Contamination of the Turag River

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 General

Bangladesh is known as the land of the rivers. Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh is surrounded by the rivers-Turag, Buriganga, Dhaleshwari, Balu and Shitalakhya. A number of canals are connected to these rivers, which form a river canal network system. There are both residential and industrial units besides these rivers which are prime source of pollution of these rivers. The untreated waste water discharges by the industries cause serious pollution. Besides, non point sources along with the stretch of the river are also important sources of pollution of these rivers. (IWM, 2004)

The river Turag running by the side of the Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh, is one of the most polluted rivers in Bangladesh. Many industries have set up in and around the Dhaka city during the last decade, and the number of the new industries are continually increasing.

The water quality of Turag is deteriorating day by day. This is affecting the natural resources and is crucial for the survival for all living organisms including human, food production & economic development. Today there are many cities worldwide facing an acute shortage of water and nearly 40% of the world’s food supply is grown under irrigation& a wide variety of industrial process depends on water. The Dhaka water supply and sewage authority is entrusted with the supply of piped water in the Dhaka metropolitan and its adjacent area. The present water supply coverage is 75% out of which 82% is derived from the ground water sources using a network of 415 deep tube wells, the remaining 18% is derived from surface water bodies comprising the peripheral river around Dhaka city. (Ahmed & Rahman, 2000)

The pollution of the Turag River has become a major problem due to uncontrolled & untreated discharge of raw sewage, garbage & industrial wastes. The natural purification of polluted water in itself is never fast, while heavily polluted water may traverse

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