Industrial Environmental Management Practices in Bangladesh : An Analysis
Introduction
Needless to say that the importance of environment is omnipresent in our daily life to servive. This issue has become a major concern in the developed and developing countries both at the global and at the national level of the world. This is exhibited in the increasing concern about the aspects like the Greenhouse Effect (which may inundate large part of the world including Bangladesh), Acid Rain as well as major accidents like the nuclear fallout from Chernobyl in the then USSR, Bhopal (Shrivastava 1987) of India and so on. It also raised environmental concerns across national boundaries of different countries all over the world.
Bangladesh has an agro-based economy with a plenty of natural resources. The economy has been continuously moving from agricultural base to industrial base. Bangladesh is threatened by both natural hazards and anthropogenic mismanagement and over-exploitation (Rahman, Atiq et al 1994). The main environmental issues and problems of Bangladesh are population growth, natural hazards, agricultural land, water etc. Population growth is identified as the most serious problem inhibiting a sustainable use of resources. With the increase of population the total consumption is increasing. As such, more and more industry are established. Due to the lack of regulations, these industries are to some extent polluting the environment of the country by producing waste materials.
Statement of the Problem
Obviously manufacturing process produces wastes. It has an impact on natural resources through the entire cycle of raw materials exploration, extraction, transformation into products, energy consumption, waste generation and even the use and the final disposal by consumers. Continuous increasing demand for food, shelter and manufactured materials has severely strained material resources. It also adversely affects the ecological balance not only in the industrialized nations but also in most underdeveloped and developing countries as well. The most adversely affected countries are especially underdeveloped countries which have experienced rapid population growth to compound and aggravate the problems created by growing expectations and consumerism. Unfortunately, Bangladesh is one of those overpopulated countries. In Bangladesh, the industrial development has been achieved so far, has been made without taking environmental considerations into account at the national level. Environmental protection and considerations was a low priority consideration in regard to project planning even for the industrial sector. The absence of strong environmental regulations, its enforcement and lack of public awareness about the environmental issues have allowed companies to set-up industries without any built-in safeguards against pollution of the environment. This is also true for multinational companies. Therefore, the situation shows that there is a crying need of environmental protection in Bangladesh.
Present National Response
Industrial pollution is not yet spread over in Bangladesh but if it is not protected now it will be a threat for the country in future. Due to global awareness of environment Bangladesh is also influenced very much. At present, government is strengthening environmental movement by formulating environmental laws. The followings are some government and non-government initiatives to control industrial pollution in Bangladesh:
1. Government Policies and Legislation for Pollution Control
Following-up of the 1972 Stockholm Conference, the Water Pollution Control (WPC) Act of 1973 was the first step towards initiating pollution control in Bangladesh. The 1973 Act was upgraded with the promulgation of the Environment Pollution Control Ordinance (EPC) of 1977 which covered matters pertaining to the protection and conservation of the environment and thus broadened the scope of activities. This Ordinance is still the only piece of law on matters pertaining to environment, including industrial pollution control. But problem still remains in the law. Under the existing Ordinance, industrial entrepreneurs are not required to take clearance of Department of Environment (DOE) for their project plans, permits for discharge of pollutants.
The DOE, with its experience in environment protection activities and in pollution control, has proposed new legislation where clauses for environmental clearance for setting of industries, pollutant discharge permit system, standard limit for the pollution and stringent penalty provisions have been incorporated. Moreover, the ‘1990 year’ was declared as “year of environment” by the then government.
The present liberalization economic policy has also given scope to industries to ignore environment protection. Thus, private entrepreneurs do not need permission from any quarter unless the financial institutions make it compulsory. However, new industrial policy (1992) has an special clause regarding pollution control of industry. It states “ take appropriate measures for preventing environmental pollution and maintaining ecological balance”. Recently the Government has set up an Investment Board to accord permission in a package to facilitate the situation of entrepreneurs. The Investment Board and other institutions who approve industries, simply add a condition in the sanction order, to the effect that entrepreneurs will comply with the rules and regulations of DOE pertaining to industrial pollution. In Bangladesh context, when an industry has been set up, the owners in general, do not care to comply with the requirements for pollution control, which involves investing additional resources, unless they are forced to do so under legal cover.
Although some efforts to deal with environmental problems of the industrial sector have been made, negative impacts will grow if not addressed methodically now. For which inter-agency linkages are must. The various organs of the government, like Board of Investment (BOI) and other approving agencies for industries are now, more or less, acting independently and making their own decisions with regard to industrial setting, design and technologies, without giving due thought whether the design and technologies will meet the environmental and social needs of the people and country as well. Despite the problems in environmental laws, presently, perception has been changed due to the global campaign of UNEP and other environmental organizations.
2. Non-government Activities for pollution control
Bangladesh has about 1000 NGOs, ranging from the very small to the very big in a wide variety of areas. A number of NGOs have been active in environmental issues in the last few years. For the help of our discussion, the NGOs can be divided into 4 types such as Research NGOs, Awareness/Media NGOs, Activist NGOs and Development NGOs. A number of initiatives have been taken by groups of NGOs in the environmental sector in the recent years. Some are discussed below :
a) Statement of the environment report
The initiative involves a group of national NGOs including BRAC, BCAS, GK, Proshika, Proshika-comilla, Grameen Bank, ADAB, VHSS, Caritas and CCDB which have elected BCAS as its secretariat to develop a methodology and prepare a citizen’s report on the environment. The objective is to determine peoples own perceptions, ideas and solutions about environmental problems and issues and produce a report for widespread dissemination. The project has developed a of list generic issues such as loss of soil fertility, population and geographic issues (Sundarbans, Barind, Chittagong Hill Tracts etc) which have been addressed through a series of regional workshops involving local people.
b) Agitation about hazardous waste
In 1989, there was a major effort by certain quarters to get the government of Bangladesh allow the import of waste from the USA under the guise of raw material for producing cheap energy. The process advanced considerably when a section of journalists, academics and NGOs began to voice their concern about the possibility of allowing hazardous wastes to be imported. This led to considerable agitation and media reporting backed by NGOs which eventually caused the government to reconsider the matter. Permission was eventually not granted. This exercise is a useful example of NGOs, academics and media working together to raise concerns about an environmental issue and having an impact.
Analysis of the Issue
For analyzing the issue our discussion will be focusing on some aspects of the industrial environment. Such as what makes a product environmentally friendly, identify areas of major concern which are polluting the environment and lastly triangle strategies for the control of environmental pollution especially in industrial pollution. These are discussed below:
1. What makes a product environmentally friendly ?
According to study conducted by Simon (1992), the following points can make a product green/environmentally-friendly:
· Reduced raw materials, high recycled content (aluminum cans)
· Non-polluting manufacture/non-toxic materials (CFCs, de-inking solvents, etc.)
· No unnecessary animal testing (Cosmetics)
· No impact on protected species (dolphin-free tuna)
· Low energy consumption during production/use/disposal.
· Minimal or no packaging
· Reuse/reliability where possible (beverage containers, detergent bottles)
· Long useful life, updating capacity (office machines)
· Post-consumer collection/disassembly system (cars)
· Re-manufacturing capability ( "closed loop" total reuse or "partial loop" partial reuse and appropriate disposal).
2. Areas of major concern
The industrial sector in Bangladesh is still relatively small. The important sectors are Textiles, leather (tanneries), Food, sugar, beverages and tobacco, Chemicals, petroleum and fertilizer; iron and steel, distilleries ,Rubber and plastics, Paper and pulp, jute, cement factories, Pharmaceutical, insecticide, petroleum refinery, paint and ink formulation and printing, battery manufacturing, coal mining etc. They all are to some extent polluting the environment of Bangladesh through their manufacturing process. For example, the industry effluents cause air pollution, pharmaceutical and allied industries creating chemical hazards affecting human health, plastic and rubber industries are causing land polluted and consequently land fertility is decreasing. Therefore, to overcome these problems we need to work together especially different bodies must work together to protect the environment.
3. Triangle Strategy for Industrial Environmental Management in Bangladesh
Saying goes that responsibility of all means responsibility of none. This tendency must be avoided when we talk of environment. For industrial environmental management in Bangladesh we need to adapt “Triangle Strategy”. Mainly three corners are important and they should come forward with their distinct policies and programs to control environmental pollution. Such as :
· Manufacturing and marketing firms,
· Research and educational institutions and
· Government and social institutions (including NGOs).
How Triangle Strategy will work is discussed below:
a) Manufacturing and Marketing firms
Manufacturing and marketing firms can contribute directly for protecting environment of Bangladesh. Welford (1995) suggested a number of policies for environmentally friendly production and marketing at the company level can be adapted by manufacturing and marketing firms. Such as corporate policy, product policy, quality and effectiveness, packaging, pricing policy, transportation and distribution, promotion policy, personnel policy, environmental information system, education, communication and product stewardship, and so on. These policies should be related to make the product green and will ensure that the product will not destroy environment.
Obviously, through creating awareness among the people and taking steps in the various aspects of Marketing Mix, one can market environmentally friendly products in Bangladesh. The elements of marketing mix are Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
The environmental pollution can be protected by taking preventive measures at the national level such as manufacturing, usage, disposal and corrective measures like recycling process. For marketing environmentally friendly products in Bangladesh successfully, the following aspects must be considered in this regard :
i) Considerations Related to Production
Production is the real place which can be used as pollution control point of environment. Raw material is the main component of product and those raw materials can be avoided which may harm environment and those can be used which has high recycled content so that after use it will not create any problem for the environment.
ii) At Production Stage
At the production stage, the company can adapt policy to make the production environmentally friendly. The following steps can be taken in this regard :
· Use fewer materials and set up coding systems for components.
· The water, raw materials, machines used by the company can be prepared in such a way so that it will ensure the harmlessness of the environment.
· For water purification, a fully closed water cycle with an in-house water purification system can be used. So that it can reduce the consumption of fresh water in the production process.
· The quantities of waste water which is resulted from production process that can be filtered in laboratory so that it can be released into the public sewage water system and will not pollute the environment.
· Low sulfur natural gases can be used for heat generation and it can be achieved through building a heat recovery systems.
· In addition to that gaseous emissions and exhausted air can be purified through filters so that to the greatest possible extent only clean air may be passed in the atmosphere.
· Developed performance standards (air/water emissions).
iii) Reduction of the Use of Plastics and Synthetics in Production
Normally, the volume of plastics used by the products, for example writing instruments, producers are higher. It is partly due to production technology. Some aspects regarding this issue are:
· Technical pin points are manufactured from metal and plastic and could not be produced with any other material to the same precision tolerances.
· In addition, plastics offer a variety of physical and chemical properties that are not even nearly achieved by other materials.
· Many products can be made from polystyrene PS, polyethylene PF and polypropylene PP. These plastics considerably reduce damage to the environment since they can be burned with a minimum pollution burden.
Control should impose on prohibiting the Use of Xylene, Tolud, Benzole of Formamide in Production
iv) Recycling
There are some products which need plastics and synthetics to produce. In this case recycling process can be adopted by the company. For marketing green products in Bangladesh recycling project can be taken by the company.
· If the company can buy the used product, the people will be more motivated to buy and after use return it to the company.
· In this case it will work in two ways. Environment will not be polluted in one way and people will be influenced to buy the products in the other way.
b) Research and Educational Institutions
Research and educational institutions especially universities, colleges can help a lot for protecting environmental pollution in Bangladesh. This organizations can innovate appropriate green technology, develop green methods of production, create awareness through seminars, symposiums, provide green training, create recyclable materials, building long life into product design and find new uses for by-products and wastes and formulate waste management framework. In Bangladesh, at present, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Jahangir Nagar University, and International Institute for Environmental Studies and Disaster Management have the environmental programs.
c) Government and Social Organizations
The govt. has a paramount role in the environmental industrial management in any country like Bangladesh. Government can do the followings:
i) Make general strategy for pollution control
Government can formulate law and effective country wide pollution control program based on a planned strategy which may include :
· Identification of polluting industries and categorizing them in order of the intensity and nature of pollution such as :
· Toxic, hazardous and refractory groups
· Bio-degradable group
· Other than above two groups
· Setting techno-economically acceptable effluent/emission standards
· Country wide industry specific pollution control
· Setting year-wise targets to control pollution from industries causing serious pollution in respective areas.
ii) Make promotional strategies
Government also can formulate regulations to provide incentives to the manufacturing and marketing firms. The following points deserve serious attention of the government and also of the private sector agencies for controlling environmental pollution:
· Promoting indigenous pollution-abatement technology and creating design capabilities;
· Reduced rate of interest on loans for pollution-control;
· Certain incentives to industries taking effective steps for pollution-control;
· Higher rate of depreciation for pollution-control devices;
· Recognition of the industry running the best environment protection by honoring it with a national award. Government can give incentives which will help in recycling process of the disposal of the plastics and synthetics products.
· Create nationwide awareness about environment through mass media. Provide assistance to social organizations for environmental protection efforts. Help in environmental publicity.
Recommendations for Strengthening National Response
For protecting environmental pollution in Bangladesh, the national priority is to be given in respect of environmental issues by the government. To make it effective govt. has to formulate a comprehensive environment protection law to replace the existing environment pollution control ordinance 1977. On the basis of the above discussions the following recommendations can be made :
· Triangle Strategy is a must to manage industrial environment as well as to control industrial pollution effectively in Bangladesh. The initiative should come from the government first to adapt this strategy in this regard.
· Government and industrial enterprises should be receptive to the views of citizen groups, community associations and scientific bodies.
· Industrial enterprises should carry out Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and social cost-benefit analysis prior to the setting and design of industrial plants. Government policies should facilitate proper location of industries to relieve urban congestion and encourage rural development.
· Government should lay down environmental standards and ensure their enforcement. Fiscal and other incentives should be offered to pollution control. There should be stringent penalties for non-compliance in conformity with the “polluter Pays Principles”.
· Government should require periodic reports by industries on measures implemented to protect and improve the environment, especially those industries involving high environmental and health risk.
· Multinationals should take the lead in adopting the highest safety and health protection standards.
· The DOE should undertake a strategic approach to pollution control by grading the industries in order of the intensity of the pollution and set year-wise targets for abatement action. It should be backed by strong laboratory for testing.
· Clearance from DOE should be made mandatory by declaring policy or law for all medium and large industries. There should also be a national law requiring waste discharge.
· The Government also should establish liability and compensation guidelines and related regulations of any damage caused by industry and supporting organizations.
· Emphasis should be laid on low-waste and clean industrial technologies and pollution-intensive should be discarded.
Conclusions
Obviously a sound environmental strategy is fundamentally important for sustainable development of any country like Bangladesh. An economic-cum environmental strategy for industrial pollution control is, therefore, very much important to control the environmental pollution. The situation in Bangladesh is still fortunate in two reasons such as (1) The extent of industrial pollution is not so great at the present time; (2) The magnitude of industrial development is small enough to focus on individual problem areas while at the same time practical management systems can be developed. Bangladesh is facing a crucial choice between industrialization and environmental protection. Therefore, Government policy should ensure balanced development and our approach to pollution control should be more preventive than corrective. Thus, it is obvious to come forward all sections of the society under the leadership of government to protect our green environment and have a better future for our next generation.
References
1. Promoting Waste recycling : facts and Figures, Industry and Environment, Vol. 17, No. 2, April-June 1994.
2. Rahman, Atiq et. al (1994), Environment and Development in Bangladesh, University Press LTD, Dhaka, Volume 1 & 2.
3. Simon (1992), Marketing Green Products in the Triad, The Columbia Journal of World Business, Fall & Winter Issue, Pp. 268-285
4. Welford (1995), Environmental Strategy & Sustainable Development
5. Industrial Hazardous Waste Management, Industry and Environment, Special Issue. No. 4, 1983.
6. Environmentally-sound Technology for Industry, Industry and Environment, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1984 (April-June)
7. Education and Training, Industry and Environment, Vol. 16, No. 4, 1994 (Oct-Dec)
8. Shricvastava, Paul (1987), Bhopal : Anatomy of Crisis.
9. Sustainable Industrial Development, Industry and Environment, Vol. 12, No. 3-4, 1989 (July-December)
10. Environmental Management of Industrial Estates, Industry and Environment, Vol. 19, No. 4, 1996 (Oct-Dec)
11. Industrial Policy of Bangladesh, 1992
Note : This article is written by Nazrul Islam with the help of mentioned resources.
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