Environment, forest and climate change minister Abdul Awal Mintoo has called for the effective implementation of the 'National Strategy and Multi-Year Action Plan for a Lead-Free Bangladesh 2026-2035', approved by the cabinet on 17 August. Speaking at a seminar organised by Pure Earth Bangladesh for International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel in Dhaka on Wednesday 14 October, he said coordinated action against lead pollution was urgent for children's development, workers' health and a safe environment.
The plan stresses identifying sources of lead pollution, environmental monitoring, institutional capacity, stronger laws and rules, responsible participation by industry, public awareness, research and coordination between agencies. What is needed now, the minister said, is specific action plans, funding, laboratory capacity, clean-up of contaminated sites, safe industrial management and regular monitoring, and he asked development partners and the private sector for financial and technical support.
He said work is under way on an extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework for the lead-acid battery industry, which would set out the duties of manufacturers and importers and create a system to collect used batteries safely and recycle them in an environmentally sound way.
At the seminar a National Youth Alliance for a Lead-Free Bangladesh was launched, and two portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysers were handed to the Department of Environment to help it detect lead. Pure Earth Bangladesh senior programme manager Aftab Uz Zaman Khan presented the experience of lead clean-up at Labanchara in Khulna, and Islamic University of Technology student Sheikh Sajidul Islam presented an idea for safe collection and return of used batteries.
The seminar was chaired by additional secretary Mohammad Navid Shafiullah. Professor Dr Kazi Ahmed Zaki, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Department of Environment additional director general Mohammad Solaiman Haider and Pure Earth Bangladesh country director Mitali Das also spoke.
Photo: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) / Wikimedia Commons (public domain); a representative picture of lead recovery from batteries
Source: Desh Rupantor
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