Leather industry in Bangladesh has for long been considered the second most promising after the readymade garment sector in terms of export potentials. As per reports, leather sector developed in the country on a large-scale basis from the 1970s even as a major chunk of leather and leather products are marketed abroad, mostly in the form of crushed leather, finished leather, leather products, and footwear and count amongst the importing destinations names such as Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Spain, Russia, Brazil, Japan, China, Singapore, Taiwan, etc.
With respect to the growth and development of the leather industry, the Savar based tannery estate, which has been set up at Hemayetpur in Savar — aimed at attracting foreign investment and increasing exports by setting up a compliant modern environment-friendly leather industrial park — and relocate the polluting tanneries from Hazaribagh to give a new direction to the industry, was expected to play a major role in furthering the growth and development of the leather sector, to enable it reach its true potentials.
It may be mentioned here that owing to environmental compliance, it had been difficult for the leather product manufacturers to get Leather Working Group (LWG) certification — the main objective of the LWG is to develop/maintain a protocol that assesses the environmental compliance and performance capabilities of leather manufacturers and promotes sustainable environmental practices. The group seeks to improve the leather manufacturing industry by creating alignment on environmental priorities, bringing visibility to best practices and providing suggested guidelines for continual improvement — which makes it easier to sell goods to the global buyers.
So, given the situation, has the project (Savar Tannery Industrial Estate) been able to live up to the expectations and sort the issues once faced by the industry?
To start with, it has reportedly taken almost 19 years to implement the project that was initially scheduled to be completed in two years. Although the deadline of the project, taken up in 2003, was extended 12 times and the cost was increased from Taka 175 crore to Taka 1,015 crore, construction of the common chrome recovery unit to stop environmental pollution has not been completed yet, claimed media reports citing the Bangladesh Tanners Association even as the association reportedly also alleged that there is also no provision for resource generation through solid waste management.
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According to reports, Hazaribagh was once home to 95 per cent of Bangladesh’s tanneries, which combinedly dumped around 22,000 cubic litres of toxic waste into Buriganga river, as per some reports. Subsequently, in order to prevent the environmental pollution, the BSCIC under the Ministry of Industries undertook a project in 2003 to set up a compliant leather industrial city in Savar by constructing all modern facilities including waste management such as STP, CETP, dumping yard in a scientific manner even though the reluctance of the tannery owners to leave Hazaribagh delayed the implementation of the project initially.
Highlighting the aims and objectives of the project, the project document said a modern industrial city including a CETP would be constructed in Savar where all tanneries would be relocated from Hazaribagh and other parts of the country and would be provided with necessary support in eco-friendly production and that the leather industry would be developed and modernised by providing other facilities including infrastructural facilities to the leather industry entrepreneurs
It also added a conducive environment would thus be created to increase production and exports by attracting foreign investment in this sector while also underlining that as a result, employment would be created here and the contribution of the leather industry to the national economy would also increase.
But even though it took around close to two decades almost to implement the project during which time the project cost has gone up by six times, it was reportedly yet to fulfil all the requirements even as speaking to the media, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI), Dr Ahsan H Mansur reportedly underlined the project was the best example of mismanagement.
“The BSCIC is not eligible for executing such a project… A competent organisation like the EPZ Authority must have been given this task,” underlined the Executive Director of PRI, while adding that the leather industry is a very environmentally sensitive sector and, based on what the BSIC did with the CETP, the project should have been handed over to someone else long back.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Tanners Association has reportedly written to the Industries and Commerce Ministries to extend the project for another two years, terming the industrial city as ‘incomplete’ and ‘environmentally unfriendly’, even as talking to the media, Project Director of the STIE Jitendranath Pal reportedly underlined that from 1st July, a newly formed Government-owned local entity, Dhaka Tannery Industrial Estate Wastage Treatment Plant Company Ltd., has taken charge of the CETP.
“We have requested for extension of the project till June 2023 due to incomplete construction of the common chrome recovery unit, CETP commissioning, and a lack of resource generation through solid waste management,” maintained Shaheen Ahmed, President of the Bangladesh Tanners Association even as Jitendranath Pal stated that although the CETP has been running for some time now, the online monitoring system has not been installed as per the agreement and its laboratory has inadequate testing facilities even as he added the Government might undertake another project for Balancing, Modernisation, Rehabilitation and Expansion (BMRE), to make the same fully operational.
Meanwhile, according to industry insiders, even the refining capacity of that CETP is only half of the waste generated by the tanneries during the peak season, which consequently leads to the waste being discarded before it is fully treated in the CETP.
The result – since no measures have been taken to treat the solid wastes generated by the tanneries, they are polluting water of Dhaleshwari river like the way the effluents released by the tanneries in Hazaribagh once polluted the Buriganga river.
Now, if reports are to be believed, the Ministry of Industries is taking up a new two-year project to build another leather industrial park of the same size next to the existing one even as the detailed project proposal (DPP) has already been sent to the Planning Commission for approval.
Given the current state of affairs, many in the industry feel they are in for a long haul before things change for the better. But till then, it might only get tougher for them.