Public sector Hathazari Peking Power Plant (HPPP) was fined of Tk.10 lakh for alleged pollution of the water of Halda River recently through dumping effluents of the plant. Department of Environment, Chittagong announced this penalty to HPPP for polluting and destroying the fish spawn in the only fish breeding centre of South Asia in current season .

The Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), is executing a 300 MW Kishanganga power project in Bandipora district of occupied Kashmir, despite a warning by the Centre for Inter-disciplinary Studies of Mountain & Hill Environment (CISMHE), New Delhi, of terrible anti-environmental dangers of the project. A report, prepared by CISMHE on Kishanganga, clearly pointed to the issues like environmental degradation and the impact on water quality of Bandipora.

The Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday fined a power plant in Chittagong Tk 10 lakh for polluting and hampering the biodiversity of Halda river through discharging furnace oil into the river.

DoE Director (Enforcement) Mohammed Munir Chowdhury gave the sentence to the project director of a 100 megawatt Peaking Power Plant in Hathazari.

On April 11 this year, around 1,600 litres of furnace oil went into Halda river through Changkhali canal for the negligence of the power plant authorities, said a DoE press release.

The cabinet yesterday approved a draft bill that aims to stop misuse of surface, ground and river water and preserve and manage water resources in an integrated manner.

Redirecting and intercepting the normal flow of rivers and blocking any river branches are illegal under the proposed law. It says the owner of a piece of land adjacent to any river will not have the ownership of the riverbed and foreshore.

Boston-based Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia has observed that India must consult with co-riparian countries for any project on shared rivers.
The Alliance formed in 1993, came up with the remarks at a meeting held recently at MIT, Cambridge, USA to discuss India's recently revived River Linking Project, according to a message received here.

A symbolic four-member people’s tribunal on Keenjhar Lake has urged the departments of fisheries, irrigation, wildlife and tourism to play their due role to protect the lake.

Led by environmentalist Samiul Zaman, the tribunal held its proceedings organised by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) at the lake on Tuesday.

In the wilderness of Washington state's Olympic National Park, hydraulic hammers chip away at the Glines Canyon Dam in the largest dam-removal project in U.S. history.

The grinding knocks off chunks of concrete, slowly removing the once-imposing 210-foot-tall (64-metre) structure, whose construction in 1927 on the Elwha River blocked one of the world's most prolific salmon runs.

Nine miles downstream, workers last month removed the 108-foot-tall (33-metre) Elwha Dam, built in 1913, allowing the river channel there to flow freely for the first time in nearly a century.

A federal judge who spent a decade presiding over one of the most contentious environmental court fights in the Northwest — the fate of endangered salmon in the Columbia River Basin and four hydroelectric dams that interrupt their migration — has said in a recorded interview that the dams should be removed to help the fish.

The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has sent a letter to Fauji Fertiliser Company Energy Limited (FFCEL) to stop any activity at its windmill project that may lead to contamination of source of water that falls into Keenjhar lake – Ramsar site – as well.

EPA sources maintained that the FFCEL management had been informed that an EPA team would visit site of project and would examine Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), issued by EPA to FFCEL, whether it is being adhered to.

Pabna municipal authorities on Saturday dumped toxic bitumen, a black sticky road-surfacing material obtained from tar, in the Ichhamati River, violating environmental rules.

“We have dumped five containers of bitumen in the river beside an under construction road in Singa area in the municipality as it was not fit for use,” said Ziaul Islam Polash, assistant engineer of Pabna municipality.

Isharat, Chand Ali and other workers at the site said the municipal authorities dumped the bitumen into the river despite a strong protest by local people.