In compliance with a High Court order, the Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday disconnected the utility services, including gas, power and water, to the tanneries at Hazaribagh in the capital.
During a daylong drive backed by police, the DoE cut off 224 power and 193 water connections although on paper the number of tanneries there is 154.
Fifty-four gas lines were severed till evening, Abu Hena Morshed Zaman, director for enforcement at the DoE, told The Daily Star.
“As per the court order, our job was to disconnect all the utility services to the tanneries so that those could not run there anymore. We've done our work,” he said.
Four DoE teams led by as many executive magistrates and three DoE directors had begun the drive around 10:00am yesterday.
The telephone connections had already been severed on April 4, said DoE Assistant Director Samar Krishna Das.
The Hazaribagh tanneries have been posing a serious threat to the environment in the area for long.
The HC on March 6 directed the director general of DoE to immediately close the tanneries that failed to relocate to the Tannery Industrial Estate in Savar despite repeated court orders and extension of deadline time and again.
It asked the DG to submit a report after complying with its directives by April 6 and fixed April 10 for further hearing on the issue.
Ministries of home, environment, industries, inspector general of police and commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police were asked to assist the DG in complying with the order.
The HC bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Salim came up with the order following a petition filed by Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (Bela) in 2009.
Last year, the tannery factories at Hazaribagh produced about 21,600 cubic metres of environmentally hazardous liquid containing chemicals such as chromium, sulphur, ammonium, salt and other chemicals every day.
Even though the HC directed to shut the tannery industries operating in Hazaribagh immediately, neither the government nor the tanners have finished their work at the estate in Savar.
In a recent visit to the tannery estate, it was seen that the authorities have been running the effluent treatment plant (ETP) on a trial basis, treating the liquid waste from the 47 units now operating in Savar. Another 107 units are supposed to be relocated to Savar from Hazaribagh.
Waste, generated in the test run that began after the Eid-ul-Azha in October last, is discharged into the river.
The DoE tested the water of the Dhaleswari river and found the waste was not treated properly.
Following a meeting with Bangladesh Tanners Association and Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association, industries secretary on March 1 announced that all the factories would have to be moved to Savar tannery estate by March 31 this year, as the tanners missed several deadlines.
The court first directed the tannery owners to relocate by February 2010 and later extended the deadline several times.