Independent University, Bangladesh

Bashundhara R/A
DHAKA 1229

Department of Environmental Science and Management

Steps taken for the restoration process of River Buriganga

18 December 2020

Submitted by : Ashraful Islam

Course : ENV216

Course Faculty : Dr. Chowdhury Kamrul Hasan

The focus of this paper is to discuss how our most prominent and economical river Buriganga is being
polluted and the measures that we can take to restore it and it also deals with the study of Buriganga
river which was once called the life of Dhaka but at present, a dying river. For many years, Buriganga has
been continuously abused by unplanned urbanization and unsupervised industrialization. The onslaught
of the resultant pollution has virtually killed the Buriganga. The surface of the Buriganga country is
unprotected from untreated industrial effluents and municipal wastewater, runoff pollution from
chemical fertilizers. The study includes a brief description of the present state of the Buriganga river, the
sources of the Buriganga river pollution, the causes of the pollution, the impacts of the pollution on the
environment, ecosystem as well as the socio-economic impacts. It depicts how industrial effluents are
being dumped into the Buriganga river on a daily basis, how the existing sewerage system of Dhaka City
is quite old and responsible for the current situation of the river. In recent water quality tests, the
Department of Environment found the amount of dissolved oxygen, which determines the degree of
pollution, is still too low for aquatic lives to survive in the Buriganga. Laboratory analysis of the samples
shows that presence of dissolved oxygen was between 0.50-0.84 mgs per liter (mg/L), while standard
surface water is 5 mg/L in Bangladesh. The study finds population explosion, encroachment and land
grabbing, disposal of solid and domestic waste, unplanned tannery industries etc., as the reasons of
pollution of Buriganga. At last, the study calls for planned drainage system, controlled disposal of
wastes, river dredging etc., for remedial of pollution of the river. The River management is now very
much necessary to protect the river system.

Introduction

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 (Fig. 1)
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. 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 [2], indicated that, up to 80% of Dhaka’s
sewage was untreated
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

The Buriganga is economically very important to Dhaka. But now our prominent river Buriganga is
afflicted by the serious problem of pollution. A lot various kinds of problems are seen in our Buriganga
river. Thousands of tons of solids are being discharged into the Buriganga River every day. (Fig 2)
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. Having all these noted, my paper aims to discuss the sources of pollution,
causes of the pollution and the impacts of the pollution.

Results and Discussion

In this section we will go through how our Buriganga river got polluted, the reasons behind it and also
the restoration process. There are many ways to bring back clean unpolluted water into Buriganga but
that will require a huge funding. But few sources of population and to what extent they are populated
are discussed below:
Sources of 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)
and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC). The major point sources of pollution in the Buriganga river are a
number of industrial installations, municipal wastewater and sewage treatment plants.

Discharge of industrial effluent, is one of the main sources behind the pollution of the river. Many waste
materials are being dumped into the Buriganga river from time to time. The Department of Environment
(DoE) conducted a survey and identified 249 industries along the banks of the river responsible for water
pollution. The survey was conducted a long time ago from today and even then, the Buriganga was
polluted. Over the course of time, many more industries have been built by the banks of the river and
many tin-shed houses are made and all their wastes are being dumped into the river making the river
more polluted.

Polluted Buriganga ; Waste bodies dumped – Fig 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. A report of Resource Planning and Management
Consultants (RPMC) reveals 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.

Remedies

Huge population exploitation of Dhaka one of the main reasons of Buriganga river pollution.
According to several studies, each day about 900 cubic meters untreated domestic and industrial
effluents are discharged into the Buriganga-Turag system. So, prevent the Buriganga river pollution
we should make public awareness and stop population growth of Dhaka city.

Increase water flow of Buriganga, During the dry season, the river has a flow of only 50 cubic
meter 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.

Government must allocate a budget so that BIWTA can buy sufficient dredgers for routine
dredging of the riverbed for smooth navigation. Dredging is the removal of sediments and debris
from the bottom of lakes, rivers, harbors, and other water bodies. River dredging should be done
time to time to remove waste materials from the river.

Leather tanneries should be moved from the banks of the Buriganga river. As a very large amount
of waste effluents are being dumped from the tanneries of Hazaribagh into the Buriganga river.
The Ministry of Industries must take initiatives to shift the leather tanneries from Hazaribagh to
Hemayetpur, Savar with Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) facilities.

Conclusion

The river Buriganga is a very important asset to our country. It depicts the diversity of our culture.
As discussed in this paper, the Buriganga River is threatened by pollution, low flow in Buriganga,
river encroachment and land grabbing. Now in this case of the restoration of the Buriganga river,
us as legal citizens and true patriots should take all the steps necessary from saving our Buriganga
river from getting dried up like our prominent river Tista. There needs to be proper enforcement
mechanisms in place, as the pollution and human -induced hazards have gone beyond a tolerable
limit and only then we can save our river Buriganga from extinction.
References

[1] Majumdar, R.C., History of Ancient Bengal, First published 1971,

[2] DoE (2001). The general overview of pollution status of Bangladesh, Department of
Environment, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

[3] Article : Plan retrieve Buriganga, The Daily Star, Front page, May 17, 2016,
https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/plan-revive-battered-buriganga-1225210