Polluting River
Factory owner fined Tk 20 lakh
The Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday fined a waste paper recycling factory owner Tk 20.58 lakh for polluting the river Shitalakhya by releasing untreated chemical effluents.
An enforcement team of DoE detected that Islami Board Factory had been running with environmental clearance and effluent treatment plant in Chitrashal of Narayanganj.
Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, director of DoE, who handed down the penalty, said that the factory had released 13 crore litres of liquid effluent in the river through Nayamati canal and destroyed aquatic life and biodiversity.
Content of dissolved oxygen in the factory's effluent was nil though required is 5 to 8 milligram per litre, he said adding that the factory neither has Rajuk approval, as it is located in flood flow zone.
He ordered the factory owner Hazi Abdur Rahman not to discharge untreated until clearance and treatment plant were obtained.
The Shitalakhya has been declared an ecologically critical area and dumping of such wastes is strictly prohibited.
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