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The High Court has ordered the authorities to remove plastic waste and other garbage dumped along the Buriganga River in the Islambagh area of Lalbagh and Kamrangirchar in Dhaka within 15 days.
The bench of Justice Ahmed Sohel and Justice SM Iftekhar Uddin Mahmud issued the order on Wednesday after hearing a writ petition.
Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) filed the petition, referring to a report published in The Daily Star on August 19. The report said hundreds of plastic waste items and other garbage were being dumped along the Buriganga bank in Islambagh despite a 2010 High Court ruling directing authorities to take measures to prevent pollution.
The court directed 13 officials, including the secretaries of the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Home Affairs, the director general of the Department of Environment, the chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), the managing director of Dhaka WASA, the Dhaka deputy commissioner, the officers-in-charge of Lalbagh and Kamrangirchar police stations, and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, to ensure removal of the waste within 15 days.
The authorities were also directed to submit a compliance report to the court within four weeks.
Senior Advocate Manzil Morshed appeared for the petitioner, assisted by lawyers Sanjoy Mondal and Nasrin Sultana. Deputy Attorney General Khan Ziaur Rahman represented the state.
The writ petition said continued dumping of plastic and other waste could eventually result in the waste entering the river and worsening water pollution, potentially hampering implementation of the court’s previous directives.
In 2010, following an HRPB writ petition seeking measures to curb pollution of the Buriganga, the High Court issued several directives, including a ban on dumping plastic and other waste along the riverbank.
Manzil Morshed said pollution of the Buriganga was having a serious impact on Dhaka’s environment. Despite the previous court directives, hundreds of plastic and other waste items have been dumped along the riverbank in Islambagh, he said, warning that the waste could eventually enter the river and further worsen pollution.
Mohammad Sarwar Ahad Chowdhury filed the application on behalf of HRPB on August 30.