The Department of Environment (DOE) has sent a sample of the Buriganga garbage to the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) for test to know whether there is presence of any heavy metal. "We expect that the BCSIR will give us its findings by Wednesday," Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA)source told The Independent yesterday.

BIWTA chairman Abdul Malek Miah told this correspondent that they were yet to get no objection certificate (NOC) from the department of environment for dumping the sludge lifted from the river Buriganga. "The problem of finding a dumping ground still remains, but we are now selling Buriganga garbage to four individuals at the rate of Tk 2.50 -- Tk 3.50 per cubic metre," he said. BIWTA has been dumping untreated garbage on private lands in the Jhaochar area of Savar, on the BIWTA land in the Aliganj area and on some private lands at Kadamtali and Chunkuthi, Keraniganj, a BIWTA source said. The BIWTA has so far lifted only 33,000 cubic metres (CM) of garbage in the last 30 days from the river bed of the Buriganga against its target of nearly 50,000 CMs.

The Keraniganj upazila authority has engaged 60 people to collect household waste, the BIWTA sources said adding: "By deploying 60 persons, dumping of domestic waste by the local people into the Buriganga has been curbed." Industrial and domestic waste is still being dumped into the river Buriganga from different points like Keraniganj, Babubazar, Waizghat, Badamtoli, Kamrangirchar and Jinjira to the great concern of the environmentalists. About three lakh cubic metres of garbage needs to be removed from about one-kilometre area of the river at an estimated cost of Tk 5.32 crore in three months.

The Buriganga cleaning drive however, is moving slowing in the absence of availability of necessary dumping ground, the BIWTA source said. The items removed include polythene,poly bags, garment wastes,coconut shells, bottles, plastic materials and mud. Four private companies-Techno SB Joint Venture, Pacific Marine Services, Farzana AET Joint Venture and M/S Akhter Hossain Talukder have been engaged in cleaning the river. The drive was launched On January 6.

-The Independent