HC orders govt to decide on four ‘water crisis-prone’ villages in Chattogram

The High Court has ordered government to decide whether to declare the four villages at Chattagram’s Patiya Upazila ‘water crisis-prone areas’ under the water act within next three months.

The bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice Md Suhrawardi passed the order on Tuesday following a writ petition filed by Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association in 2015.

The court also asked the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure uninterrupted supply of drinking water to the villages of Char Kanai, Hulaine, Panchuria and Habilash Dweep in Patiya.

Top officials of water resources ministry, health ministry, agriculture ministry, local government ministry, Bangladesh Water Development Board, Department of Public Health Engineering, District Administration and Patiya union council chairman will have to answer the court.

Lawyer Fida M Kamal, assisted by lawyers Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Minhazul Haque Chowdhury, Ali Mustafa Khan and Sayeed Ahmed Kabir, represented the writ petitioner in the court.

The court also directed the government to stop eight companies from extracting underground water in crisis-hit villages, and seek compensation measuring levels of pollution by those industries.

The port city’s eight industrial companies are- Banoful & Company Ltd, Banoful Mineral Water Company Ltd, Ambia Knitting & Dyeing Ltd, Ambia Pulp & Paper Mills Ltd, Mostafa Paper Complex Ltd, Hakkani Pulp & Paper Mills Ltd, Anwara Paper Mills Ltd, and Shah Amanat Knitting & Dyeing Ltd.  

Lawyer Syeda Rizwana told reporters, “More than 30,000 people of the four villages have been facing immense sufferings as they are not getting water from 350 tube wells due to underground water extraction by industries in the area.”

None of these industries receives environmental certificates from the Department of Environment before extracting underground water. They have no ETP (Effluent Treatment Plant) either, she added.