Industrial and household waste has turned canals around Pubail and Tongi in Gazipur black and foul-smelling, reducing fish and damaging farmland and livelihoods. Agricare24 ran the report, crediting Shiksha Sangbad.
Residents say liquid waste from the Gazipura industrial area in Tongi flows into Haidarpur canal and nearby water bodies, then through Tongi canal into the Turag and Balu rivers. Motiur Rahman of Shukundibag said the canal once teemed with fish and now has almost none, and the polluted water makes tin roofs and metal goods rust fast. Farmer Harun Mia said he could no longer farm as before because of the polluted water and in the end had to sell his land. Residents report the same pollution in Hajipara, Tekpara, Nimtoli, Majukhan and other areas.
Water samples from the industrial area and upper Turag contained lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel and iron. Professor A H M Selim Reza of Rajshahi University's Department of Geology and Mining said dissolved iron in some places was about five times the safe limit, lead up to 30 times, chromium five times and nickel six times. A 2025 study he co-authored also found heavy-metal pollution and health risks in water in Gazipur's industrial areas.
Environmental experts say waste from garment washing, pharmaceutical and chemical factories discharged untreated changes the water's chemistry and creates long-term risks to aquatic life, farming and people. The Department of Environment says attention must also go to household sewage, not only factories.
Arefin Badal, deputy director at the Department of Environment, said Gazipur has about 7,000 factories, of which 688 registered ones have effluent treatment plants, yet some still release untreated waste. The office responsible for monitoring them has just three inspectors and five staff in all. From January 2025 to June 2026, the department fined 41 establishments Tk 3.24 crore for polluting the Turag, of which Tk 2.09 crore has been collected.
Source: Agricare24
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