A third of Ctg city solid waste flows to Karnaphuli

At least one third of the total solid waste of Chittagong city remains outside the waste collection system of the city corporation and thereby falls into the Karnaphuli river making its way through drains and canals where the city dwellers dump it, said Chittagong Wasa Secretary Mohammad Samsuddoha yesterday.

Sewage and solid waste are the main pollutants in the Karnaphuli river. As the port city of around six million people is yet to establish any sewerage treatment facility, untreated sewage directly falls into the river, experts said at a meeting titled "Porichhonno Shohor O Karnaphuli Surokkha".

 "If Karnaphuli was not a tidal river, it would have died much before Buriganga", Samsuddoha said.

To stop solid waste disposal into the Karnaphuli river, awareness should be created among the city people, said Muhammad Edris Ali, vice president of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon's Chittagong city unit.

Chittagong Wasa (Water Supply & Sewerage Authority) Deputy Managing Director Abdul Awal said Wasa is working on establishing a sewerage treatment facility and a study is going on with the help of the World Bank. He also urged the Department of Environment (DoE) to take action against factories like Karnaphuli Paper Mill which are polluting the river rampantly with toxic waste.

DoE directors of Chittagong, Mokbul Hossain (divisional) and Azadur Rahman Mollick (metro), and Halda expert Monzoorul Kibria also spoke at the meeting in Chittagong Wasa auditorium organised by the DoE.