ETP issue irks apparel buyers

A delay in setting up effluent treatment plants ( ETPs) is annoying
international apparel buyers as they have been putting pressure on
manufacturers over the years to make products following
internationally recognised compliances, industry insiders said.
Although most of the apparel factories are already following other
compliance issues like avoiding child labour in line with the demand
of the buyers, very few have set up ETPs until now, said an
international buyer requesting anonymity. "The progress in setting up
ETPs at the factories is very slow. It needs pace as the customers
are becoming more environment conscious," the buyer said. Meanwhile,
the government has made it mandatory to set up ETPs in industrial
units such as textile and dyeing factories that involve wet
processing. A previous government decision has directed the industrial
units to set up ETPs within June 30 this year, but many factories
failed to do so within the stipulated time. Recently, Bangladesh
Textile Mills Association ( BTMA) in a letter informed the
parliamentary standing committee on environment and forest ministry
that a total of 205 out of 1 ,300 members of the BTMA need to set up
ETPs. The BTMA also informed the standing committee that 64 factories
have already set up ETPs, 24 are constructing the plants, three are
importing machinery, six are making infrastructure and five have
opened letters of credit for importing machinery. The association in
the letter recommended that the government set up four central ETPs
in four zones -- Dhaka, Narsingdi, Savar and Joydevpur -- that the
industrial units can use. The BTMA also suggested allowing duty-free
import of chemicals used in the ETPs to reduce the costs of
production, according to the letter. BTMA President Abdul Hai Sarker
claimed that 70 percent factories have already set up ETPs. He said
it takes a lot of money and time to set up ETPs and many small
factories have no capacity to build the ETPs on their own. They need
collective efforts, he added. "So we are demanding central ETPs and
loans at a lower interest rate," Sarker said. Meanwhile, the central
bank on August 3 ordered all commercial banks to provide loans up to
Tk 1 crore at a 9 percent interest rate for setting up ETP.
President of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (a movement to protect
environment) Muzaffer Ahmed said the international buyers have been
putting pressure on the manufacturers for years to set up ETPs for
protecting the environment. He said it requires some local and
international technologies for setting up ETPs at the factories and
many small units have no capacity to set up such plants. This is true
that some new factories are starting their production with new
technologies and ETPs, he said. The small factories, which are
unable to set up ETPs, can relocate their units near a central ETP,
he added. Speaking at the 7 th Global Editors' Forum titled 'The
Politics of Climate Change and Energy Security' in Denmark on October
11 , State Minister for Environment Hasan Mahmud had said the
government will shut down the factories that will not set up ETPs.