Editorial
Tougher action against environmental polluters
The government should set an example
The recent special drive to bring to book environmental polluters -- in which over 100 polluting units have been fined -- is commendable. Half of the amount in fines is yet to be realised, however. Despite tougher laws and the government's promises of strict action against violators, the evil of pollution continues, causing serious hazards to public health and marine life from industries, especially fabric and dyeing industries and tanneries.
Directives and fines are obviously not enough. Most of the 371 heavy polluter industries that have installed effluent treatment plants (ETP), rarely use them, while 311 severe polluter industries are yet to install the plants in the first place, having failed to meet the deadline of June 30 this year. Final warnings for timebound compliance, if not heeded, may be followed by strict action such as de-licensing defaulting industries, in order to counter their passivity and negligence. Like safety precautions, measures to protect the environment should also be a strict pre-requisite for setting up of industries.
A key concern in the recent action against environmental polluters is pressure from political high-ups, which is getting in the way of tougher action being taken against owners of many industries who are former lawmakers or who have connections to current ones. However, the fact that some of them have been fined for the first time ever is a positive sign.
While the government has pledged to take any action necessary to protect the environment, it is yet to take any concrete decisions. The plan to relocate tanneries and the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in separate industrial zones remains unimplemented as legal cases drag on almost indefinitely. The industries' demands for government loans to set up ETPs as well as the government's plans to set up centralised ones in industrial zones are yet to be realised. There also lies a hitch in the fact that many government-owned and government-operated industries such as Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) and some EPZs themselves do not have ETPs. Before demanding it of private industries, the government would do well to set an example of doing the needful itself.
Not only tougher laws but their strict enforcement, as well as concrete long-term plans are necessary to counter not only industrial pollution but environmental damage in general. And the government must be the one to not only make the laws, but also to set an example of following them.
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