Ash, waste, plastic and polluted water from rice mills have devastated farmland and homes in the Khajanagar-Kaburhat area of Kushtia, hurting crop yields and causing severe hardship for residents. Mill owners in the area, known as the country’s largest rice trading hub, were given two months to stop the pollution. More than two months have passed since that deadline, and residents say there has been no visible improvement.
On July 29 the environment protection committee raided rice mills in Khajanagar over pollution complaints and gave the owners two months to bring it under control. During the drive, the monitoring committee’s chairman, district food controller Md Al Wajiur Rahman, warned the owners that they could not go on polluting this way, and that the pollution caused by their lack of will must not be seen again in two months’ time.
Residents say nothing changed after the deadline passed. Montu Sadhu, a farmer in Swargapur village next to Khajanagar in Kushtia Sadar upazila, said rubbish, plastic, dirty water and ash from the mills were landing on their fields, making them hard to farm. Land that used to yield 25 maunds of paddy a bigha now does not give even 10, he said.
He alleged that when they told the mill authorities, the answer was: “The dirty water and ash will go this way.” Complaints to agriculture officials brought no effective remedy either, he said, and anyone who protests faces the mill owners’ anger.
“After reports in various media, an agriculture officer came, spoke to the mill authorities and set a deadline. But nothing has improved,” said Raisul Islam, a Khajanagar resident. Shyamoli Khatun, a homemaker in the area, said: “With the ash and the pollution it is hard even to go out with the children. The mill owners were given a deadline, but since it passed things have not got better. The hardship has grown.”
Joynal Abedin, general secretary of the Kushtia District Rice Mill Owners’ Association, said: “Mill owners accused of spreading ash and polluting the air are being watched, and they are regularly advised on stopping pollution.”
The Department of Environment says it is now taking a tougher line on polluting mills. In the first phase, it has asked its head office to act against 27 mills. “Based on the level of pollution, the mills have been put in four categories: highly polluting, moderately polluting, low polluting and acceptable,” said Emdadul Haque, deputy director of the department in Kushtia. “The process of action against the highly polluting ones has begun.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report