Photo Story

A Dying River- Buriganga

The mighty river Buriganga is now so polluted that all fish have died, and increasing filth and human waste have turned it like a black gel. Even rowing across the river is now difficult for it smells so badly. There is no fish or aquatic life in this river apart from zero oxygen survival kind of organisms. The Buriganga has always been a hub of commercial activity, busy, vibrant, and full of life, but never really clean. Today, the pollution in the river is at its worst. 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. According to the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), about 12,000 cubic meters of untreated waste are released into the lake from Tejgaon, Badda and Mohakhali industrial areas every day. The waste mostly comes from garment washing and dyeing plants. Textile industries annually discharge as much as 56 million tonnes of waste and 0.5 million tonnes of sludge. Sewage is also released into the Buriganga. In return, the river is dying miserably while saving one of the densely populated and fastest growing city `Dhaka`, Bangladesh.

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