DHAKA, Bangladesh — A cruise on the historic Buriganga River here in the capital used to be a must for visiting dignitaries, but these days they are confronted with foul smells and rotting fish caused by massive pollution.
"This stench is unbelievable. You must do something about it," Dale Lautenbach, a senior visiting official of the World Bank, said during a recent cruise on the river, which flows through Dhaka on its way to the Bay of Bengal.
She and the other ferry passengers covered their noses as they looked in horror at the black water and rotting, floating fish.
Hundreds of years ago, the banks of the Buriganga were a prime location when the Mughals made Dhaka their capital in 1610. The house-turned-museum of the nawab (ruler) overlooks the river, which is the country's main waterway for trading and ferry travel.
It was once the main source of drinking water for Dhaka residents, and an hour upstream from the capital, the river is still crystal clear.
But as it flows through the capital, waste from sewers and factories — especially tanneries — pours into it.
According to the Environment Department, up to 40,000 tons of tannery waste flows into the river daily, along with sewage from Dhaka, a city of more than 10 million.
Human waste is responsible for 60 percent of the river's pollution, followed by industrial waste at 30 percent. The rest is solid waste.
"We all get skin disease after taking baths in the river, but we have no choice, as this our home, too," said Majnu, a worker at Sadarghat, one of Bangladesh's main ferry terminals.
Illegal structures have sprung up along its banks, narrowing the river and adding to the dirt, while ferries spill oil into its waters.
"It is a dying river and the situation will get worse unless steps are taken urgently," said Naser Khan, general secretary of the Bangladesh Environment Campaign, a nongovernmental organization (NGO).
He said the situation would be even worse if it were not for the annual monsoons, which help clear the river to some extent because the water flow increases after the heavy rains.
"It is a poisonous river now and dying, but if we could implement existing laws, it would go a long way to help the river survive," said environmentalist Philip Gain of the Society for Environment and Human Development, another NGO.
"We have no choice but to save the river at any cost."
Mr. Khan said an urgent priority is to dredge the bed of the Buriganga because silt and rubbish, including polythene bags, have lessened its depth.
Environmentalists also want tanneries to be moved away from the river and sewage to be diverted to treatment plants.
The Independent newspaper recently complained that the government was doing nothing to clean up the river. "The government's inaction is as incomprehensible as it is painful," it said in an editorial.
But Environment Minister Shahjahan Siraj insisted that the government is committed to saving the Buriganga.
"The government is doing everything possible to save the river, and we have set up task forces with specific responsibilities to identify how to save the river," he told AFP.
God willing, "we hope to restore the river to its original state this year," said Mr. Siraj, who banned the use of polythene bags soon after taking office in 2001.
Last month, the government adopted a plan to maintain the navigability and normal flow of the Buriganga and remove all illegal structures on its banks.
"At the meeting it was decided to ban brick kilns within [825 feet] of the river bank, structures within [1,782 feet], remove garbage and silt from the river bed and divert water from the Jamuna River to keep a good flow of the Buriganga year-round," Mr. Siraj said.
"We have already decided to relocate tannery factories to other places."
Water Pollution Water is considered polluted when it is altered from the natural state in its physical condition, and chemical and microbiological composition, so that it becomes unsuitable or less suitable for any safe and beneficial consumption. The term contamination is used synonymously with pollution. The signs of water pollution are obvious: bad taste; offensive odours from lakes, rivers and sea beaches; unchecked growth of aquatic weeds in water bodies; decrease in number of aquatic animals in surface water bodies; oil and grease floating on water surfaces; colouration of water; etc. Besides these obvious signs, there are other kinds of pollution, which are not so visible.
Sources of pollution Factories, power plants and sewage treatment plants are considered point sources of water pollution, because they emit pollutants at discrete locations, usually through a pipe that leads to a lake or stream. Nonpoint sources of water pollution are scattered or diffused. Cropland, forests, urban and suburban lands, roadways, and parking lots are nonpoint sources of a variety of substances including dust, sediment, pesticides, asbestos, fertiliser, heavy metals, salts, oil, grease, litter, and even air pollutants washed down from the sky by rain.
Water pollution can also be categorised into natural and anthropogenic sources. Natural sources are those which take place without human influence. Anthropogenic pollution are those which are induced by human beings. Natural pollution can also be accentuated by human activities. Pollution takes place in all the three main sources of water, ie rain water, surface water and groundwater. Surface water is more susceptible than groundwater, which is naturally protected from surface activities.
Rainwater pollution Acid rain damages forests and may cause significant decrease in productivity. Numerous authors have also raised concern for crop damage. Acid rain is particularly damaging to buds; therefore, acids falling on plants in springtime may impair growth. Acidification of soil may also impair soil bacteria that play an important role in nutrient cycling and nitrogen fixation. Acid rain is also capable of corroding manmade structures. Examples of such corrosion are: the Statue of Liberty, the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa and Egypt's temple at Karnak. Acid rain may also damage house paint and etch the surfaces of automobiles. There is no record of acid rain in Bangladesh. However, due to extensive air pollution in Dhaka city, it is very likely that rain water in Dhaka would be more acidic than rain water in rural areas.
Surface water pollution Surface water occurs in oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds and floodplains. It has been the source of water supply since the dawn of civilisation. But intense human activities have been polluting these readily available sources. Surface water used to be the primary source of water supply in Bangladesh, but it is no longer the case. Surface water in Bangladesh is extensively polluted by sources such as industrial and urban wastes, agrochemicals and sewerage wastes and seawater intrusion. Surface water bodies are extensively used for disposal of untreated industrial wastes and this is one of the main sources of pollution. The buriganga is a typical example of serious surface water contamination. Apart from industrial sources, surface water in the country is also extensively contaminated by human faeces as sanitation in general is poor. Agrochemicals are extensively used in the country causing pollution of surface water. Due to withdrawal of water from the ganges, seawater intrudes a long way inside the coastline which causes river water pollution by salinity. There are also other minor sources that contaminate surface water extensively.
Groundwater pollution Although groundwater is not directly exposed to surface polluting activities, numerous natural and anthropogenic activities cause groundwater pollution. A number of physical, chemical and biochemical (and microbiological) processes cause alteration of groundwater properties either by addition of new elements/ions/compounds or by increasing the existing concentrations. Before the discovery of arsenic contamination in Bangladesh, groundwater used to be considered a safer source of drinking water. Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh is now considered the world's largest case of water pollution. Groundwater in Bangladesh is also polluted by a number of anthropogenic and natural sources. The most widespread anthropogenic sources are the infiltration of industrial and urban wastes disposed on the ground or in surface water bodies. Also intrusion or infiltration of saline water contaminates groundwater. Extensive use of agrochemicals can lead to groundwater pollution. Leaking sewers/septic tanks/pit latrines also cause groundwater pollution.
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