The Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday fined a textile mill Tk 71.50 lakh at Hotapara in Gazipur for polluting the Turag river and an adjacent water body with untreated liquid waste.
A DoE team led by Munir Chowdhury, director of monitoring and enforcement, penalised Masuma Khatun Textile Mills Ltd for not using its effluent treatment plant (ETP) ignoring repeated notices, according to a DoE press release.
The mill has been operating without environmental clearance since 2006.
In three previous visits this year, the DoE officials had found that the factory was releasing untreated liquid waste in the nearby Labanga Sagar canal using a bypass line, the release added.
The untreated waste flowed to the Turag river and polluted it.
The mill processes around 20 thousand pounds of yarns everyday and it has discharged over two lakh cubic metre of untreated toxic waste in the nearby canal.
The DoE has warned to take legal action against the mill owner and seal the factory if they do not immediately start using the ETP.
Source : The Daily Star
