Controlling river pollution

It is imperative that rather than having a reactive approach, we need to think of a proactive approach to provide a practical and a sustainable solution to river pollution, writes M Ashiqur Rahman


RIVER water is considered polluted when it is altered from the natural state in its physical, chemical and microbiological composition and when its suitability for any safe and beneficial use becomes questionable. The signs of physical water contamination may become obvious through bad taste, offensive odours, unchecked growth of aquatic weeds, decrease in the number of aquatic animals, floating of oil and grease, colouration of water and so on. However, more intensive laboratory testing is required to determine the chemical and microbiological water quality parameters such as pH (to measure the level of acidity or alkalinity), dissolved oxygen, biological and/or chemical oxygen demand, phosphorus and nitrogen ion concentration, dissolved solids, heavy metals, salinity, coliform bacteria count and so forth.
Generally, our rivers are being polluted by the discharge of untreated industrial effluent and urban wastewater, agrochemicals, sewage water, storm runoff, solid waste dumping, oil spillage, sedimentation and encroachment. The water quality also depends on effluent types and discharge quantity from different types of industries, types of agrochemicals used in agriculture, and seasonal water flow and dilution capability by the river system. The river Buriganga is a typical example of serious surface water pollution in our country. In the present scenario this river carries only wastewater during the months (November to April) of the dry season becoming toxic during this period. The level of pollution is so high that no aquatic species can survive in it and the situation is getting worse day by day. Test results during the dry season at eight points along the river found the level of dissolved oxygen within 0.6 to 1.8 mg/l at five points and zero at other points. The requisite level of oxygen is more than 5 mg/l for the survival of aquatic lives. In fact, the Buriganga has become a dumping ground of all kinds of solid, liquid and chemical wastes which are generated by the activities in and around the river. Studies show that up to 18,500 cubic metres of liquid wastes, 19,000 kilograms of solid wastes and 17,600 kilograms of biological oxygen demand load go into the Buriganga each day from these sources. The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority sources confirmed that huge quantities of discarded polythene deposits are unearthed near Sadarghat area during dredging.
Like many other countries of the world, river pollution control in Bangladesh has been a burning issue for at least the past two decades. Moreover, abundant research has been undertaken and many recommendations have been forwarded to protect the rivers from further pollution. At the government level since the late 19th century several rules, regulations, policies and strategies have been formulated and a fairly comprehensive set of environmental laws exist to save our rivers from pollution. However, the implementation and enforcement of the policies and the regulations have so far been very ineffective, leading to poorer river water quality. In addition, in many cases the policies and strategies seem far from being practical in terms of their implementation. Though it may appear to be a nightmare to overcome this serious problem but the reality is that we need to get to the core of the problem and implement strategies to safeguard these precious natural resources for the sake of our own survival. It is imperative that rather than having a reactive approach, we need to think of a proactive approach to provide a practical and a sustainable solution to the problem.
The pollution problem of our rivers have become complex because of its multidimensional nature. There are social, economic, political and environmental dimensions to this issue which need to be addressed simultaneously while attempting a sustainable solution to the problem. It is a mammoth challenge for developing countries like Bangladesh where a speedy economic growth is requisite without compromising with the conservation of the natural environment or endangering the livelihood of a particular community such as the fishermen or the farmers.
Like many other developing countries, river pollution control in Bangladesh relies on expensive and somewhat outdated technological solutions transferred from the ‘west’. Moreover, these technologies from industrial countries are not always suitable or easily adaptable to the socio-economic and environmental conditions of developing countries. So far emphasis has been given either on treatment of pollutants through the set up of effluent treatment plants or augmentation of rivers to increase the flow through the construction of river water diversion structures. Even the relocation of the pollution causing agents may not capacitate a permanent solution to the problem unless the pollutants are controlled at their sources through adopting proactive approaches such as cleaner production, recycling and resource recovery mechanism.
Experiences in countries like the United States, Australia and China show that the proactive approaches are being implemented voluntarily by the polluters to reduce their pollutants once the ‘market-based’ mechanisms are introduced. In these systems polluters are not told how much they can pollute or what technology they must use, but their choices will have financial consequences and this will influence the choices they make. With these policies, emission constraints are not source-specific; rather they provide equal incentives to all polluters by increasing the marginal costs of pollution. Moreover, several stakeholders such as producers, consumers, users, government authorities and local community members get directly involved with this process. The importance of inclusion of all the stakeholders (both who generate and manage the pollution) to develop an effective approach for pollution control cannot be undermined.
It is obvious that to protect our rivers from further pollution we need to look beyond the ineffective conventional policies and strategies. We need alternate, innovative and integrated approaches to be implemented to overcome this problem. In this regard, provisions of monetary incentives, rewards and recognitions for the polluters who reduce their pollution may work effectively for reducing the amounts of pollutants which are being discharged into the rivers. The direct involvement of community and civil society can also play a great role for this purpose.
The rivers of Bangladesh suffer from the pollution problem mostly during the dry season (November to April) but the assimilation and the dilution capacity of most of our rivers increase dramatically during the wet season (May to October). This phenomenon of the rivers overrules the application of a uniform acceptable level of the pollutants throughout the year. This opens the possibility for using ‘non-uniform reduction’ measures for the polluters and thus offers flexibility to them in terms of reducing their harmful pollutants for the water bodies.
Another significant issue is that different polluters have different levels of capacity to reduce their pollutants. Some are better off than others to control their pollutants. This tendency opens the opportunity for the application of a tradable permit system for water pollution control. This system allows pollution to be reduced wherever it is least costly to do so and a ‘cap’ guarantees the total allowable emissions are not exceeded. For instance, the Hunter River Salinity Trading Scheme of Australia leads the world in using such economic instruments for the effective protection of waterways. This scheme involves a number of point sources of salinity in the Hunter River and the average river salinity has been halved since the scheme commenced in1996, while economic activity and employment have grown substantially. It has thus become a classic example of win-win situation for all the stakeholders who are involved with the use of the river.
Regular monitoring of river water quality (physical, chemical and biological composition) is an important aspect to control river pollution. However, this is an expensive and time consuming ongoing activity which might be difficult for any government agency like the Department of Environment alone to perform the task on a regular basis. Even the powerful agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States assign this task to the community with assistance from the local administration. In Bangladesh we may think of exploring this option to ease the monitoring activity of hundreds of rivers in our country.
We need to shift from the nightmare of river pollution management to the serenity of our beautiful rivers by any means. In summary, a suggestive list of prescription is given below to help make this issue a reality.
* An action plan with its processes has to be developed on the basis of the prospective market-based instruments.
* The method of permit allocation and lifespan of permits need to be addressed.
* An information system should be established to provide potential participants relevant information on river water pollution.
* Procedures for compliance monitoring must be identified for designing a new program.
* A package of incentives, appreciation and recognition of the industries and other polluters who do better work in reducing their pollutants should be developed.
* A system of assessing the environmental reputation of the industries should be developed to measure as criteria in financial lending process.
* A guideline has to be developed for introducing the community monitoring system.
* The concern of the local community regarding the pollution has to be formally recognised by the regulatory authority.
* A strong market pressure should be created on the polluters to shift to cleaner production technologies.
* Environmental education should become mandatory from all primary to tertiary level of educational institutes.
As we would all agree the time has come to take actions to protect our rivers from further degradation and before nature takes revenge on us. However, the prerequisite of taking any action is that we need environmentally aware and enlightened people for the purpose. Awareness about the negative consequences of our harmful activities which ultimately affect our precious natural resources including rivers can minimize the damage caused to them in many folds. That is why it is high time to stress on environmental education from the primary to the tertiary level of studies in our country because learners of today are the leaders of tomorrow.

M Ashiqur Rahman, a senior lecturer of the North South University, is currently on a study leave to pursue PhD in environmental management at the University of Sydney, Australia.

NewAgeBD