In what is seen as a landmark decision towards saving the precious water bodies of the country, the High Court of Bangladesh has recently ordered shutdown of 231 factories, mostly tanneries and dyeing units, to save Dhaka’s Buriganga River, as per media reports.
The Buriganga connects the capital with the southern coastal districts through a network of rivers.
“The court asked them to disconnect all utilities including electricity, gas and water supplies to these factories,” maintained lawyer Manzil Murshid, who filed the public interest litigation in this regard speaking to AFP, adding, “This order will go a long way to save the Buriganga from ecological disaster.”
The court has reportedly asked the concerned authorities to take immediate action against the 231 factories including dyeing and rubber plants and tanneries dumping effluent into the river.
As per the report, which cited figures from the Human Rights Watch, each day the tanneries would discharge some 21,000 cubic metres (5.5 million US gallons) of untreated waste containing chromium, lead and other chemicals into the Buriganga.
