on average require 300 litres of water per kg fabric. This is the equivalent to the daily water use for two persons in Dhaka while the global benchmark is 100 litres of water per kg fabric. However, having worked with more than 200 factories, IFC's Programme Partnership for Cleaner Textile (PaCT) has helped reduce the water use to an average of 127 L/kg across the partner factories.
The country's growth forecast predicts doubling of industrial water use from 0.09 BCM (billion cubic metres) in 2011 to 0.18 BCM by 2030, while given 'business-as-usual scenario', the textile sector will need additional 6,750 mega-litres per day by 2030. The textile sector's demand will compete with that of other industrial sectors and households.
Needless to say, this massive use of groundwater contributes to a rapid decline in the water table. The impact is already being felt through seasonal water shortages in Dhaka and environs. The groundwater table has dropped 40m during the 1996-2009 period. If business-as-usual continues, water demand will exceed available groundwater resources by 40 per cent in the dry season and national water deficit in dry season will be up to 26 per cent by 2030. There will be 21 per cent water shortage in dry season by 2030. The use of piped freshwater in industrial processes and leakages and mismanagement result in substantial waste of the valuable resource.
Moving on to the issue of water quality and pollution, the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) of Bangladesh identifies the following reasons behind degradation of surface water quality: (1) unregulated industrial expansion, (2) rural-to-city migration, (3) encroachment of rivers and water bodies, (4) overloaded infrastructure, (5) confusion about institutional responsibility for the quality of urban water bodies, and (6) insufficient enforcement of environmental regulations.
The background paper on environment for the 7th FYP identifies industrial effluents, agrochemical, fecal pollution, spillage, and low water flow in dry season as responsible for water pollution. Thus, the industrial sector is identified as a key actor responsible for water pollution. Industrial waste and effluents discharged directly and indirectly affect more than 200 rivers of Bangladesh.
Textile is one of the key industrial sectors and the WDF stage of textile processing generates an enormous amount of waste water full of harmful chemicals such as salts, dyes and bleaches. Cloth production, spinning, and washing are designated as Orange (B) category in the Environment Conservation Rules (ECR) 1997 of the government.
Industrial waste is largely dumped in Buriganga, Balu, Turag, and Sitalakhya rivers around Dhaka. According to the Bangladesh Navy, 40 per cent waste is from tanneries, 20 per cent from other industries, 15 per cent solid waste, 10 per cent from river vessels, and 15 per cent other wastes. The rivers have very low oxygen level and most of the fish species have died out. More than a thousand industrial units in the surrounding areas, viz. Tongi, Gazipur, Savar, Narsingdi, Narayanganj and Keraniganj, pollute or have encroached upon the four rivers. Balu and Shitalakhhya are mainly plagued by wastes of cement factories. As the tanneries are being shifted to Savar, the Central ETP has not still been started. As a result, the surrounding Bangshi, Dhaleshwari, and Turag rivers are being polluted. With the initiative of the Ministry of Shipping, a national task force has been formed for 'Ecological Restoration of Four Rivers'. The Bangladesh Navy is engaged for a three-year project for removing encroachment, dredging, cleaning up pollution, and ensuring management of industrial effluents near the four rivers. Shiromoni, Kalishpur and Rupsha are the industrial areas in Khulna and around 300 industrial units release effluents into the river Bhairab.
Water pollution depletes the resource base that is necessary for operation of the textile and other industries. Yet businesses still consider water pollution as an externality and often fail to take into account the future consequences of pollution for themselves as well as the community. Businesses need to be sensitised about the benefits of mitigating water pollution as opposed to the fateful consequences of business-as-usual.
Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) is a key technology to treat industrial waste water. The private sector initially showed some reluctance in setting up ETPs due to establishment and operation costs. However, thanks to regulatory requirements, an increasing number of businesses are setting up ETPs. In the 'Workshop on Central Effluent Treatment Plants for Economic Zones in Bangladesh', organized by Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), GIZ, and 2030 WRG on April 19, 2017, the speakers mentioned that around 500-600 ETPs have been established by industrial units in Bangladesh. Yet many of these are left idle. The department of environment (DoE) cannot properly monitor ETP operation in large number of industrial units due to limited manpower.
While some industrial units are clustered in some areas, most of them are scattered. Online monitoring and data management system of ETP operations, which are feasible and necessary, are yet to be established. On August 30, 2012, the DoE carried out a sudden inspection in Ashulia, Savar and found that a dyeing factory that processes 5.0 tonnes of sweater yarn daily discharge 590 million litre polluted effluents untreated into Turag River. Its ETP was not running. It was fined Tk 1.9 million.
The BEZA has acquired land for establishment of around 100 economic zones in next 15 years. GIZ is helping the BEZA to establish a model CETP in the Mirsarai 2A and 2B EZ. The CETPs are being established on public-private partnership (PPP) basis. As more and more ETPs and recently CETPs are being set up, there needs to be sharing of best practices for efficiency gain. Pre-treatment of industrial waste at the industrial unit level is required to ensure that hazardous materials and harmful heavy metals are excluded from the effluent, because the CETPs cannot treat those. If similar industries are located in the same zone, the CETPs would be able to treat the same type of waste water from the same type of industries.
Management of sludge and solid waste is a related concern. CETPs and ETPs generate piles of sludge and solid waste that they cannot dispose of due to lack of landfill areas. The government has not made provisions for landfill area to dispose of solid waste and sludge. With GIZ support, the government has prepared a sludge management policy. Economic zones will also generate a large amount of human wastes, and Central Sewerage Treatment Plants (CSTPs) will be needed.
Enabling policy provisions are essential for successful establishment of CETPs. CETPs have to pay utility bills to the government like ordinary businesses. The Section 19 of BEZA Act mentions that the Authority would 'encourage business organisations to relocate polluting and unplanned industries from metropolitan cities through establishing separate economic zones for different industries'. The BEZA (Appointment of Developers) Rules 2014, one of the infrastructures in EZs, will be "system for collection, treatment, disposal and management of solid waste and industrial waste, etc." The policies on industrial waste management - including ETP and CETP, sludge management, and so on - need to be implemented and incentives need to be enhanced to encourage businesses to be environmentally responsible.
The writer is the Chief Executive Officer of Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD)
[email protected]
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