Dhaka’s population is projected to reach 22 million people by the year 2025. The dense population, high industrial growth, increasing pollutant loads and a lack of wastewater infrastructure – all have jointly created a serious threat to the city’s sustainability. The industrial wastes caused severe degradation of the watersheds. 60% of the total pollution load comes from around 7,000 industrial units located within the Dhaka watershed and the remaining 40% from untreated domestic wastes. The heavy contamination of surface and groundwater sources is threatening the safety of water resources for municipal supplies.
The Government is committed to improving the quality of Dhaka’s watershed and has emphasized the acceleration of the preparation of the Dhaka Integrated Water Resources Management Project (DIEWRMP) to support improved management of water resources and water quality in Greater Dhaka through a series of measures in selected industrial hot spots with US $ 70 million funding from the World Bank. The project is now renamed as Dhaka Environment and Water Program (DEW Program) instead of Dhaka Integrated Water Resources Management Project (DIEWRMP).
The project would provide infrastructure investments for industrial waste treatment. Further, DEW program would provide technical assistance for (i) improved environmental policy and management framework and institutional capacity, (ii) water quality monitoring and early warning systems and (iii) the promotion of pollution prevention, abatement and control measures in selected industrial clusters, including the construction of Common Effluent Treatment Plants.
The Local Government Division (LGD) of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives will be involved in implementation. Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) and the Department of Environment (DOE) are jointly leading the feasibility studies on water/wastewater and environmental management issues respectively.
Recognizing the alarming level of pollution, the Government is undertaking key measures to strengthen DOE’s environmental compliance capacity in adopting “Polluters Pay Principle”. The project will also focus on raising awareness amongst industries in selected industrial hot-spots and would enhance their commercial incentives to participate fully in the pollution prevention and abatement program. The second phase of the project would then finance the construction of common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) in industrial hot-spots based on the willingness of industries to participate.
The Local Government Division held a workshop last week where the key stakeholders including members of the Project Preparation Committee (PPC) along with senior government officials, representatives from autonomous bodies, research organizations, industrial associations and development partners participated. The workshop discussed options to enhance industries’ incentives to adopt pollution prevention and abatement measures. This workshop launched the preparation of a new study “Designing an integrated package of PPP options for wastewater treatment and reuse”. The business associations showed keen interest in project initiatives, especially in developing public-private engagement towards achieving sustainable improvements in the water quality of the greater Dhaka watershed. To save Dhaka’s watershed, it is important to have correct incentives for successful Public Private Partnership (PPP).
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