Construction of dumping yards faces delays
Intense pollution is threatening the environment surrounding Savar Tannery Industrial Estate (STIE) as the construction of two dumping yards designed for solid waste are anticipated to be delayed by two months.
Currently, 130 out of 155 tanneries are in procedure at the STIE. On a regular day, the operational tanneries produce some 60 tonnes of solid waste.
In absence of the yards, each of the waste is being kept in a close by vacant space beneath the open sky on a temporary basis, polluting the locality.
If this continues till Eid-ul-Azha, a severe catastrophe could ensue. That's because in the 90 days centring the religious festival of the sacrifice of animals, some 180 tonnes of solid waste are produced by the tanneries each day.
The contractors supplied substandard steel for sheds meant for the yards without following a specifications mentioned in the tender, said Delwar Hossain, team leader of the consultants for effluent treatment plants (ETP) at the STIE.
The construction of the shed for just one of the yards, encompassing 360,000 square feet of area, was said to be completed by August, he said.
The contractor has again been designed to provide you with the specified steel, and the shed's construction is nearing completion, which presumably will be achieved by December, said Hossain.
Till date, the federal government has allocated Tk 10 crore for the construction of the two yards, the other being 216,000 square feet in area, he said.
"I am hopeful that…by January next year we will need charge of the sheds from the Chinese construction firm."
He also spoke of a third yard which will be constructed and run by a company specialising in processing waste and creating by-products.
The tender was already awarded to an area company to process the spend, he said.
Although solid waste is likely to eventually wrap up in a landfill from the dumping yards after the STIE was fully functional, Hossain apprehended that if such waste processing was not present, both yards would likely to overflow within a year.
The construction work of the sheds for both dumping yards was said to be started in March this season, said Jitendra Nath Paul, director of the STIE.
Nonetheless it was delayed as a result of the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic. The construction eventually started in June, he said.
The government is working on plans to recycle the solid waste, said Paul.
Regarding completion of the construction of the central ETP (CETP) at the STIE, he said currently its automation and online systems were being setup.
With the construction of the CETP also facing delays, the government has started allowing individual companies to construct their own ETPs.
This is to enable them to fast obtain certifications from Leather Working Group (LWG), thereby attain proper prices from the international retailers and brands.
Because of poor adoption of global standards set by the LWG for the processing of rawhide, Bangladeshi exporters have failed to avail compliance and environmental certifications from the global body for the leather goods sector.
Bangladesh must obtain 65 per cent of the full total marks used in the LWG documentation for obtaining that in the silver category.
Of a total of just one 1,365 marks, some 200 ought to be obtained through compliance to standards by the federal government, including ensuring the occurrence of a dedicated site for tanneries, and the remaining 1,165 marks ought to be obtained by the tanners.
However, almost all of the tanners aren't yet ready to adhere to the LWG standards.
This leaves them without choice but to sell leather and its associated goods such as for example footwear for some non-compliant Chinese factories and accept prices that are 40 % less than international rates.
So far, the federal government has allowed two tanneries to create their own ETPs.
The federal government shifted the tanneries from the city's Hazaribagh to Savar in 2017 looking to give a formal outlook to the leather sector which has already invested Tk 7,000 crore up to now and employed practically 50,000 workers.
But it appears the newly established STIE continues to be far away not just physically but also in case of proper functioning, bringing no very good news for the leather business.
