Bangladesh University of Professionals

Term Paper
on
How to prevent pollution in the river Buriganga
Course: Business Communication
Course Code: BUS 7202

Submitted To
Mohammad Nurul Amin Patwary
Assistant Professor

Submitted By
Md. Harun Ar Rashid
ID No: 2023032043
MBA (Professional) Section: A

Date of Submission: November 12, 2020

 Letter of Transmittal

12th November, 2020

Mohammad Nurul Amin Patwary,

Assistant Professor
Faculty of Business Studies
Bangladesh University of Professionals

Subject: Submission of term paper

Dear Sir,

With due respect, I would like to inform you that, it’s an honor and great privilege for us to be
able to submit this term paper titled “How to prevent pollution in the river Buriganga” which was
assigned for me as a prerequisite for the completion of my “Business Communication” course. I
am truly grateful to you for giving us this topic for my term paper and it is a pleasure for me to
present this term paper under your kind supervision.

This term paper is a result of my best efforts. However, should your kind honor come across any
unintentional flaws then it would be my pleasure to answer for any clarification as your kind
honor deem necessary.

In the circumstances stated above, I would truly appreciate if your honor is kind enough to
accept this term paper and oblige thereby. For this act of kindness, I will remain ever grateful to
you.

Sincerely Yours,

Md. Harun Ar Rashid

ID No: 2023032043

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 Acknowledgment

At first, I am very grateful to Almighty Allah for giving me the strength and knowledge to
complete this project.

For the completion of this report searching for websites, articles and related documents were
required. However, it was my instructor Mohammad Nurul Amin Patwary, who played the
important role by giving us an insight about the report. I express my profound indebtedness and
gratitude to him, for his valuable advice that helped immensely in preparing this report. It would
have been impossible to complete this term paper without his kind and valuable guidelines.

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 Abstract
Understand the situation of the pollution of Buriganga River and how we can prevent the
pollution of the river.

In this paper I tried to observe how Buriganga river was then the present situation of the river
and how we can prevent the pollution of the Buriganga river.

My objective with this paper was to discuss the reasons behind the causes of Buriganga river
pollution and how we can prevent it.

Relevant theories and concepts were discussed in terms of the story of these river and causes of
pollution, where I suggest some steps of prevent Buriganga River.

A brief explanation of the reason behind of this pollution and what is the situation right now and
what we can do now.

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 Table of contents
SL Contents Page No.
Acknowledgement ii
Abstract ⅲ
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction 1&2
1.2 Present status of the Buriganga River 2
1.3 Limitations 3
1.4 Objectives of the Report 3
Chapter 2: Sources of the Pollution
2.1 Point sources 4
2.1.1 Discharge of industrial effluent 4
2.1.2 Discharge of municipal wastewater and sewage 5
2.2 Diffuse sources 5
Chapter 3: The Importance of the River
3.1 Water supply 6
3.2 Inland water transportation 6
3.3 Cleaning and washing 6
3.4 Recreation 7
Chapter 4: Causes of Buriganga River Pollution
4.1 Sedimentation at the upstream 8
4.2 Population explosion 8
4.3 Encroachment and land grabbing 8
4.4 Disposal of solid & domestic waste 8&9
4.5 Sewage and industrial waste 9
4.6 Tannery waste 9
Chapter 5: Remedies of Buriganga River Pollution
5.1 Population control & creation of public awareness 10
5.2 Increase water flow of Buriganga 10
5.3 Control disposal of solid wastes 10
5.4 River dredging 10
5.5 Moving tannery from Hazaribagh 11
Chapter 6: Conclusion
6 Conclusion 12
References 13

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Introduction

Understand the situation of the pollution of Buriganga River and how we can prevent the
pollution of the river. The Buriganga River is located in the southern part of the north central
region of Bangladesh and close to the confluence of the Padma (Ganges) and upper Meghna
river. The flow of this river is influenced by some upstream rivers and canals like Jamuna,
Turag, Karnatali, Dhaleswari and Tongi khal. According to Majumdar, a branch of the Ganges
river flowed in to the Bay of Bengal through the Dhaleswari river which over time changed its
course and eventually lost its connection with the primary flow of the Ganges river and was
renamed as Buriganga (old-Ganges). Unlike many other rivers, Buriganga river is not only
important for providing vital ecological function but also for many other purposes like drinking
water supply, transportation, cleaning, washing, recreation, ground water recharge, flood control.
The Buriganga is economically very important to Dhaka. The bank of Buriganga was a major
trade center when the Mughals made Dhaka their capital in 1610. The river was also the city's
main source of drinking water. Today, the Buriganga River is afflicted by the serious problem of
pollution. The chemical wastes of mills and factories, household wastes, medical wastes, sewage,
dead animals, plastics, and oil are some of the Buriganga's pollutants. Dhaka city discharges
thousands of tons of solid wastes every day and most of it is released into the Buriganga.
According to the Department of the Environment (DoE), 22,000 cubic liters of toxic waste are
released into the river by the tanneries every day. Experts have identified nine industrial areas in
and around the capital city as the primary sources of river pollution: Tongi, Tejgaon, Hazaribagh,
Tarabo, Narayanganj, Savar, Gazipur, Dhaka export processing zone and Ghorashal. Most of the
industrial units of these areas have no sewage treatment or effluent treatment plant. Textile
industries annually discharge as much as 56 million tons of waste and 0.5 million tons of sludge
and most of these are released into the Buriganga. A newspaper article from 2004 indicated that,
up to 80% of Dhaka’s sewage was untreated. The discharged waste materials are converting air,
water and soil into big reservoir of dangerous pollutants. The increased impacts on the
environment have resulted in acid rain, global warming and health hazards. Any disturbances in
the environmental composition by anthropogenic activities, may lead to disastrous consequences
and even endanger the very survival of life on earth. So my aims to review the sources of the

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pollution, causes of the pollution, impacts of the pollution and at last I will also suggests some
measures for the remedial of the pollutions.

1.2 Present status of the Buriganga River

For several decades, river pollution and fresh water depletion are viewed as one of the top
environment problems in Asian region. The Buriganga River in Bangladesh is subject to severe
pollution and considered as one of the worst polluted rivers in the World. Especially, the
development of tannery industry at Hazaribagh that has contributed to Bangladesh economy is
causing pollution and the disruption of the ecosystem. As a result, the environmental problems
are getting worse. According to the Export promotion Bureau (EPB) of Bangladesh, export
earnings from leather industry were US$401.64 million in 2009-2010. But Hazaribagh tannery
city consisting of 196 tanneries is discharging hazardous effluents everyday directly to the
Buriganga without any treatment. This is responsible for the high Biochemical Oxygen Demand
(BOD) and low Dissolved Oxygen (DO) values in Buriganga water. Low DO value in Buriganga
water and such relation is a crucial problem in any developing country that stresses on economic
growth compromising environmental pollution. Inadequate waste water management systems,
lack of sewerage and infrastructure facilities in on hand and lack effective pollution control
measure and their strict enforcements may be largely responsible for this alarming problem and
grave situation. When at the same time several dying industries at the river bank as well as the
medical and dispensary wastes and solid wastes also produce irreversible hazards to Buriganga
and surrounding environment. The pollution by the tanneries and health hazards caused by the
pollution has also been investigated. Several government decisions has been made to revive the
tolerant condition of Buriganga among which the shifting Tanneries from Hazaribagh to Saver
area and subsidies to the toxic industries for establishing Effluent Treatment Plant(ETP) can be
mentioned, but none of these projects have been implemented yet. That’s why, Buriganga, the
glory of Dhaka is under the threat of demolition and wiping out effect. The adjacent areas of
Buriganga river like Keranigang and Kamrangirchar are also severely affected. At the end of this
thesis, several proposals regarding the improvement of water quality of Buriganga River are
highlighted.

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1.3 Limitations

Although the research has reached its aims, but there are some limitations. The limitations are as
follows:

 The study area was very confidential. Therefore, it was hard to collect data.
 Information inadequacy on the web
 Lack of articles and research papers
 Time constraints
1.4 Objectives of the Report

The objectives of the report are:

 To find out the background of the Buriganga river.

 To find out the reason behind the causes of the Buriganga river pollution.
 To be acquainted with an understanding of the structure of the river and the flows of the
river.
 To understand how it can make more effect on the Dhaka city.
 To understand current situations of the Buriganga river.
 To formulate recommendations based on my study in light of my learned causes, reasons
and solutions.

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 Chapter 2: Sources of the Pollution

The various sources of pollution have been identified through reviewing previous studies and
from relevant agencies like Department of Environment (DoE), Dhaka Water and Sewage
Authority (DWASA), Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), Bangladesh Inland Water Transport
Authority (BIWTA), Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) and Bangladesh University of
Engineering and Technology (BUET).

2.1. Point sources

Rahaman and Rana state that, the major point sources of pollution in the Buriganga river are a
number of industrial installations, municipal wastewater and sewage treatment plants. These are
described in the following sections.

2.1.1. Discharge of industrial effluent

Alam [6] states that, Small to medium sized home-based industries started developing along or
near the banks of the Buriganga River since the 1960. The Department of Environment (DoE)
conducted a survey in 1998 and identified 249 industries along the banks of the river responsible
for water pollution. These industrial installations include tanneries, dyeing industries, aluminium,

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iron and steel workshops, plastic, pharmaceuticals, battery manufacturing, washing, hardware
and cold storage units.

2.1.2. Discharge of municipal wastewater and sewage

The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) are responsible for collection,
treatment and disposal of municipal wastewater, sewage and storm water in Dhaka City.
However, the existing sewerage system of Dhaka City is quite old and inadequate to meet the
present demand. SWMC and RPMC reports reveal that, the current sewerage network covers
only 110 sq. km of 360 sq. km of the city area, serving only 20 percent of the population. As a
result, particularly in areas that are not yet within the sewerage network of DWASA (like the
areas adjacent to the Buriganga); there has been a tendency of having unauthorized connection of
domestic sewer into the storm water pipes that end into the Buriganga River. This causes
discharge of massive amount of untreated municipal wastewater and sewage directly into the
Buriganga through the city drains and sewers.

2.2. Diffuse sources

Besides the major point sources, there are some diffuse sources including dumping of solid
wastes along the banks in a scattered manner by river side dwellers, leakage of oil from floating
oil-seller boats and direct disposal of wastes (like residue of food, human excreta). As the runoff
moves on the land, it picks up and carries pollutants including polythene bags and disposes them
into the river. BIWTA discovered a 3 m layer of garbage including discarded polythene bags on
the bed of this river near Sadarghat launch terminal. Alam states that, the entire north bank of the
river has now become urbanized and very few agricultural practices take place on the south bank
of the river, where some vegetables are only being grown in a few spots, mostly with the use of
organic manure. Thus the impact of agricultural runoff in the Buriganga River could be
considered insignificant compared to the other sources.

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 Chapter 3: The Importance of the River

Dhaka has celebrated its 400th anniversary as the capital of Bengal proclaimed by the Mughals
in the early 17th century. It was a strategic decision by the Mughals considering the economic,
navigation and security potentials of the perennial river Buriganga. The history, livelihood,
culture and heritage of Dhaka City have been largely shaped by this small but important river.
Four hundred years later, the river still continues to play a very important role, since according to
officials and average of 30,000 people use the Sadarghat launch terminal, one of the largest river
ports in the world, for departure and arrival every day (The Daily Star, April 01, 2009).

3.1. Water supply

The Buriganga River was once used as the main source of water supply for Dhaka's residents
when the Chadnighat water treatment plant (located near Millbarak) was established in 1874,
which is currently being operated by Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA).
The plant has a capacity to treat a huge amount of water daily from this river which can be
supplied to the surrounding urban areas like in Lalbagh and Kotwali for drinking and other
domestic usage.

3.2. Inland water transportation

The Buriganga River provides an extensive network of inland waterways all over Bangladesh,
particularly within the southern districts. Hundreds of launches and thousands of country and
engine boats ply on this river daily to transport goods and passengers. The Dhaka Port (locally
known as Sadarghat Launch Terminal) located on this river is used by an average of 30,000
people per day. Apart from this major port, there are also several other ports and landing stations
on this river such as at Postogola, Pagla, Fatulla, Kholamura and Bosila.

3.3. Cleaning and washing

Most of the people who live within the catchment area of the river and directly use the water for
washing, bathing and other domestic purposes on a daily basis. Besides these, many people
utilize the river for commercial laundry services, washing animals, cleaning polythene bags and
plastic containers (for recycling factories).

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3.4. Recreation

During the British regime, the bank of the Buriganga River was considered to be the most scenic
place in Dhaka for its natural beauty. However, many people still use the river for recreational
purposes, such as walking along the river side, swimming and boating. Moreover, still to date
occasional cruises on this river take place for visiting dignitaries and for local residents.

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 4. Causes of Buriganga River Pollution

Pollution of Buriganga River began in the Mughal period, since the sewage of the city used to be
dumped into the river. Several studies on the Buriganga River have identified many causes for
the river's pollution such as sedimentation at the upstream, encroachment, and disposal of solid
wastes, sewage and industrial wastes in the river.

4.1. Sedimentation at the upstream

Rahman and Rana state that, because of the sedimentation on the upstream, the flow of
Buriganga-Turag system gets cut off, especially during the dry season. This is why no single
drop water flows into the river system at that time, states the hydrologists and engineers of
Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB). During this period of time the system basically
carries sewage and industrial effluents.

4.2. Population explosion

It is known to all that, every additional person add extra pollution. Sadarghat is the most familiar
point of Buriganga and also in Dhaka. Everyday thousands of people use this point or terminal
for their journey. Most of them illiterate and do not know how to use river side area properly.
They throw water bottle, paper and other harmful things into the river water.

4.3. Encroachment and land grabbing

Over the years, landfills created on the river have narrowed its width at many places near the
city. The encroachers have set up platform like structures on the rivers and gradually filled out
the bottoms by piling up earth and rubbish. Even multi-storied structures have been built on
encroached land. Politically backed influential land encroachers have created illegal structures
including houses, bazaars, ghats (port), brickfields etc., on the river that has created obstacles on
the flow of the river.

4.4. Disposal of solid & domestic waste

Dhaka City dwellers have been dumping domestic wastes and solid wastes into the Buriganga
since the Mughal period. According to several studies Rahman and Rana, each day about 900
cubic meters untreated domestic and human waste are discharged into the Buriganga-Turag

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system. Dhaka WASA’s only one sewage treatment plant at Pagla with a capacity of 0.12 million
cubic meters per day, which is only 10 percent of the total disposal of sewage. But, because of
mismanagement the treatment plant is using one third of its capacity.

4.5. Sewage and industrial waste

Most of the industrial units around the Buriganga River have no sewerage treatment plants of
their own. More than 60,000 cubic meters of toxic waste including textile dying, printing,
washing and pharmaceuticals are released into the main water bodies of Dhaka every day.

4.6. Tannery waste

There are about 200 leather tanneries in the Hazaribagh area of Dhaka, the capital. Some use
modest technology and machinery, but most operate as they did decades ago and release
untreated toxic chemical waste near residential areas. According to the Department of
Environment, the tanneries discharge 22, 000 cubic meters of untreated liquid toxic waste daily
into the rivers, gutters and canals that run alongside in the roads of Hazaribagh.

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 Chapter 5: Remedies of Buriganga River Pollution

The Buriganga River is burdened with multiple pollutions. It is nothing but a crematory.
Environmental experts and water experts give some necessary steps to Bangladesh government
to prevent Buriganga river pollution. These prevention techniques are highlighted below.

5.1. Population control & creation of public awareness

Huge population explosion of Dhaka is one of the main reasons of Buriganga river pollution.
According to several studies, each day about 900 cubic metres untreated domestic and industrial
effluents are discharged into the Buriganga-Turag system. An individual person means an extra
amount of pollutants. So to prevent the Buriganga river pollution we should make public
awareness and stop population growth of Dhaka city.

5.2. Increase water flow of Buriganga

During the dry season, the river has a flow of only 50 cubic metre per second (cumec). One
solution is to connect the rivers of Dhaka with the Jamuna River which has a minimum dry
season flow of around 3500 cumec. This will not only improve the water quality of the
peripheral rivers of Dhaka but also will benefit water supply, agriculture irrigation, fisheries and
navigation. This is an ideal case of integrated water resources management.

5.3. Control disposal of solid wastes

To control disposal of solid wastes into river Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and BIWTA should
work together. BIWTA must force the owners of the vessels and traders on the bank of the river
to dump the solid wastes at the fixed places provided by DCC. For any type of construction work
within 50 meters of the river bank, clearance from BIWTA should be mandatory. All structures,
especially brickfields within 200 meters from the riverbank should be demolished.

5.4. River dredging

The government must allocate a budget so that BIWTA can buy sufficient dredgers for routine
dredging of the riverbed for smooth navigation.

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5.5. Moving tannery from Hazaribagh

The Ministry of Industries must take initiatives to shift the leather tanneries from Hazaribagh to
Hemayetpur, Savar with Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) facilities, which was
supposed to be done in 2006, under the recommendation of a task force on Buriganga formed by
the government in 2003.

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 Chapter 6: Conclusion

With increasing population the demand for water is increasing in such an extent that now a
viable solution for the treatment of surface water has become mandatory. As discussed in this
paper, the Buriganga River is threatened by pollution, low flow in Buriganga, river
encroachment and land grabbing. The present liberalized industrial policy in Bangladesh ignores
environmental protection; private entrepreneurs do not require permission from any quarter. So
with the increase of unplanned and socially and environmentally degraded industries poses a new
challenge to Bangladesh. The River management is now very much necessary to protect the
river. The rehabilitation option is the best solution of the river management. There needs to be
proper enforcement mechanisms in place, as the pollution and human-induced hazards have gone
beyond a tolerable limit.

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References:

1. Majumdar, R.C., History of Ancient Bengal, First published 1971, Reprint 2005, Tulshi
Prakashani, Kolkata, pp. 3-4, ISBN 81-89118-01-3.
2. Working themselves to death, the Bangladesh men and women tanning leather for a
pittance in one of the world’s top 30 most polluted locations, Daily Mail. Retrieved on 24
March, 2014.
3. http://uap-bd.edu/ce/Project%20&
%20Thesis/present_status_of_the_buriganga_river.html
4. DoE (2001). The general overview of pollution status of Bangladesh, Department of
Environment, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
5. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) (2001). Project Performed on
Introduction of Waterways around Dhaka City, First Phase: Development of Navigability
and Providing Landing Facilities from Sadarghat to Ashulia Bridge, Dhaka.
6. Rahman, M. R. and Rana, M. Y., Management of Buriganga River Water Quality under
Alternative Scenarios, Final Report, R02/95, IFCDR, BUET, 1992.
7. Alam, M. K. and Marinova, D., Valuing benefits of environmental improvement: the case
of the Buriganga River in Bangladesh, Proceedings of the International Summer
Academy on Technology Studies: Technology and the Public, S. Karner and B. Wieser
(eds), Deutschlandsberg, Austria, pp. 169-176, 2003.
8. Surface Water Modeling Centre (SWMC) report (1995).
9. River Pollution Mitigation Committee (RPMC). Mitigation of River Pollution of
Buriganga and Linked Rivers-Turag, Tongi Khal, Balu, Sitalakhya and Dhaleswari, A
report of RPMC, River Pollution Mitigation Committee (RPMC), Dhaka, Bangladesh,
2008.

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