Buriganga 'slightly' better
Says environment minister
Buriganga's condition has “slightly†improved due to effective drives against polluters, claimed Environment and Forest Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud yesterday.
“The concentration of dissolved oxygen at most points of the river rose to 1.5 milligram per litre (mg/l), which was zero before 2009,†he said. The optimum concentration for survival of aquatic life should be between 4.5 and 8 mg/l.
The minister was addressing a press conference, held to announce the AL-led grand alliance government's success in the last four years, in Bangladesh Secretariat.
Hasan said now 77 percent of the country's factories use effluent treatment plants while it was 30 percent before the government came to power. “A total of 542 cases were filed in the environment courts and over Tk 100 crore was realised in fines since 2009.â€
On the recent transfer of Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, serving as a director at the Department of Environment, Hasan said Munir had more important works like taking action against persons who use formalin in food.
Munir, transferred to the commerce ministry in mid-December before completion of his three-year tenure, played the key role in taking action against polluters and increasing revenue income from fines by over threefold since August 2010.
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