Bitumen Dumping
Showcause on Pabna municipal authorities
The Department of Environment (DOE) yesterday issued a show-cause notice to Pabna municipal authorities for dumping toxic bitumen into Ichhamoti River.
Director (monitoring and enforcement) Md Munir Chowdhury issued the notice following a report published on the national page of The Daily Star the same day headlined 'Toxic bitumen dumped in river'.
Md Tobibur Rahman, executive engineer of Pabna municipality, has been summoned to DOE headquarters in Dhaka on April, 25 to explain why legal action against the municipal authorities should not be taken for polluting water of Ichhamoti River.
Pabna municipal authorities on Saturday dumped toxic bitumen, a black sticky road-surfacing material obtained from tar, into the river beside an under construction road at Singa point in the municipality.
The authorities dumped the toxic substance, saying that it was not fit for use.
According to the Environment Protection Act, dumping of toxic chemicals into river is a punishable offence, the Doe director stated in the letter.
“After receiving the letter, we have asked the contractor concerned to lift five drums containing bitumen from the river and dumped them at any other suitable place,” engineer Tobibur Rahman said.
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