The mayor of Chattagram city announced to keep the city polythene-free for the sake of the environment
City Mayor M Rezaul Karim Chowdhury has announced to make all the markets of Chattagram city’ polythene free’ from February 15, 2022 to protect the city’s environment from waterlogging and save the Karnafuli River.
He announced this recently at an exchange meeting with representatives of various market committees run by the Chattagram City Corporation (CCC). Mayor Rezaul said, “All the markets in the city will be free of polythene from February 15.”
He further said that the market committee would be miking regarding this and distribute posters, festoons, banners, and leaflets in the city’s markets till February 10, 2022.
After the deadline, the magistrate of the city corporation will visit the markets and warn the traders. Irresponsible people will get punishment accordingly the law and order if any polythene remains in the market from February 15, 2022. “
“Polythene is a curse for city dwellers. Due to this polythene, it has become difficult to get rid of waterlogging in the city. Besides, mosquito breeding has increased due to water accumulation in the drains.
The biggest thing is that polythene has accumulated at the bottom of the Karnafuli river and formed a hard layer of more than eight feet thickness, causing serious obstruction to dredge the Karnafuli River.
Even after bringing a modern dredger from the Netherlands, dredging is becoming difficult due to the thick polythene layer of the river. If such a condition continues to worsen, the river will lose its flow and eventually die,” the mayor added.
Rezaul warned that the Chattagram port would also lose its effectiveness if the Karnafuli river stopped flowing, and the country’s overall economy would ruin as a consequence. So, stopping polythene is the demand of the hour as it turned into cancer for the environment.
City Councilor Shaibal Das Sumon, Chairman, Environment Standing Committee, City Corporation, said, ‘Earlier, an experimental initiative by CCC, for stopping the use of polythene in Kazir Deuri, Chawkbazar and Karnafuli markets turned out to be 100 percent effective. The cooperation of the traders in doing this is commendable.
Bangladesh banned the production, use, and marketing of polythene shopping bags in 2002. However, this polythene shopping bag, is continued all over the country, which is harmful to the environment.
According to the Poribesh Bachao Andolon-POBA (Save the Environment Movement), more than 200 factories produce polyethylene bags daily despite the ban. According to them, a family in Dhaka city uses an average of four polythene bags per day.
Due to widespread use, 20 million polythene accumulated in the capital alone every day. Polythene is also one of the significant reasons for waterlogging in Dhaka.
Md Jasim Uddin, general secretary of the Chattogram Phyalyatali market committee, said, that “Initiatives should adopt to stop the production and marketing of polythene from the factories and polythene warehouses where polythene getting produced.”
Md Gias Uddin, Panel Mayor, said, “Waterlogging, environmental pollution, and soil quality are deteriorating in the city due to polythene.”
