A leading think-tank in Bangladesh has called for environmental issues in the country’s textile industry to be addressed as a matter of urgency as declining water levels, continued toxic discharges from dyeing and finishing factories, and a major lack of effluent treatment plants (ETPs) continue to raise serious question marks about the 
long-term sustainability of the industry . The Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) was talking at a seminar on environmental sustainability in the Bangladesh textile sector organised with the International Finance Corporation.
Also talking at the event were representatives from Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh Water PaCT, C&A, and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. Among other things, the seminar called for a new campaign spotlighting the textile industry’s misuse of harmful chemicals, the creation of a database of importers and distributors of hazardous chemicals and further incentives for adopting cleaner production practices.
The PRI suggested that textile pollution in Bangladesh is set to rise in tandem with the proposed expansion of the industry unless ETP coverage – which currently only stands at around 30 per cent in Bangladesh’s textile industry – becomes more extensive. The textile sector in Bangladesh is one of the leading contributors to the country’s water scarcity and pollution challenges, consuming nearly 1,500 billion liters of groundwater annually and contaminating surface waters through inadequate effluent treatment.
Most textile mills in Dhaka rely on un-metered and un-priced self-supply of groundwater from boreholes. This apparently free and limitless supply leads to high rates of water use: some mills use 250 – 300 l water/per kg of fabric, whereas global best practice is around 50 l/kg or less.
Groundwater levels in Dhaka are falling by about two meters per year, and the productivity of new boreholes has already declined markedly – by almost a third between 1970 and 2000. At current growth rates, demand for water from textile mills will significantly increase by 2020 if no efficiency improvements are made. Bangladesh Bank governor’s commitment recently established a US$ 500 million Export Development Fund-II for textile factories, to help them adopt eco-friendly technologies and practices.
-ecotextile
