NI Water has installed a new wastewater treatment unit at a housing development near Rathfriland in a bid to improve the quality of treated effluent.

The work forms part of NI Water's multi-million pound Rural Wastewater Investment project, which aims to ensure the treated effluent meets the latest EU Directives.

The new infrastructure at the Knock Terrace housing estate includes an enclosed hi-tech tank with advanced treatment processes.

The Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday fined a dyeing factory in Gazipur Tk 14 lakh for not setting up Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) even 21 months after the factory owner promised to set up the ETP.

The DoE fined the owner of the factory, Ema Cintex Ltd, and also ordered to keep its production shut. It also rebuked its owner Modabber Hossain, said a DoE press release.

The factory has been dumping untreated chemical wastes into the river Turag and polluting the river severely, it added.

The owner has been promising to set up ETP since October 5, 2010.

Bathing ghats remain dilapidated; mosquitoes find breeding ground

Though the temple town of Kumbakonam is blessed with the Cauvery, the glory of the river seems to be slowly dwindling with it being turned into a cesspool during summer and dumping yard for plastics and other wastes. Senior citizens feel that the river could be put into good recreational use by converting it into a boating paradise when it is in full flow.

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 .

After repeated squabbles with the civic administration over desilting of the Mithi river, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has now sent an ultimatum to the BMC that it will be doing the desilting work this year for the last time.

Both agencies have been at loggerheads for the past seven years over the desilting of a six-km stretch of the Mithi river, resulting in a delay in desilting and waterlogging in areas around that patch.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Shri Babulal Gaur called on Union Urban Development Minister Shri Kamalnath here today and handed over to him an action plan chalked out for Narmada River’s conservation by the State Urban Administration & Development Department. He demanded funds to the tune of Rs. 1298.87 crore for solid waste management, sewerage, construction of rain-fed drains and nullahs, cleanliness and plantation.

Environmental scientists have known that high levels of the toxic element, mercury, have been accumulating in the Arctic Ocean for some time. It was believed to be mostly caused by atmospheric sources stemming from the combustion of coal. However, a new study from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Harvard School of Public Health has found that the great majority of Arctic mercury arrives via circumpolar rivers. Some of the largest rivers in the world flow north into the Arctic in Eurasia and North America.

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.

Rampant dumping of scrap into the Mithi at Kurla has undone all the effort to de-silt the river. The residents of Kapadia Nagar, Kurla (West), complained that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has started the work a bit too late to finish before monsoon. Besides, the work will only yield result if action is taken against scrap dealers who dump waste into the river. Like every year, this year too there are fears that the low-lying Kapadia Nagar complex, comprising around 750 flats in 24 buildings, will be waterlogged during monsoon.