Reports IFC: 1.5 lac crore liters of water consumption in garment sector!

Staff Correspondent: The usage of underground water is increasing constantly in the RMG sectors of the country. Every year in this sector about 1,500crore liters of water are being consumed for thread, coloring and washing which can fulfill the water-demand of 8 lacs people for the whole year. Besides, this amount of water is capable of satisfying the thirst of entire Dhaka city for 2 days. Again, it can be sufficient enough to fill up 6 lacs Olympic swimming pools. Most of the portions of this water used in the garments are being wasted. We can minimize this wastage with the help of technology. With the current price per liter set by Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) it’s market price is 611 million USD or 4,888 crore taka in BDT ( 1USD= 80 taka).

In a recent dissertation report published by International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of World Bank, these have come out. According to the organization, 789 dyeing and finishing factories are the chief to use underground water and they are responsible for environmental pollution as well. These factories color and wash all the garments produced in almost 4000 factories. To make this report IFC observed very closely 33 different dyeing and finishing factories located in Konabari, Gazipur. IT has made this report after observing 200 factories. The pant we wear needs 250 liters of water average to color and wash. It has to be all freshwaters which is a precious resource and which needs the pump to bring out from the underground. According to World standard, 70-80 liters of water is used to color and wash a pant.

The report also says that it’s having two kinds of inversions. Firstly, we are making a vacant underground. Extreme inversions may happen if such water lifting continues. Secondly, the water level is adversely going down and down due to excessive water elevation. We can refer the water level of Dhaka city in this regard. Here water level is going 2 or 3 meters down every year. It means we are digging deep to deeper for water elevation. The water level is not endless. If the water consumption continues, it will be dried up one day. After utilizing, the factories dispose these wastewaters to the rivers and canals. Various toxic chemicals and colors, produced in the garments factories, cause harm to the other sources of the environment. Only a few numbers of factories have their proper Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and most of the rests dispose of absolute toxics.

Actually, dyeing and finishing plants are responsible for water pollution. The wastewater which flows to the river Turag from the factories of Tongi has reached the extreme level of pollution. This river is almost a dead one due to pollution. The water of it looks like ink which disseminates such an ill-smelling that you can say people are taking poison instead of oxygen every time during their breathing.

From this observation, we can see textile factories are mainly responsible for the over-consumption of the underground water and for the environmental pollution at the same time. The plants which are old and un-effective need excessive water. For the production, more chemicals are used. More chemicals mean more pollution. These factories can reduce the water consumption using the technology available in the market. Besides, they can get a noteworthy reduction in both the use of chemicals and pollution. Furthermore, dyeing and finishing section need a huge amount of gas. Gas is an insufficient product for a developing country like Bangladesh. Bangladesh is already facing the gas crisis. It is being accelerated more by the un-effective plants.

At present Bangladesh is the second best garments exporter country in the world according to the information of the report. One of three Europeans is wearing a T-shirt written ‘Made in Bangladesh’. One of five Americans wears Bangladeshi jeans. But there are some different stories behind the scene of this millions of garments production and exportation. The country has to pay extra ‘Invisible Cost’ in making each and every jeans in the factories of Bangladesh. A Western buyer knows very little about how much water is consumed in washing and coloring when a garment is produced.